Why Eagles are very encouraged by Milton Williams’ breakout game

[time2rock]

Why Eagles are very encouraged by Milton Williams’ breakout game

 

You’d understand if Milton Williams went into Sunday’s game in Detroit with a little something extra to prove.

Because on the other sideline was fellow defensive tackle Alim McNeill, who went one spot before him in the third round of the draft after the Eagles traded down a few slots. That series of events led to a now infamous moment between senior football advisor and NFL lifer Tom Donahoe and general manager Howie Roseman.

On Sunday, Williams was the better player. And he was given the defensive game ball for his efforts in the blowout 44-6 win.

"Really excited about the way he played and pleased with the way he played,” head coach Nick Sirianni said.

Williams, 22, had been having a quiet rookie season until Sunday.

But the third-round pick from Louisiana Tech has shown great effort and improvement before then. It’s just that he finally produced on the stat sheet in Detroit while playing about half of his snaps from the tackle position and half as an end.

"What happened in the game was some production came with him increasing his role and getting better and better and better and the ball came his way a couple times and he made the plays,” defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon said.

"And that's the thing, like what we've talked about with production. Does the guy consistently do his job and then when the ball comes to him, does he make the play or not? That's really, ultimately, what you're looking for, and Milton did that. And it was good to see him have some success and some production, even though he's been producing within our defense.

"But on the stat sheet, it shows up that he made some plays and some impact plays for us. That was the reason he got the game ball.”

Against the Lions in 34 snaps (a DL high), Williams had 4 solo tackles, 1 QB hit, 2 tackles for loss and his first NFL sack. That sack was a huge play in the game, taking down Jared Goff on 4th-and-1 with seconds remaining in the first half to keep the Lions off the scoreboard going into the locker room.

Any change the Lions had to come back in that game went out the window when Williams hauled down Goff for a 4-yard loss.

And coming into Sunday, in his first seven games, Williams had just 2 solo tackles, no sacks, TFLs or QB hits.

So he broke out in a major way.

But it was a breakout that his coaches probably saw coming.

"He's improving every day,” Gannon said. "So, he's doing a real good job. A lot of stuff for any rookie is new, and just what we ask him to do and different things in the run game, in the pass game, he's improving in those things.”

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/eagles-rookie-milton-williams-has-encouraging-breakout-game

[jsb235]

Here's what I noticed in the all 22 from the Lions game as compared to previous games, when the dline was playing not great.

Previously, Williams was mostly used as a DE on a 5-man front, and the philosophy seemed to be read and react to what the oline was doing. If they run blocked, you controlled a gap on either side. If they pass blocked, you rushed the passer. The Steelers do this a lot, and the goal is to free linebackers to make plays. 

Against the Lions, we played a scheme that was based much more on defensive tackles one gap penetrating, while the DEs were often in a wide 9 alignment. Which is why we generated a lot more pressure from both the DEs and the DTs (Williams.) We also brought a safety down in the box, which is why Marcus Epps was our second-leading tackler.

If we stick with this approach, I think Williams is going to continue to perform well. He's not big enough to manhandle guards as a DE in a 3-4. But as a one-gapping DT in a 4-3, he's going to beat a lot of guards with his quickness.

As an aside, I know that the Lions have a bad offensive line, but they don't have a terrible one, and certainly it is in the same realm as the Raiders. So I don't think it was only the opponent that caused Williams, Kerrigan, Sweat and Barnett to have their best games of the year. Clearly our scheme was different, and the linemen were able to consistently attack for the first time this year. Throw in the fact that we actually blitzed and played different coverages on the back end, and it resulted in a defense that was actually watchable for once.

It remains to be seen if we can sustain this against the Chargers, but their oline has some issues on the right side, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it continue.  

[time2rock]

13 hours ago, jsb235 said:

Here's what I noticed in the all 22 from the Lions game as compared to previous games, when the dline was playing not great.

Previously, Williams was mostly used as a DE on a 5-man front, and the philosophy seemed to be read and react to what the oline was doing. If they run blocked, you controlled a gap on either side. If they pass blocked, you rushed the passer. The Steelers do this a lot, and the goal is to free linebackers to make plays. 

Against the Lions, we played a scheme that was based much more on defensive tackles one gap penetrating, while the DEs were often in a wide 9 alignment. Which is why we generated a lot more pressure from both the DEs and the DTs (Williams.) We also brought a safety down in the box, which is why Marcus Epps was our second-leading tackler.

If we stick with this approach, I think Williams is going to continue to perform well. He's not big enough to manhandle guards as a DE in a 3-4. But as a one-gapping DT in a 4-3, he's going to beat a lot of guards with his quickness.

As an aside, I know that the Lions have a bad offensive line, but they don't have a terrible one, and certainly it is in the same realm as the Raiders. So I don't think it was only the opponent that caused Williams, Kerrigan, Sweat and Barnett to have their best games of the year. Clearly our scheme was different, and the linemen were able to consistently attack for the first time this year. Throw in the fact that we actually blitzed and played different coverages on the back end, and it resulted in a defense that was actually watchable for once.

It remains to be seen if we can sustain this against the Chargers, but their oline has some issues on the right side, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it continue.  

It was nice to see Gannon finally change things up.  I'm sure he was feeling a lot of heat these past few weeks (especially after the game against LV) ... plus having some of our best defensive players question the scheme, I'm sure it was all motivation to switch it up.  He's new to this, so I expected bumps (ditto Sirianni with playcalling on offense).  Both seem to have finally realized adjustments were needed (although I don't expect such a run heavy attack to continue ... I don't think that is sustainable in today's NFL, but it worked against that particular opponent).  Hopefully this was a defining moment in the early part of their careers ... a learning experience that will help them make quicker adjustments down the road.

[UK_EaglesFan89]

I'm still not entirely sure why there was that war room shenanigans. I mean I'm sure it happens all the time in most nfl war rooms but still... McNeill didn't really seem like a great fit for this DL. Williams did. And both could go on to be very good nfl players. 

[time2rock]

3 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

I'm still not entirely sure why there was that war room shenanigans. I mean I'm sure it happens all the time in most nfl war rooms but still... McNeill didn't really seem like a great fit for this DL. Williams did. And both could go on to be very good nfl players. 

Still way too early to say who would have been the better pick (and likely will never know … hard to say without seeing the other player in our system and our player in theirs).  But … reportedly everyone was aligned with wanting McNeill … the animosity came from Howie getting cute.  Rather than just taking McNeill when their pick came about Howie traded down a few spots (from 70 to 73) thinking he’d still be able to grab him later but then Detroit scooped him up one pick before our new pick rolled around.  So more a case of people that work with Howie getting annoyed with him for thinking he is smarter than everyone else.