Mile High Report
Here’s a little sneak behind the curtain of how I determine who or what I write these film review articles on this week: it’s all based off of vibes.
Usually while I watch each game there is a specific lineman or aspect of the game that is popping off the screen and I want to take a deeper look at it on film. I then essentially just share my findings with you guys, which you seem to like, which is fantastic. And originally I wasn’t planning on doing another review of Luke Wattenberg, especially considering we just did one a couple of weeks ago. But there have been a handful of people on the site, in the comments, and on Twitter that think that Wattenberg had himself a solid game, especially considering he was going against a beast in Jalen Carter.
This wasn’t the feeling I necessarily got while watching, but I’m not always correct, and you guys catch some things that I don’t. So I figured I’d take a look and end up either proving those people right or proving them wrong.
Let’s take a look.
Luke Wattenberg played all 70 offensive snaps for the Broncos on Sunday. They had thirty designed run plays and 40 designed pass plays.
The Broncos ran up either A gap eight times for a total of 35 yards (4.4 YPC). Three of the carries went for five or more yards (five, eight, 13 yard carries). The rest went for three or less yards.
Wattenberg had five blown blocks. Two of them were on run plays and two of them were in pass protection.
Wattenberg gave up zero TFLs. He also gave up two pressures, zero QB hits, and zero sacks.
Out of his 70 snaps, Wattenberg logged seven “Bad” blocks, eight “Meh” blocks, 10 “Alright” blocks, 45 “Good” blocks, and zero “Great” snaps. This is good enough for 56.5 points, or 80.7%. In run protection he scored 20.5 points (68.3%) and in pass protection he scored 36 points (90%).
Luke Wattenberg did not have a good game on Sunday. Just like I assumed would happen, he stood little chance against Jalen Carter in the run game. And while he didn’t give up a TFL, he was shed many times right at the line of scrimmage and ruined what could be a strong gain for the Broncos.
Wattenberg struggles to get any vertical displacement, and this hurts the Broncos on their Inside Zone and Duo concepts. For the most part, the only time he is able to get guys moving is when he is aided by either of his guards. His best quality on Inside Zone and Duo concepts is getting up to the second level, where he normally gives a good enough blocks to sustain the crease.
He did struggle a bit on Outside Zone in this game as well. Not at the line of scrimmage though, but rather he struggled to get good blocks and playside...
