Packers-Bengals Film Highlights, Part I: The Foibles of A.J. Hawk

Circumstances have conspired to delay me writing anything coherent about the Packers-Bengals game of two weeks ago, from my being out of Internet contact for various reasons (road trip, hurricane-induced power outage, etc.) to work-induced exhaustion to the vagaries of the postal system. So instead I thought I'd just post some of my notes that I wrote down while watching the film of that game. Down, distance and time will be noted as appropriate for each play. Enjoy.

Second and 4, Packers driving, 13:09 left in Q1: This was a pulling-guard play. Josh Sitton pulled at the snap and Alex Green was supposed to go left outside. T.J. Lang’s man, DT Geno Atkins, ruined the play by refusing to be moved; he didn’t get off the block until late in the play, but he forced Green to go wide left around Lang and slowed him up. Green might have cut back, but there was unblocked pursuit from the backside. In any event, Atkins eventually worked off his block and wrapped up Green for no gain.

Third and 8, Bengals driving, 7:10 left in Q1: Almost at or right before the snap of the ball, one of the defensive backs bailed deep to play safety on WR A.J. Green, who appeared to be running a deep post with Tramon Williams. QB Andy Dalton didn’t seem to be expecting that, and while he was looking for other options, he was consumed with pressure in the pocket. Clay Matthews ran a stunt and got by the left guard. He missed Dalton but shook him up, and B.J. Raji cleaned up. Raji had been double-teamed by the C and RG, but when the C left off blocking him to try and stop Matthews, Raji went by the RG to make the drive-ending sack.

2-10, Packers, 6:32 left in Q1: Shotgun handoff to Cedric Benson. The play was an outside zone right, but there wasn’t much there. Lang allowed his man to penetrate to his inside shoulder, but walled him off once he had done so. Benson saw this, alertly cut back and ran through a pair of linebackers for a eight-yard gain.

1-10, Packers (same drive), 5:30 left in Q1: Benson’s excellent run was made possible by an even more excellent block by Ryan Taylor, who took on an inrushing LB filling the gap and shoved him out of the play. Bouncing initially off Sitton’s back, Benson shook off an ankle grab before being ridden down around the 15. [I focused on Benson's six runs and one pass because, hey, Ced Benson's here now!]

2-Goal, Packers (same drive), 3:35 left in Q1: Bryan Bulaga is a smart man. He sees you going wide, he’s going to push you way wide and out of the play. Bulaga does that to the De, and when Rodgers sees the open space (and feels Marshall Newhouse getting bull-rushed to his left and sees Sitton struggling with a DT in his face, although both of them sort of recovered), he runs. Rodgers wasn’t thinking about the pass, that was a run all the way. He took it all the way to the corner of the end zone for a five-yard TD, standing up.

1-10, Bengals, 1:34 left in Q1: Here’s the difference between A.J. Hawk and D.J. Smith: on this run play off left tackle, both inside ‘backers read the run. Hawk went wide around the confusion and missed the play entirely. Smith weaved his way through the trash and arrived to make the tackle for a one-yard loss. Matthews, who fought through the block of a TE, had headed off the RB.

2-10, Bengals, 13:42 left in Q2: Nick Perry bull-rushed the right tackle back on a running play, but broke off a little late, i.e. once the back was past him. Anthony Levine was unblocked off the other side and also helped wrangle the back, Cedric Peerman, to the ground; that worthy fellow cannoned into Hawk, who arrived late again, and knocked the ILB sprawling. Hey, aren’t linebackers supposed to deliver big shots, not absorb them?

1-10, Bengals (same drive), 12:17 left in Q2: On a quick fade to A.J. Green—no pressure really got home, although it was coming—Tramon Williams quickly turned his hips and had him blanketed down the field into the left sideline in the end zone, despite a couple of push-off moves from Green. Williams jumped high and deflected the ball with his right hand; he probably could’ve intercepted it, but Green never had a chance to knock it away because Williams was in such great position. Granted, the ball probably should’ve been thrown higher, but it wasn’t off by much.

1-Goal, Bengals (same drive), 11:31 left in Q2. Let us take a moment to immortalize this play by A.J. Hawk. Everyone’s assuming a run, so he charges at the line. Hawk tries to leap, finds his path blocked, bounces off a fellow Packer instead and knocks him down, recovers slightly, sees an "open" receiver fallen on the ground, flings his arms out wide and makes a heroic dive out in front of the guy and falls to the ground. It's about the dumbest-looking thing I've ever seen. Meanwhile, back at the play, Dalton was running a play-action fake to the fullback running to the left corner (or maybe a TE). M.D. Jennings was with him step for step, so Dalton held the ball and got pressured eventually by Erik Walden and eventually threw it away in the direction of Jennings’s man.