ON THE FIELD:

New Saints Cornerback Keenan Lewis is a man living a dream. Playing for his hometown team while they are in prime position to win a Superbowl, is something most boys in New Orleans can only wish for. Lewis has the chance to make it a reality. Signed to a five year deal that will see him playing at the same time as the prolific Drew Brees, Lewis is in a unique position to send the Saints back into the Playoffs and hopefully on to a second Lombardi Gras. Looking to play a key role in new Defensive Coordinator Rob Ryan’s scheme, Lewis is projected by many to become the starting Cornerback, sliding incumbent Jabari Greer into the number 2 role and pushing Patrick Robinson to nickel duties.

XMike Wallace, Staff Saints Writer

Schematically, Lewis has enjoyed the tutelage of Carnell Lake in 2012 and Dick LeBeau the first four years of his career, giving him an advantage over most Saints corners. His experience in the 3-4 certainly helps, and his pedigree can bring a swagger back to the Saints secondary that has been lacking in the last few seasons. Most talking heads will look at his lack of interceptions as a problem, particularly in regards to his status as a game changing CB. They fail to see the larger picture, and often because they don’t do the proper research. Looking at his play in the Denver game in week 1 last year gives us a good starting point at evaluating just what he does well, and what he needs to address now that he is a number one CB. We also need to consider his supporting cast in the secondary, and just how well they can influence his numbers.

A prime example of Lewis in action can be seen here during the week one game against Denver last season. Lewis starts out barely in the frame as the Steelers D shows a classic zone blitz versus Denvers shotgun set. Up until this point in the game, the Broncos had been dominating the defense with a no huddle drive, hoping to capture the lead and run out the clock.

Lewis is highlighted in the shot and is tasked with covering both Decker and Stokley at receiver. He has some over the top help, but anything underneath will fall into his zone to cover. Showing some serious confidence in Lewis’ skills, LeBeau and Tomlin practically leave him on an island here. The play develops quickly, and Manning takes a shot at Eric Decker, who Keenan has picked up as he entered the zone.

Lewis and Decker do some hand fighting, and the refs let them play it out, which frustrates the color commentator. Lewis gets his hands into position just as the ball arrives and manages to deflect it up and away, toward Clark who is playing the deep third of the zone. He also manages to push Decker out of the play and gives Clark a shot at a momentum changing pick.

The second action is the one worth mentioning here, as Lewis displays the skills to drop fluidly back into his zone after instantly reacting to the path of the ball. Once Manning throws the ball, Lewis was already breaking toward it, and as shown in the second shot above, was playing in Decker’s hip pocket for almost the entirety of the back end of the route. Lewis dominates his zone here and then uses his physicality to drive Decker out of the play, freeing up his Free Safety to take a shot at the ball. Had Clark been a step faster, that would have been a pick, and the Steelers would have likely drove right back down the field to put Denver away.

The flip side of this amazing display of technical and physical skill is this play from the opening quarter. Here Lewis is playing off-man coverage on Demaryius Thomas. Again, he has help on the back end in the form of the Free Safety, but what I want to focus on here is his tackling technique.

The offense lines up in a singleback, two tight end, two wide set, which leaves them with a lot of options, but almost immediately after the snap, we can see Lewis diagnose that the play is a WR screen to Thomas. He makes a quick break on the WR and goes for the take down at the point of the catch.

Lewis, however, decides to go low on Thomas, which leaves him open to the surprising strength of Thomas’ stiff arm (which in all fairness, shouldn’t have been a surprise considering how Pittsburgh’s 2011 season ended). Thomas ends up driving Lewis to the ground and spinning away for short gain on the play.

It takes Polamalu coming up from the back end (seriously, the guy comes from nowhere here) to make the play, while all Lewis can do is hope to catchup. We all know that the NFL is a game of inches, however, and its pretty clear that by this point Lewis is effectively nullified on the play.

Denver ended up winning that game, but through no fault of Lewis, who ended the day with 3.5 total tackles, (2 solo, 3 assists) 2 pass deflections, and a pass interference penalty in the 4th quarter. He made up for the penalty on the very next play by deflecting the TD with 3:04 seconds on the clock (Denver would run for the score a play later). He did have another very bad missed tackle on Eric Decker in the 3rd quarter at around the 5:57 mark, where he came in low again and lost containment on the WR. Overall, Lewis is a very good number one, with excellent ball skills and above average reaction time and play recognition. He needs to work on tackling his man higher, but he did improve as the season progressed. He is equally proficient in both man and zone coverage, but seems to play more comfortably in the zone.

Picture Credit: Pic courtesy of the New Orleans Saints and Michael Hebert

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