What Peyton Hillis could do for the Buccaneers

This latest in our series of articles on US Sports has been penned by Irishman Conor Philpott…

Peyton Hillis is a bit of a divisive figure. After a superb 2010 season, where he ran for over 1100 yards and had 13 total Touchdowns Hillis has struggled. The former Madden Cover star has had his fair share of injuries and a lengthy contract dispute with the Cleveland Browns. That dispute saw him anger former teammate Joe Thomas, who derided Hillis for putting himself above the team. Some of his “injuries” were questioned by media, fans and teammates as Hillis worked to try and up the Browns offer for a new deal following the 2010 season, I think it would be fair to say that Hillis’ head was all over the place in the 2011 season, maybe he believed in some of his own hype but there was no doubt the guy had issues.

His most noticeable and strange event was probably the CIA story. Yes Hillis apparently contemplated retiring from the NFL and working for the CIA. Hillis became a free agent for the 2012 season and signed with the Chiefs for a year. You could argue the media gave him something of a raw deal and possibly made too much of some of his shenanigans but I think some of the reaction from his teammates probably says more than I could. Perhaps this has changed during his time in Kansas as Hillis was a backup with Jamaal Charles taking most of the carries and doing it incredibly well. Adrian Peterson’s superhuman performances off the back of his ACL/MCL injury deservedly took the plaudits but Charles’ season on the way back from an ACL tear was also incredibly good. He finished the season with over 1500 yards rushing and 236 yards receiving. Hillis’ injury record and abrasive style is likely to see him negated to a backup role for the rest of his career but the best NFL teams have depth at every position with running back depth being key. Last year the Bucs were heavily reliant on Doug Martin with perhaps a lack of trust and faith in LeGarette Blount and DJ Ware not offering much in the rushing department. If the team want Doug Martin to be a top player for years to come then they need to give him some rest. They drafted Mike James from Miami and signed Brian Leonard, a similar player to Hillis to help out Martin. I can’t see both Hillis and Leonard surviving to make the 53.

Anyway on to Hillis, I’ve looked at some youtube clips of some Hillis runs, it’s probably a bit clichéd at this point to liken him to former Buccaneer great Mike Alstott but he would remind me very much of Alstott. If you can get him to the second level then watch out! Not many defensive backs will want to tackle him or even be able to tackle him! While Hillis is of course powerful I was impressed by some of his nimbleness and athleticism. He seems to have decent hands and much like Blount he has shown the ability to hurdle! What people expect with a lot of big power type runners like Hillis is for them to more or less run exclusively “up the gut” mainly between the A or B gaps between the guards and the centres. Hillis is capable of doing that and does it very well but what I found interesting is that the Browns also tried to use him outside a lot too (I will give credit where it’s due, the superb NFL twitter account NFLosophy spotted this first and that thought gave me the idea to look into some of Hillis’ works,  an account certainly worth a follow! https://twitter.com/NFLosophy). I’m going to look at a few Hillis runs from his time with the Browns and Chiefs  and try  do a brief evaluation of him (I will note that this is my first time having a go at something like this, and I have never played American football so if you want to pull me up on something go ahead you’re more than likely correct!)

The Browns line up with the 3 WRs and a sole RB in the backfield (Hillis). On the line they have the usual suspects (LT,LG,C,RG,RT) along with a TE outside the right tackles. The lines indicate who each person is blocking. The left tackle is taking the right defensive end, the left guard is taking a linebacker, the centre has a defensive tackle, the right guard is taking the other inside linebacker with the tackle taking a defensive end and the Tight End takes an Outside linebacker. The Browns blocking is extremely effective and they create a massive role for Hillis to run into. Much like Alstott, Hillis is dangerous when he gets to the second level,Hillis is given a sizable gap courtesy of his right guard and centre and he goes through, the linebackers are taken care of and he will pick up a decent gain.  He goes 12 yards before hurdling a defender and picking up about a 15 yard gain. That small play confirmed the fact that Hillis can do a lot when he has some space and I also think it proves how crucial a role blocking has in making him look good. He is in a bit like Blount in that regard if you can give him that initial bit of space he will make something of it but the offensive line will need to be consistently winning in the trenches in order for him to have a productive day.

The next image is from a Thursday Night football game last season when Hillis was with the Chiefs. I’m going to put particular focus on the left side of the offensive line (in this case the centre, left guard and left tackle). Shaun Phillips of the Chargers, (circled in green) lines up opposite the left tackle, however he rushes inside trying to cause confusion between the Guard and centre. The guard is initially set up to block Aubrayo Franklin with the centre taking linebacker Butler. However Phillips’ rush  inside works. Left tackle Branden Albert perhaps caught off guard by the move is unable to deal with Phillips, causing the guard to try and stop Phillips in his tracks. The centre is still going to block middle linebacker Donald Butler, which leaves Arubayo Franklin unblocked. In the next shot, circled in orange is Phillips (with the guard trying to block him) and circled in black is Franklin with his path to Hillis and Hillis’ intended running spot is also highlighted.

As expected Franklin has pretty much a clean shot at Hillis. I think we see some of the potential of Hillis in this play however. He is hit initially three yards behind the line of scrimmage by Franklin but manages to rumble on.

Eric Weddle and others come in to haul the big guy down. The play only gained a yard, but it shows that Hillis is definitely a guy who doesn’t give up on the play and will stand as long as he can. He showed nice desire and hunger to get as far as he can and nice vision to try and adjust after the initial gap was closed.

A quick snap here to show you another way of how Hillis can be used. The Browns liked to get him running outside the tackles quite a bit. For that to be effective, the blocking must be very good but Hillis will cause guys problems if he gets to the 2nd level. Hillis is out of shot in the photo as the Browns line up with a tight end and a full back. The Browns run a sweep play to the left. They get a good initial release to spring Hillis to the left and the right guard and tackle are able to slow down the linebackers enough to allow Hillis pick up some steam and get about a 6 or 7 yard gain. I believe he can be used outside the tackles too. The left hand side of the Buccaneers offensive line is quite nasty with Penn and Nicks I see no reason why the Bucs can’t run a similar play.

The Browns run a similar play with two tight ends outside the right tackle against the New Orleans Saints in 2010.

The Browns run a sweep to the outside with the QB pitching to Hillis, his left tackle and guard run outside. The centre take a DT while the right guard takes an incoming linebacker and the two TEs take the left end. I’ve circled an uncovered linebacker for the Saints. In the next shot the left guard deals with him very well. Hillis gets to the outside and his two linemen seal the perimeter well with his left tackle getting to the edge preventing the cornerback from touching him while the guard deals with the linebacker. Hillis sees the hole and bursts through evading the clutches of Roman Harper to go into the endzone

I think this final run will remind Bucs fans a bit of Alstott and also of LeGarette Blount to a degree. Hillis has quite a few similarities to the man who was traded to the Patriots this off season. However in some facets I would say that he is an upgrade over the former Duck. Blount wasn’t great at converting over short distances he would get “happy feet” and often spend far too long searching for a hole instead of trying to plough through guys. Hillis isn’t afraid to try and barrel through guys as that last bit shows. I’m going to look at another small bit from a Browns game against the Rams in the 2010 preseason. The Browns line up with 2 tight ends alongside the usual suspects. The first image shows who the linemen go to block along with what I believe is Hillis’ initial intended running path. You will notice the strongside backer for the Rams is circled as he is unblocked (the tight end on the right goes for a man out of shot).

Hillis’ intended path isn’t wide enough for him to squeeze through (black circle), he shows good vision and quick thinking to adjust and go for the gap between the right tackle and the tight end. He moves his feet quickly to get there and adjust. He seems to have a good feel for letting his blocks develop and adjusting which is a good sign. As the image shows the SLB is waiting to take him down or so you would think. He breaks the initial tackle as well as several others for a nine yard gain. Not too shabby!

Hillis is a good weapon in the passing game too. His 2010 season saw him haul in 61 catches for 477 yards and two touchdowns while he has hauled in 32 in the last two seasons. I think it is an area where he is an upgrade over Blount and should he be required to he can step up. His pass protection must be decent enough if the Browns and to a lesser extent the Chiefs trusted him enough to be involved in the passing game to such an extent. I believe his talents could be of use to the Buccaneers in a variety of roles. It’s quite possible we will see him involved in a lot of the short yardage situations his power and willingness to bludgeon opponents will certainly be of use there. Doug Martin’s fantasy stats may take a hit in that department however!

Hope you enjoyed reading!

Conor Philpott (@cphilpott95) is a proud Corkonian, and a massive sports fan with rugby being his sport of choice. Be it Munster, his club Highfield, the Lions or Ireland, Conor will probably be watching rugby in some shape or form

3rd Test film breakdown–Part 2

The final part of a detailed look at How The (3rd) Test Was Won by Conor Philpott… (click here for part one)

The second test saw the Lions kick a lot as did the final test where it differed was how they kicked. In the opening two games we saw box kicks used quite a bit as well as garryowens  rarely did the Lions kick for territory. Jonathan Davies was used as a kicking option in this game and his left boot was very accurate and it took a great deal of pressure of Johnny Sexton. As I highlighted in the first test Sexton also liked to chip it over the flat Australian defence. This tactic would be pivotal to Sexton’s try. In his own 22 Sexton chips over the defence and the ball bounces around the ten metre line of the Lions after some indecision from I believe Joe Tomane North pounces on the ball and offloads to Davies in the tackle who manages to get rid of the ball before being driven out into touch where by an Australian brings the ball over the sideline. The Lions go from being deep in their own 22 to being on the edge of the Australian one with a superbly executed play and credit goes to Sexton, North and Davies for their work.

From the lineout the Lions go through several phases doing good work around the middle of the park and the right hand side of the field wearing down the Australian defence. Now we begin to see Gatland’s philosophy emerge and know why it can be effective. Decent carrying from both backs and forwards has left the Australians exposed on the right side of their defence (left attacking side for the Lions), Murray gives quick ball to Sexton and the threat is immediately apparent. Roberts is a decoy (black line) so  as attacking options the Lions have Bowe (green), Davies (blue), North (red circle) and Halfpenny (out of shot) while the Australians have Lealiifano, Joe Tomane and Will Genia who is acting as a sweeper (not in shot)

Halfpenny (blue) joins the line after Bowe offloads to Davies who is on his way to escaping the clutches of Lealiifano and North (red) is still outside if needs be. I’ve circled Johnny Sexton whose support play here should be noted he does a great job of keeping up with the play and giving the option inside as the play begins to develop.

Halfpenny takes the ball from Davies shows superb acceleration and sells a nice dummy to Genia. George Smith does well to grab hold of him but he manages to offload to Sexton who races in under the post. The score shows Gatland’s style at its most effective level combined with some lovely hands and some individual brilliance from Halfpenny and nice support from Sexton.

It reminds me of a similar opportunity for Australia in the second test. Notably, they had several crucial knockons, turnovers or penalties go against them. The Australians were guilty of forcing things instead of gradually wearing down the Lions defence they often gave the pass that wasn’t on that eventually would lead to lost ground or a turnover. There were several examples of Australia’s poor play with possession of the ball and how they managed to ruin a lot of their chances but I think the next image showcases this better than most. The Aussies have finally managed to strign some good play together, and on the 8th phase they are beginning to find some holes in the Lions defence. O’Connor lays off to Beale and the Wallabies have a 2 man overlap. It looks like real trouble for the Lions and a score is highly probable, however Beale lays his eye off the ball and spills it forward.

Now onto more sublime Halfpenny play. Genia clears his lines but fails to find touch the kick is too long for anyone to chase and Halfpenny is given a good 20m of space to run into and he chooses to do so. He shows great acceleration and footwork  to fend off both Genia and Joe Tomane and executes the 2 on 1 with George North to perfection and North scores his second try of the test series he won’t get many easier than that in his career!

In the second test Halfpenny had a chance to counter but chose not to take it, while I imagine he wouldn’t have scored it what annoyed me here was that his first instinct was to kick and that he didn’t even look up at the space in front of him or the options he had. Halfpenny has a comfortable 10m in which to run into a fractured Oz defensive line is full of holes and opportunities like it was for North’s try he also has Bowe to use if he wants the pass is risky but makeable and Bowe would certainly make ground but he doesn’t even think of these options simply kicking it away.

Finally we have Jamie Roberts’ try. The Lions have earned a line out just outside the Australian 22 and secure it with Murray taking the ball on. in the still below he has options in both North and Roberts. Hooper and James O’Connor are focusing solely on North while Lealiifano is opposite Roberts but seems to have his eyes on the ball and the possibility of North getting it.

Milliseconds later (yes literally) Lealiifano takes half a step to the left. Murray is now about to pass to Roberts. That one small step takes Lealiifano out of it and he doesn’t have enough time to adequately adjust and get to Roberts who shows great speed and burst to scamper away for the easy score.

That’s it you’ll be glad to know. The Lions won the test series well in the end, the bold choices paid off in most aspects with Faletau’s carrying aiding greatly as did the work of Hibbard and O’Brien in the pack. Davies’ kicking game helped although I think BOD may have been as effective had he played. The gameplan had its issues but was largely successful. Had the Lions not been so dominant in the scrum I wonder would they have won but that’s neither here nor there. Congrats to Warren and company on a successful tour.

Conor Philpott (@cphilpott95) is a proud Corkonian, and a massive sports fan with rugby being his sport of choice. Be it Munster, his club Highfield, the Lions or Ireland, Conor will probably be watching rugby in some shape or form

3rd Test film breakdown–Part 1

A detailed look at How The (3rd) Test Was Won by Conor Philpott…

While many people on this side of the Atlantic lost a lot of interest in the Lions after Brian O’Driscoll was dropped (personally, I wasn't too surprised, for how Gatland wanted to play, BOD wasn’t the guy despite doing a damned good effort at doing so and doing some stellar work in defence), the final test finished with an emphatic win with great thanks to the forwards and the front row in particular (that old adage that “forwards win games, backs decide by how much” certainly rang true with the pack being the key factor to the win). A knock on by Will Genia straight from the kickoff allowed the Lions an opportunity to set an early marker.

Australia gave up a free kick for early engagement and the Lions set away immediately with Phillips’ quick tap. Sean O’Brien didn't have too many opportunities to carry the ball in the game but his contribution to the opening score was key. Backed up by Faletau and Corbisiero he marches about 5m about 3m to the Australian line. 2 phases later the Lions would score through Corbisiero. Up to this point the Lions have shown an ability to score tries in the first few phases. This was their third try in the series with the scores coming off first third and fifth phase. Corbisiero’s score and Johnny Sexton’s later on exemplify the style Gatland wishes to play.Hard yards gained in the tight through backs and forwards leaving gaps in the defence, the threat of Phillips around the fringes was also key to the first try.

I’m going to take a quick look at the difference between Mako Vunipola and Alex Corbisiero at scrum time. Vunipiola struggled greatly against Ben Alexander for most of the second test it was only when Steve Kepu came on and the introduction of Dan Cole and Richard Hibbard did Vunipola gain parity or better him. He bored in (a loosehead  prop angles himself inward putting more pressure on both the opposing tighthead and the hooker. It is illegal and can also be quite dangerous.) quite a bit and in my opinion could have been penalised more by Craig Joubert.

The first image is of Vunipola and the second is of Corbisiero. You see the arched back with Vunipola’s head and eyes facing down. A coach once told me that you should always be looking up in a scrum, like you are peering over a pair of sunglasses otherwise you will end up going straight to ground. I don’t think he was wrong. Corbisiero is quite straight and actually able to get underneath Alexander in an effort to try and get him to pop up. The Lions lost some work in the loose with Corbisiero there but the prowess of their scrum more than made up for it.

Credit goes to Gatland for some of his bold selection calls which in some aspects were paying dividends. Toby Faletau was targeted by the Australians at kickoff time and I’m not sure why they persisted with the tactic for so long. He continuously made yards and broke Australian tackles. In this shot he and Welsh teammates Alun Wyn Jones, Richard Hibbard and Dan Lydiate get a nice maul going that runs for about 10 metres.

The backrow had a very nice balance to it. Lydiate was his usual self in the tackling department with 9 total and none missed he combined well with O’Brien in making turnovers and halting Australian attacks. The next shot shows O’Brien win a penalty after a crunching tackle from Lydiate. O’Brien’s role was different than that at Leinster and Ireland but he racked up the tackles and as discussed above made key yards when asked. Faletau did the bulk of the carrying very effectively it has to be said.

It would be fair to say that the Lions did struggle in attack at times. I’m going to highlight one period of the match when the Lions have a commanding lead. You should notice two things about the first still one is that Faletau and O’Brien are working together which is great but also the HSBC sign which is about four or five metres inside the Australian 10m line. That was the first phase of this attack and the Lions start behind it. The final phase shows Johnny Sexton attempt a drop goal which narrowly misses (he is of course standing a bit behind the gainline in order to avoid being blocked but the Lions failed to make serious inroads). While credit goes to superb Australian defence particularly with a man in the sinbin, the Lions went 27 phases and made only about 10m (they were on the edge of the 22 at one point but they failed to breach it) their gameplan had its struggles certainly that I think was saved by the dominant scrum which gave them 12 points (the first try also came partially on the back of a scrum with a Lions free kick putting them on the front foot)

 

Australia’s try came on the cusp of halftime and it wasn’t a great try to give away in truth. The first still shows quite a big gap between Roberts and Sexton, perhaps showing that they lacked a bit of communication and understanding having not played together in a test environment. James O’Connor has a man inside him should he need him for the pop. Sexton seems concerned about this not willing to commit himself to O’Connor for the easy pop inside. Jamie Roberts is quite fast but could he haul down O’Connor an international class winger? Sean O’Brien is drifting across and trying to close a gap that exists between him and Sexton, O’Connor spots this gap and decides to back himself. Sexton still seems uncertain and not fully committed as O’Connor steps inside, his tackle attempt is quite poor for a guy who is a great defender usually but a lot of credit must go to O’Connor who shows marvellous footwork to evade Sexton and the incoming O’Brien. He initially looks to go for the gap between the centre and outhalf but his superb step immediately changes things and leaves Sexton vulnerable as he isn’t perfectly set to tackle and catches Sexton off guard and in poor position. While Sexton’s tackle is poor and below his high standards O’Connor’s work here is outstanding.

PART TWO WILL PUBLISH THURSDAY

Conor Philpott (@cphilpott95) is a proud Corkonian, and a massive sports fan with rugby being his sport of choice. Be it Munster, his club Highfield, the Lions or Ireland, Conor will probably be watching rugby in some shape or form