I've re-watched it twice. While I'm working, I will now go through some plays on my DVR to marvel at his flawless technique against the Bengals. And then you can go ahead and post screenshots of what I am talking about to prove me wrong. Such as first quarter, first drive, 3rd and 8, 13:36 on the clock. Sanchez is in the shotgun. Howard takes a 3 hop drop to compensate for Carlos Dunlap rushing outside, fails to engage the block aggressively and allows himself to be bull-rushed backwards into Sanchez. Dunlap is actually reaching over the top of Howard into Sanchez' field of vision. The only thing that kept this play from being a sack by Dunlap was that an unblocked Rey Maualuga running at full speed shot a large gap and barely beat him to Sanchez. That's a QB pressure, in case you are wondering. I'll be back in a few minutes with the next flawless play.
Jets first and 10 on their own 45, 9:36 on the clock, offset I form with Greene in the backfield. The entire offensive line (aside from Moore who pulls left) bursts forward in an obvious rushing down except for Howard, who backs off as if it's a passing down, barely making any contact with Michael Johnson, who easily tackles Greene shortly behind the LOS for a loss. Hard to imagine the play was designed for the RT to give an easy path from tackler to runningback, but hey, Sparano is an enigma. There were a couple of replays with different angles on this one, so you should be able to get a sweeeeeeet close up on it with your mp4.
hey, sparano was the guy who gave mike martz a run for his money as an offensive genius( sic). just check the stats.
You know what? I concede. While Howard didn't play flawlessly, as you had said, looking at him a lot closer, he played much better than I had originally thought. He stuck with his assignments when he hit them, when he missed an assignment he immediately got up and went looking for someone to hit. I guess I can forgive a few mental mistakes in light of the other stuff I saw from him. He has surprisingly good instincts for a guy that didn't even know he'd be playing Hunter's spot on the right side until halfway through that week. I'm a lot more optimistic after I watched him, although I stopped watching when he switched to the LT spot to block for Tebow, because there is no way Tebow called any of the blocking assignments to his line intelligently, so it would be unfair to judge Howard based on that.
I see your subsequent concession but for posterity, I don't agree that this is a pressure and Dunlap is not in his field of vision from my vantage. If Maualuga does not come unblocked i think Sanchez steps into the pocket and has more time or he takes off in the gap that Maualuga comes through in his blitz. I think Howard displayed good footwork to not get beat with the speed rush to the outside and then fights off the resulting bull rush and ultimately takes Dunlap to the ground.
This is inconclusive. Since you have moore puling to the left and howard droping back it could be designed to get Johnson to overpursue on the right side and for the play to go to the left. What is confusing is that Green runs to the right where the log jam is and not to the left where there is real estate. Either way Howard's man Johnson does not make the stop.
It is hard for me to find flaws enough to worth mentioning but fair enough. Either way the guy gives some upside hope compared to WFH.
