Robert Ayers vs Cincinnati (and other stuff)
 

My analysis of Robert Ayers in the Cincy game.

I'm creating this thread because in the past I've been pretty unimpressed with Ayers. I've seen him play slow, sluggish and without much hustle.

So I was curious to see how he's developed after a couple seasons, a temporary position switch, time spent on IR and with multiple coordinators.

Let's get to it.

1st Quarter:
1st and 10 on Denver's 30 (after a long pass to Green down the sidelines).
-Ayers first snap of the game lined up over the LT.

You can see Ayers is watching the backfield as Denver suspects run.

Ayers then shows what effort and hustle is all about.

The play is a handoff to BJGE who moves to the right side. Ayers chases down the play in pursuit, vaults an OL and closes in.

Good thing too, because the RB jukes Trevathan and Ayers is there to clean up. Keep this up and you'll see this field a lot more often.

Ayers finishes with a nice wrap tackle for a minimal 1 yard gain.

love these threads, thanks fontaine!

2nd and 8: Same drive and Ayers stays in the game lined up over the LT.

He does a good job of seeing the run inside towards him and smashes down to close the hole forcing the RB outside. He tried to disengage and run after the ball carrier but too many bodies around/over him.

You're welcome Ludo21.

Ayers goes out the rest of the series. We score a TD.
Cincy on the next drive:

3rd and 22: Ayers next action on the field. Lined up at DT.

An all out jail break from our DL. Dumervil stunts inside and just tears upfield, Ayers swims across the face of the RG and pushes the pocket from inside and Dalton has back pedalled 10 yards into a nowhere pass.

That looks like a screen pass...

Ayers next snap:

3rd and 6 on Cincy's 31 yard line.

Ayers now lines up in his THIRD position inside by Dumervil. At the snap he literally explodes and is faster into his step then Von and Doom.

This is what I expect from a first round pick.

Yes, but the pass rush got there before the play could develop the secondary sniffed it out for a loss.

I believe Rahim Moore got in there and watched the ball fall incomplete.

Anyway, Ayers fights through the traffic inside, is the first one to flush Dalton out of the pocket and Woodyard is there to make sure Dalton doesn't scramble for the first.

Ayers forces Dalton into a hurried throw, and he doesn't plant his feet right throwing an incompletion. Punt!

Our offense punts on the next drive.

Cincy 1st and 10 deep in their own half looking to get a quick score with 1:45 left in the half.

Ayers next snap: Lined up beside Dumervil again at DT.

Again he gets off very quickly off the snap:

Maybe he figured out that Jason Hunter wants his job when the season is over?

In just under two seconds Dumervil/Ayers push the pocket back right into Dalton forcing him to make an early decision.

Dalton doesn't pull the trigger, tucks it and runs . . . . . right into Von for a sack!!

;D

It was complete, Rahim Moore diagnosed the play quickly and made a great tackle behind the LOS

Ayers drops back into coverage the next down (pass doens't go towards him).

The next play he swims inside from DT and gets caught up with the Center.

Dalton rifles a pass for a first down to the 35 (from the 20). The cool thing about this play was that Ayers chased down the WR all the way back from the backfield - he was the only DL to do so. He didn't make the tackle but all around Great effort here for a DL.

Ayers played another snap when we rushed three.

Fox ices the kicker after yelling at the ref and the FG is missed! :)

That's it for the first half.

-so Ayers played around 7-8 snaps in the first half lining up everywhere, and generated a couple of nice pressures, and two high effort plays against the run. A lot better than I've seen from him before.

But probably the biggest thing was his burst off the snap. That really made me look twice at him when I saw it live.

Curiously Malik Jackson played around 4-5 snaps as well all at the strongside DE position. Looked very raw.

What's really stood out for me is the stark contrast between the teams in terms of pass rush.

Manning barely got touched, even with Ramirez playing, even on longer developing plays.

Dalton hardly had a clean pocket to throw from and Cincy started working him more from the shotgun but our pass rush still dominated and it wasn't just one guy. Von/Doom/Ayers/Wolfe, hell even Unrein had a very nice play in the first quarter where he twisted inside and pushed the G right into Dalton's lap.

And Cincy has one of the top pass rushing defenses in the league? GTFO!

Fantastic per usual fontaine.

That's good that JDR is starting to play Ayers some at DT on passing downs. Vickerson and Bannan are good against the run, but offer nothing in pass-rush ability. Of course, that means Wolfe get's double-teamed...which isn't the greatest, but we'll have to make due. Maybe Ayers can continue to add 'juice' to the 3rd down pass-rush.

great job Fontaine!!!

Thanks Rev/Buff

I gotta take a break here from Ayers and give props to 81 Joel Dreessen who cleanly blocks his guy (being careful not to block him in the back) that opens a clean window for Holliday to return the next play to the house.

i must say, Ayers was getting a solid push and some nice pressure in the game against Cincy. i honestly thought it was someone else.

This is the kinda crap that really annoys me.

On Cincy's next drive we blitz Trevathan and someone else, coverage is great and Dalton is forced out of the pocket and makes a throw to his WR.

Moore misses the tackles and Cincy's deep in our half. Maybe I'm being harsh but I expect a starting safety to make this tackle or at least push him out of bounds.

Gresham is a hellova TE and I was pretty impressed with Dalton too. Kid's got an arm.