Special Edition: Porter Report
As requested by several on the message board....here is an analysis of Porter's play. In an effort to help evaluate Jason "The Dong" Gildon against his peers, I'll provide a little insight on Porter's efforts versus the Oakland Raiders. This report will be a slightly different format than the Dong Report but will provide the necessary information for judgement.
Overall, Porter was not a dominating factor in the game. He finished with only a single tackle, no assists and no sacks. Statistically, it appears he had a weak game, but I'd wouldn't say so for a number of reasons.
The biggest reason is Tim Lewis' vanilla, plain, uninventive, boring, no-risk defense he packaged for Sunday's game. It was the lamest plan I've ever seen - luckily the D held on for the victory. There were almost no run blitzes, almost no QB blitzes and most of the day was spent with 3 and 4 man rushes. Porter was a major victim of the vanilla scheme and spent much of the day in pass coverage. As a matter of fact, this isn't the first time he's had to do so. In looking at the Jags game, I found that Porter was in pass coverage almost twice as much as Gildon. Nearly the same thing took place against Oakland.
The keys to Porter's limited statistics:
- Eight times Porter lined up 1 or 2 yards off the LOS as the ball was snapped and only twice did attack the LOS or beyond. In one of the two cases where he rushed, he nailed Gannon just after releasing a quick, incomplete pass. The other time he rushed inside and Kaufman bounced the play outside - Porter turned and was able to pursue the play but Kaufman was forced OOB after a 2 yard gain.
- All-in-all I counted 20 times that he was in zone/pass coverage. While hard to see due to the limited viewing area downfield, it appears that he had solid coverage as many time Gannon made his first read to Porter and Washington's side only to look back to the right to find his man. On two occasions he had solid coverage but the receivers heard footsteps and dropped the ball.
Plays of note or shame:
- Porter's one tackle came late in the game on 3rd and 12. Gannon broke from the pocket and scrambled up the middle. Porter, playing the middle in a soft prevent, had deep middle responsibility and tackled Gannon a yard short of the sticks leaving 4th and 1.
- In addition to his lone tackle, Porter was able to apply pressure on a number of occasions. By my tally, he had pressure or collapsed the pocket, on 7 occasions. In one instance, he nearly swatted the ball from Gannon's hand and in another, he dove and narrowly missed a sack on a scrambling Gannon. Gannon was forced to rush a pass or throw the ball away several times as a result of Porter's presence.
- In addition to pressures, Porter had solid coverage on many instances. While you cannot see him directly, it's clear by watching Gannon, who had days in the pocket, looking to left (Porter's side), looking middle, back to the left before throwing the ball right, middle or away. In total, I counted 4 passes that came near JP. Two of the passes were dropped, one was a throw away and another was the completion to Rison late in the game and he was tackled immediately (on that play Rison fumbled but forward progress was ruled). Most pass attempts went to the right side of the field, as they did with Jacksonville (do you think they want to pick on Scott and Gildon?).
- Porter had a couple of nice run support plays as well. At the start of the 2nd quarter, he stacked up two blockers to help Kirkland and Holmes stuff Wheatley on a 2 yard gain. Late in the game, two plays before stopping Gannon short of the sticks on 3rd and 12, he fought off two blockers to have a shot at Gannon as he threw the "incomplete" illegal forward pass 3 yards beyond the LOS.
- The shameful plays were primarily involving run defense. Twice, he got sucked inside when Kaufman - a cutback runner - was in the game. He was burned for a total of 7 yards on the two plays. There were also several times where he allowed himself to get completely tied up in the middle of the field with Wheatley running between the tackles, but none the those plays were utterly embarrassing.
The biggest trend to note on the day is that 3 and 4 man vanilla rushes do not allot tremendous opportunity to your outside linebackers, especially when they (#55 specifically) are in coverage 20 of the 40 pass plays. When the offense has 5 or 6 men upfront to block 3 or 4 defenders, chances are that the QB will have gobs of time to pick his spots. Taking the number positive plays Porter had versus the bad plays and mixing in the limited number plays in which he actually had opportunities, I feel Porter earned a B. His non-statistical play was solid including pass coverage and number of pressures, but he didn't contribute enough statistically to warrant a B+ or higher.