This was a really interesting game in terms of both personnel and scheme.
Tavai played more snaps than any other LB. His 90% was much more than Bentley's 69% and Judon's 62%. He played outside (with Bentley inside) on many rushing downs, and plenty inside as well. Uche was playing in the middle on some passing downs, aligned over the tackle or in the G/T gap, and attacking the interior OL with speed stunts in 2- and 3- man games with Barmore and others, designed to have 2 rushers occupy 3 blockers, or 3 rushers occupy the 3 IOL along with the RB. Generally, the rush on the interior is structured to get the edge rushers - especially Judon and Wise - singled up on the outside.
Speaking of which, Judon and Wise should be buying Barmore dinner on the regular. They're both having great years, but the stats they're racking up are hugely owed to Barmore sucking up double teams. On the strip-sack, Barmore, Uche, and...Wilson, I think?...ran a 3 man game and absorbed the entire IOL and the RB, and Barmore came almost free off the center and then left guard to the point where if Judon hadn't been able to bring Goff down from behind, Barmore likely would have gotten him as he bailed out of the pocket.
I was happy to see the return of McMillan, at the expense of some Wilson snaps. He did pretty well, but has a ways to go. Wilson is likely to end up a passing down specialist, though able to play multiple roles against the pass: dropping into zone, covering in man, or rushing the passer, which is nice vs other specialists we've had in recent years. McMillan can increase team speed on a wider variety of downs, and hold up against the run or pass.
Jennings played 38% of the snaps and had a really strong game. He was setting the edge, shedding OL blocks, and chasing plays down. He got some decent pass rush in as well, an area where he's struggled some.
On a day where they needed him badly, with Guy out against a strong rushing attack and a top-10 OL, Godcheaux was pretty awesome on Sunday. He was absorbing doubles on a huge percentage of the inside runs, holding his ground, stacking and making piles, and allowing others to make plays.
On the offensive side of the ball, a big shakeup in WR snap count this week. I was happy to see LJH's snaps fall way off with Meyers back on the field, and Parker's fell way off as well. I think Parker and Meyers both block pretty well in the running game, which allows Patricia to leave LJH on the sideline unless they're totally selling out on the run, and leave some doubt in the defense's mind. I wonder if playing LJH so much was at least partially a message to the WRs who were not effective in run blocking? Also among the WRs, Agholor's snaps dropped way off to just 12%, while Bourne was #2 at 57%, ahead of Parker at 52% and Thornton's debut was at #4 with 42% of snaps.
And on Thornton, don't be fooled by his statline. He was open on deep routes a number of times, but Zappe was targeting the shorter throws. I'll add that the shorter throws were in some cases open because they were to the side that Thornton had cleared out. I don't think Thornton will show up a ton in the stat sheet with Zappe under center playing very conservative, but even with the film on him already I think it's going to force defenses to adjust to his impact on the game. He seemed to surprise DBs with his higher gear a number of times in the game.
The OL was really strong in passpro, but had a decent number of misses in the run game. A huge part of Mondre's numbers were after contact and after broken and dodged tackles. Strange may have had his worst game run blocking since week 1 or 2, but he had a number of ++ plays mixed in there as well. Growing pains for sure, but still good progress. He's tracking to be a really good player, and Strange/Andrews/Onwenu is already among the top IOL groups in the league, and rising. Wynn was good run blocking, and okay pass blocking. Yet another penalty.
Zappe executed well with a very limited ask. He missed open deeper routes on a number of occasions, but was efficient and effective. They didn't need him to be more than that, with the defense pitching a shout-out and the game under clear control early, allowing for conservative play. If they asked the same of Mac, I expect he would have executed at least as well - maybe a slightly lower completion percentage with more yards and fewer missed deeper routes. But they're prepping for the later season, making sure to develop the capability to be more aggressive and score. What they're asking Mac to do is a longer game, building their capabilities for later in the year. There is no QB controversy, though I'm sure everyone is thrilled with what they're getting from Zappe at this point. They're asking less of Zappe than even the ultra-conservative field generalship they asked of Mac early last year