Watching James Conner
vs Virginia Tech who ranked 32nd last year in total rushing yards allowed according to
this
I wrote these in chronological order in case anyone wants to follow along. Maybe makes it more clear which play I am talking about.
The first play he is met at the LOS by a defensive lineman. He tries to spin out of the tackle and he is able to get some forward lean after the move but the defender wraps up and brings him down for a minimal gain.
Second run they are backed up to their own end zone. The blocking looks like this is a play designed to run to the right side. Conner uses a spin move to get to the left side where there is a hole after pressing to the inside. He breaks the tackle of the first defender by getting low and driving forward. Two more defenders get ahold of him but he keeps driving forward dragging both defenders with him before one of them wraps up his leg thus bringing him down that way, somewhat hanging on for dear life. When Conner gets low like this he is obviously hard to bring down.
He comes off the field after this play, so perhaps they are using him on some sort of a snap count? Or maybe he is just tired from the effort.
From the backside view of this play on replay you can see him press to the right guard before using the spin move to help him change direction to the left. Looks like inside zone to the right side that the defense has defended well. Good vision and creativity for him to use the spin move to get outside the left tackle where there are fewer defenders as they are all flowing to the right because of the design of the play. He breaks the first tackle and then jolts the second defensive back off of him, showing another angle of how powerful he is. The LB has a hold of him from behind as he is driving forward, giving the jolted defender another chance to bring him down.
3rd run he finds a crease up the middle (lots of traffic) and gets to the second level where he runs into the back of his lead blocker. He then bounces this to the left before being brought down.
4th play he helps in pass protection after a fake handoff and does an alright job with this assignment.
5th play they are doing some misdirection with 10 coming across in motion and then back to the right before the snap. A large gap opens up on the middle left but Conner doesn’t see this and runs into the back of his blockers up the middle for a short gain.
6th play is a pass protection assignment where he helps out his left tackle who is losing to the defender coming all the way around. Bad throw by the QB that likely should have been intercepted.
7th play he is again helping out the left tackle. I don’t like that he doesn’t square up on the defender, instead giving him a shove with his shoulder somewhat sideways. This is effective, just saying he could have better technique by keeping his base when blocking.
8th play is a run inside left. He is met near the LOS but is able to drive forward with good pad level and leg drive to turn this into 3 or 4 yards.
9th play he releases to the flat but the QB doesn’t go to him.
10th play pass protection helping the left tackle again and he does a pretty good job.
11th play is a run up the middle. There is motion to the right before and after the snap but a nice crease opens up right up the middle that Conner follows for a TD.
12th and 13th plays Conner releases to the left flat. The QB does look at him but too early and tries to the extend the play before throwing a not very catchable pass to the end zone. Similar play follows this where the QB decides to run himself (perhaps because of the space he saw previous play. He gets some yards but then fumbles the ball which goes backwards. Lucky that it is recovered by Pitt but yards are lost overall do the the bounce and roll of the ball to behind the LOS.
14th play is pass pro again. He releases into a route after seeing the defender is blocked, the ball is out by then though.
15th play is a goal line run attempt. There must have been a penalty or something setting this up. He gets a yard or two due to good power again, but doesn’t quite get into the end zone.
16th play they try again and Conner scores off the left side pretty easily as the gap was there.
17th play pass protection on the right side while the QB rolls to the right before finding his man on the left side.
18th play run up the middle from a pretty deep I set. A defender meets him in the backfield but he makes him miss with his spin move. He then runs outside to the left and uses a stiff arm on the defender who has tried to tackle him low pushing him off. He steps out of the weak ankle tackle attempt (due to the stiff arm for the most part) and keeps running outside where he is met by 3 other defenders. He gives 31 a jolt before going down to these guys.
19th play is a pass protection assignment on the right where he does a good job blocking the defensive end who has come free. The QB decides to scramble up the middle and Conners block was important as far as allowing the QB to be able to do that.
20th play is 3rd and 1 yard to go. There is pre snap motion to the right and the left guard pulls to the right side. Conner sees the gap on the left backside of the play and hits this well. He gets outside of 31 who is the only guy to stop him and outruns the defense for a TD. On the replay you can see him preparing to stiff arm the corner behind him in pursuit, but he outruns him so doesn’t need to. He switches the ball to his left arm after beating 31 outside. Showing good ball protection and some awareness of where defenders are on this run.
21st play 2nd and goal run up the middle where he is stopped. He doesn’t just go down though and keeps his feet while trying to drive forward. At one point there are 3 defenders all pushing him back as he tries to push forward and he still isn’t being driven back at first until the momentum shifts to their favor and they get him down.
22nd play 3rd and goal run middle right. He is met by a LB in the hole but uses good pad level and power to drive the defender into the end zone for a TD. He is about 5 yards into the end zone before going down.
23rd play pass pro on the right side where he isn’t really needed but in position if he was.
24th play helps in pass pro up the middle where the guard is getting beat and likely should get called for a hold. The QB pass is off target again.
25th play looks like inside zone left this time. Conner finds a crease on the left side and hits it with some good burst to the second level. 49 looks like he should have an angle to get to him, but Conner blows right by this guy as the burst seems to have surprised him. I have seen 49 be kind of shy to tackle Conner and that may be part of this as well. On the TD run earlier for example 49 is hiding behind the LB Conner steam rolls and doesn’t get his hat n there to help his team mate stop him. There was another one earlier in the game where 49 gets hit pretty good by Conner. On this play it seems like 49 just doesn’t want any part in tackling him. Looking at this closer 49 is held a bit by the blocker he is getting off and Conner gives him a little shove on the shoulder as he goes past him. The corner is able to catch him and run Conner out of bounds preventing a TD, but not until Conner has already gained a lot of yards on this play. One criticism is that if he had veered back inside on this play, he may have been able to get more as the corner would then have to actually bring him down running full speed instead of knocking him out of bounds. The shifts the ball to the outside again on this run, he seems to have good awareness of protecting the ball on all of his runs.
26th play is a run to the right side. Conner stiff arms the first defender but kind of pushes himself backwards in the process of that. Then there is a crowd to tackle him for a loss.
27th play run to the right side. He cuts this one backside seeing the crease there. The defensive lineman is too slow in getting there as Conner blows past. The LB tries to tackle him at the shoulders but he keeps going. He gets tripped up by a second attempt after the LB falls off him. Another really nice gain and some good vision to cut this one back inside I think.
28th play run outside to the right. Not much to talk about here as he is met by two defenders at the LOS. He gives one a stiff arm but he goes down soon after this for no gain.
29th play inside zone left. He takes this back to the left side and makes 31 miss with a nice cut back inside before being tackled by another defender for a short but decent gain.
We get some replays of a couple of his better runs from earlier at this point and also the TD run again. They are behind by 10 points late in the game and the final two plays he releases over the middle on pass routes but isn’t targeted.
While this is perhaps not quite as impressive as the Penn State game Conner has some very good runs in this one as well. He shows good power, pad level as well as some burst to hit creases when he sees it.
I'm warming up to this guy now.