Silver And Black Pride
While the Las Vegas Raiders fell short to the Chicago Bears in Week 4, Maxx Crosby’s performance didn’t go unnoticed. After the game, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams said that Crosby is the best player he’s played against during his two-year career, and that’s hard to argue with.
Crosby was dominant in both phases of the game on Sunday, collecting five pressures and three batted passes (including one interception) as a pass-rusher, and four defensive stops with two coming against the run, according to Pro Football Focus. That resulted in an elite 91.5 overall grade (which ranks fourth among edge defenders for the week pre-Monday Night Football), an 88.2 pass-rush grade (ninth) and a 79.2 mark against the run (first).
An argument could be made that this past weekend was the best outing of the seven-year veteran’s career, so let’s flip on the tape and break it down.
We’ll start with a few reps against the run and one of Crosby’s three TFLs.
The Bears run a counter trap where the right guard and the inside tight end pull across the formation. That forces the right tackle to step to the inside initially to help the center block the 3-technique defensive tackle, creating a wide lane for the defensive end to run through.
From there, Crosby uses his elite get-off to take advantage of the gap created by the pullers by beating the outside tight end inside and getting penetration so quickly that the right tackle is late to help. That results in the tackle behind the line of scrimmage.
This time, Chicago leaves Crosby unblocked as the read man on a read option.
Notice how when he gets into the backfield, he shifts his shoulders to be almost perpendicular to the line of scrimmage. That muddies the look for Williams because he thinks Crosby is going to keep working down the line and take the running back. So, Williams pulls the ball out from the mesh point late and starts to bobble it.
Meanwhile, Crosby sets the quarterback up perfectly and uses his athleticism to redirect, get outside and not only get another TFL but also force a fumble while Williams is juggling the ball. Unfortunately, the Bears got a lucky bounce, but this is a textbook rep on how to play the option as the read man by Madd Maxx.
Here, the Bears try to get tricky by faking a speed option or swing pass to their No. 1 receiver D.J. Moore, who lines up in the backfield, before running a reverse to rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III. The problem is that Crosby doesn’t crash down into the C-gap like the offense is expecting him to do.
Instead, he initially steps into the C-gap and redirects, letting the tight end get inside of him while shifting to get up the field. Technically, Crosby is working around the block, but he uses the tight end’s momentum against the tight end to close the gap and fulfill his assignment while...
