The Real Bust?.... Benton

Not my work but enjoy the read:

"In honor of an actually decent offensive performance, I figured I would watch the all 22 tape and shew, I would recommend that to anyone with NFL+. It is very much a tale of two games. My thoughts:

• Broderick Jones was nowhere near as bad as I thought he was when watching it live. He wasn't good by any stretch of the imagination, it's just that his mistakes ended in sacks (as you expect on the blind side) whereas the other linemen's mistakes were inconveniences or mitigated. He lost 6 battles that I could tell, though Seumalo fed him to the wolves on 2 of those. Of the 3 sacks, it looked like 1 was footwork, 1 was hands (that McDonald spin move was nasty), and 1 was pad height; so not the same issue over and over. Frazier and Seumalo both lost ~4 reps as well, they just were either runs or ARod got the rock out quick. Fautanu only got beat once that I could see. McCormick was really good.

• I'm no expert but the Jets were the best defense I've ever seen played against zone blocking. Seumalo, CAIII, DK chose 'the wrong' block a few times, but overall the Jets just had too many men in the gaps. They were east-west with the quickness- guessing that's what allowed AR to dice them up

• Keanu Benton was absolute trash, the entire game. He didn't win a single rep. Not one. And I don't mean he didn't get penetration or close two gaps- no, he got folded like wet laundry every single down. I've honestly never seen a Steelers d lineman play that poorly. They stopped double teaming him toward the end of the first half and he was still getting thrown around by a single lineman. The single tackle he's credited with came off cleaning up a TJ trip-up and Wilson was right there as well. Honestly the team's best defensive effort all game was the goal line series halfway through the 4th, and they pulled Benton out for the entire series, going with a 4 down front of Cam, Black, Loudermilk, and Ekuale. If I were TA I would be thinking hard about using a 4 front more often, if we're not going to have a nose that can close one gap, much less two.

• TJ has lost a step east-west, or he was deliberately moving slower to not get injured on that god forsaken field

• LOT of broken tackles. I think a lot of it was not technique related, but so many goddamn offensive lineman around the ball, especially in the 1.5/2nd level (BENTON!)

• Malik Harrison probably couldn't shed a block from a JV player, but he seemed to fill gaps pretty well

• Black wasn't great but he did get to the QB the same time as TJ, twice.

• PQ and Wilson are underrated. I think the only miss that PQ had was a step too slow in coverage of the Ruckert first down catch. Could teach masterclass on gap discipline, not that it matters when you have a free blocker coming through said gap (*cough BENTON cough*). He almost made coverage on that G Wilson almost-TD catch after JPJ completely borked his assignment. P Wilson got caught up in the zone wash a couple of times but otherwise great.

• Ramsey is a ****ing wizard. I'm not the best at diagnosing pre snap coverage shells, but where he lines up makes no sense and then he just ends up magically in tight coverage. Looks like they're running a lot of quarters with either JPJ or Ramsey in man.

• Slay missed one TFL on a corner blitz early then was super solid. Arguably should have been out wider for Field's walk in TD, but it looked like he thought TJ was going to slide out wider. He got burnt in man on the Wilson TD but then so did JPJ. Echols good too.

• Looks like the Pickens cancer has been purged. The only half assery I saw was ARod walking up after completed passes . Well, and Benton's existence."

 

Cam wasn’t great by any stretch of the imagination, but Benton was in fact terrible. He’s on the ground way too often. He’s not getting off blocks. He’s been truly disappointing for a while now. In a post game interview he talked about trying to do too much and not doing his job. Holy ****! This is his 4th year as a starter. Doing your job is football 001.

 

Good write-up, Bubba. Thanks for posting.

 

Good post. We're concerned about Jones but there's a reason I'm still hopeful overall. I'm not excusing anything, we know if he gets Aaron killed the season is over.

I hate Benton in the middle, it will not work, which doesn't excuse that he just might suck at DE now, too. I thought Black looked much better inside. Fingers crossed we get Harmon soon and he can improve the position.

If the front starts playing better - and Cam struggled, too - the back 7 should look a lot better.

 

I kept seeing some dude lying on the ground. Then he would roll over and sure enough the #95 showed on the jersey.

 

I was saying near the end of the first quarter in the game thread that Benton should be benched. Nobody listens to me.

 

There is a thread on Benton already.

 

Nobody?!


You must have forgotten that I cosigned your sentiment... though not to the point of being benched. Yahya Black should be playing NT; shortcomings or not. Black is only gonna improve with reps whereas Benton is a 5 Tech 3-4 DE as it stands.


Having him as a Zero Tech to One Tech is ridiculous.

 

I was saying all of that in the Game Thread as well.

 

I knew Benton was going to have a bad game after the very first play the Jets ran, If you watch Benton, he gets flattened and pushed out of the way like he was on skates. Not a good start and it never improved all day!