Week 14 v SF

This is the 3rd part in the series. To read Part 2, click here

Over the course of the year, Khalil Mack was working hard, improving from day to day and making himself into a terror on the field. Slowly but surely, he was making life miserable for opposing offenses. But it was to little avail. Over the first 13 weeks, the Raiders were a miserable 1-11 and were just coming off an embarassing 52-0 loss to the St Louis Rams.

This game was a Khalil Mack Milestone Game for a number of reasons. Mack had mastered the defensive concepts and tactics well enough for Defensive Coordinator Jason Tarver to trust him within the scheme. The promise had always been that Mack would be deployed as a versatile weapon on defense and make a game changing impact like Von Miller. But to date, Mack had been used fairly uniformly as a edge player (either from the standup position or the down position) with very limited responsibilities.

In this game, Mack started moving around. He played standing up and hand-down, he moved from right side to left side, he lined up as a LB standing up over a Guard, he stunted, and he even dropped into a Zone with some Spy responsibilities on SF QB Colin Kaepernick. Fans that paid attention saw Mack grow before their eyes. If you weren't excited about what you saw, you weren't paying attention.

But there was even better evidence that Mack had arrived, something that indicated that Mack was not just a good player or an exciting player or a player that the fans should love, but that he had something else : Respect.

In this game, SF showed Khalil Mack a special kind of respect, the kind of respect reserved for Top Tier players. They changed their offense and adjust their approach to avoid him. When you see that an Offense makes a change like that going into a game, it means that Mack is a Game Changer. Literally. He changed how the Offense plays the game.

That's a Milestone to remember.

And here's a look back at that game.

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Run Defense

Run defense isn't as sexy as Pass Rush. But K-Mack may change that perception with the way he absolutely destroys running attacks. In the Week 3 Patriots game, we saw how Mack dominated Solder and Gronkowski.

He continued to play that kind of monstrous run defense throughout the year and while preparing for the Week 14 game, the SF 49ers certainly took notice.

The Niners offense kept a close eye on Mack and made sure that Run Plays were always targeted to gaps away from him. You can almost imagine Niners OC Greg Roman pasting a big sign during the week : DO NOT RUN AT MACK.

And since Tarver was using Mack in variable ways, the 49ers had to keep track of him. When Mack lined up at RDE against LT Joe Staley, run to the right side. When Mack lined up against RT Jonathan Martin, run to the left side.

On the day, the 49ers ran for 81 yards on 16 running plays, a 5.1 avg.

Only 2 of those plays went towards Mack and they went for a total of 0 yards.

That means that on plays away from Mack, the Niners were 14 / 81, a 5.8 avg. This is why the acquisitions of Dan Williams and Curtis Lofton (as well as the continued development of Jelly) are so important.

They were both amazing plays and you can see why the Niners Feared The Mack.

This play is my personal favorite Mack Run Defense play of the season. He beats TE Vernon Davis to the inside and then takes on pulling RG Alex Boone in the hole giving the RB Frank Gore nowhere to go. TJ Carrie cleans it up, but Mack made the play and this is just beautiful. Speed, quickness, explosiveness, and then Herculean power.

Alex Boone is 6'8", 300 lbs. Vernon Davis is 6'3", 250 lbs. So Mack has 550 lbs hanging off him and it doesn't matter. It's almost not fair for Mack to put on another 25+ lbs of muscle...

The other run play towards Mack was also (as expected) another Highlight type play. #49 is FB Bruce Miller (6'2", 248 lbs) and he is assigned to block Mack. Warning Offensive Coordinators : DO NOT TRY TO BLOCK MACK WITH A FB OR TE.

Mack meets Miller's block, gets low and gets his hands into his chest, and then simply walks him backwards into the ballcarrier like he's some kind of human shield. It doesn't count as a tackle to slam a player into the ball carrier and that's basically what Mack does. Jelly cleans up for the tackle. (not sure what Pat Sims is doing...)

Click to view the GFY

Here's the log :

# Q T Dn-Dist Yards Play EZ EZ ISO Notes 1 3 9:50 1-9-OAK 9 -1 (Shotgun) F.Gore up the middle to OAK 10 for -1 yards (T.Carrie) GFY GFY 2 3 3:58 2-10-SF 30 1 F.Gore up the middle to SF 31 for 1 yard (J.Ellis) GFY GFY

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Pass Rush

On offense, many OCs scheme to create mismatches, to get their best player matched up against the worst coverage defender on the defense. And they go to great pains to do so.

On the flip side, the goal of the DC is often to get the best pass rusher (mis-)matched up on the worst pass blocker on the offensive line. If you have Von Miller or JJ Watt it's a great opportunity to move him around the line to figure out who has the most difficulty blocking him. Then keep doing it until the OL adjusts.

Finally, the Raiders were able / willing to do so with Khalil Mack. On this day, Mack spent time flipping from right side to left side and the results were fantastic.

2 Sacks. 2 QB Hits.

But perhaps most important was that Mack was doing many more things and these were having an effect on the overall defense. His increasing effectiveness in stunts was really helping open up rush lanes. As he moved around, he set more pressure on the OL to find him. And as he spent time looping around, it made for so many possibilities.

Here are some examples of his variety

Play 1 : Drop into Coverage from LB and then Spy on Kaepernick

Play 2 : Blitzing from LB position

Play 3 : Left Side v RT Jonathan Martin, Shows a little Power

Play 4 : Beautiful E/T Stunt to free up Tuck. Also notice that Mack gives chase and forces Kaepernick's tthrow

Play 7 : Lined up Inside and then Stunt to free up Antonio Smith. Notice Mack draws 3 blockers.

Play 8 : Right Side v LT Joe Staley, Shows a Little Dip move and Flushes Kaepernick

Play 14 : Standing up over a Guard, Looping to the outside for a Sack

Here's a nice Pass Rush Game Log :

# Q T Dn-Dist Yards Play EZ Notes 1 1 15:00 1-10-SF 20 0 C.Kaepernick pass deep left intended for M.Crabtree INTERCEPTED by B.Ross at OAK 49. B.Ross ran ob at OAK 49 for no gain. GFY Drop into Coverage and Spying Kaepernick 2 1 10:13 3-10-SF 20 (Shotgun) PENALTY on SF-C.Kaepernick, Delay of Game, 5 yards, enforced at SF 20 - No Play. GFY Blitzing from the LB position 3 2 9:11 3-11-OAK 43 7 (Shotgun) C.Kaepernick pass short right to M.Crabtree to OAK 36 for 7 yards (T.Carrie). GFY Power against RT Jonathan Martin 4 2 :32 1-10-50 (Shotgun) C.Kaepernick pass incomplete deep left to V.Davis. GFY E/T Stunt where Mack frees up Justin Tuck to get the QB Pressure. 5 2 :25 2-10-50 (No Huddle, Shotgun) C.Kaepernick pass incomplete deep left to S.Johnson (C.Chekwa). GFY Looping underneath into the A-Gap and is tripped up by LG #77 Iupati or else would have had a clean lane to Kaepernick 6 2 :17 3-10-50 16 (Shotgun) C.Kaepernick scrambles up the middle to OAK 34 for 16 yards (C.Woodson). GFY Looping underneath again, picked up by Iupati, but still pressures the QB and flushes Kaepernick from the pocket 7 2 :10 1-10-OAK 34 (Shotgun) C.Kaepernick pass incomplete deep left to M.Crabtree. GFY Standing up LB over the LG. Stunts and clears out for Antonio Smith to get clean 8 3 9:03 3-10-OAK 10 8 (Shotgun) C.Kaepernick pass short right to C.Hyde to OAK 2 for 8 yards (D.Hayden). GFY Outside rush against LT Joe Staley and Mack shows a little Dip move for the first time. 9 3 2:51 3-14-SF 26 11 (Shotgun) C.Kaepernick pass short middle to A.Boldin to SF 37 for 11 yards (D.Hayden). GFY Standing up LB over the LG again. X-Stunt with Antonio Smith gets himself free and pressure Kaepernick 10 4 9:51 3-10-SF 42 2 (Shotgun) C.Kaepernick scrambles up the middle to SF 44 for 2 yards (K.Mack). PENALTY on OAK, Illegal Contact, 5 yards, enforced at SF 42 - No Play. GFY Standing up LB again, Stunt with Mayowa. Mack loops to the outside and gets pressure and the tackle (near-sack) 11 4 5:35 2-8-OAK 25 (Shotgun) C.Kaepernick pass incomplete short left to M.Crabtree. GFY Another outside Dip move. Less effective than the previous one 12 4 3:22 1-10-SF 23 -5 (Shotgun) C.Kaepernick sacked at SF 18 for -5 yards (K.Mack). GFY E/T Twist with Tuck. Mack gets free and the sack. 13 4 :28 1-10-SF 15 10 (Shotgun) C.Kaepernick pass short right to V.Davis to SF 25 for 10 yards (C.Woodson). PENALTY on SF, Illegal Formation, 5 yards, enforced at SF 15 - No Play. GFY Raiders were "mush rush"-ing at times. Here Mack plays contain on his rush 14 4 :17 1-15-SF 10 0 (Shotgun) C.Kaepernick sacked at SF 1 for -9 yards (K.Mack). GFY Standing up over the RG. Loops to the outside for the sack.

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Finale

Some casual fans may focus on the flash plays, looking just for the sacks or the big collisions and can sometimes miss some of the more important things that occur over the course of a game. This Week 14 game against SF was a fantastic game for Mack. The things he did, the way he executed, and the role he took on the defense indicated that his time had come. He was growing into a Star.

And it was clear that the 49ers saw this also and were intent on playing away from Mack. It certainly helped on the running plays, but in the passing game, the Raiders were effective at deploying Khalil Mack in various ways and disrupting the 49ers offense.

If you noticed it then, you had to be giddy with almost childlike glee that Mack had arrived. If you had not noticed it then, take a moment to review that game and see how far he had come since the Preseason or even Week 3. It's doubly enjoyable because the Raiders won the game.

This is what the Raiders' envisioned when they took him #5 overall and he was now doing more than flashing talent, he was showcasing his skills and beginning to take over the game.

And now think about the fact that Khalil Mack has yet to show us his very best. What kind of Unholy Terror is he going to be when he fully realizes his potential?