While the Las Vegas Raiders fell short to the Chicago Bears in Week 4, Maxx Crosby’s performance didn’t go unnoticed. After the game, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams said that Crosby is the best player he’s played against during his two-year career, and that’s hard to argue with.
Crosby was dominant in both phases of the game on Sunday, collecting five pressures and three batted passes (including one interception) as a pass-rusher, and four defensive stops with two coming against the run, according to Pro Football Focus. That resulted in an elite 91.5 overall grade (which ranks fourth among edge defenders for the week pre-Monday Night Football), an 88.2 pass-rush grade (ninth) and a 79.2 mark against the run (first).
An argument could be made that this past weekend was the best outing of the seven-year veteran’s career, so let’s flip on the tape and break it down.
We’ll start with a few reps against the run and one of Crosby’s three TFLs.
The Bears run a counter trap where the right guard and the inside tight end pull across the formation. That forces the right tackle to step to the inside initially to help the center block the 3-technique defensive tackle, creating a wide lane for the defensive end to run through.
From there, Crosby uses his elite get-off to take advantage of the gap created by the pullers by beating the outside tight end inside and getting penetration so quickly that the right tackle is late to help. That results in the tackle behind the line of scrimmage.
This time, Chicago leaves Crosby unblocked as the read man on a read option.
Notice how when he gets into the backfield, he shifts his shoulders to be almost perpendicular to the line of scrimmage. That muddies the look for Williams because he thinks Crosby is going to keep working down the line and take the running back. So, Williams pulls the ball out from the mesh point late and starts to bobble it.
Meanwhile, Crosby sets the quarterback up perfectly and uses his athleticism to redirect, get outside and not only get another TFL but also force a fumble while Williams is juggling the ball. Unfortunately, the Bears got a lucky bounce, but this is a textbook rep on how to play the option as the read man by Madd Maxx.
Here, the Bears try to get tricky by faking a speed option or swing pass to their No. 1 receiver D.J. Moore, who lines up in the backfield, before running a reverse to rookie wide receiver Luther Burden III. The problem is that Crosby doesn’t crash down into the C-gap like the offense is expecting him to do.
Instead, he initially steps into the C-gap and redirects, letting the tight end get inside of him while shifting to get up the field. Technically, Crosby is working around the block, but he uses the tight end’s momentum against the tight end to close the gap and fulfill his assignment while defeating the block with athleticism. Finally, the veteran defender changes directions again to move laterally and come up with his third TFL of the day.
To avoid redundancy, I’ll stick to just one breakdown on Crosby’s three batted passes and highlight the best of the bunch.
The Raiders have a T/E stunt with Tyree Wilson and Crosby, but the Bears’ offensive line has a good protection call for it, where the center turns right or to Crosby’s side. So, they have three linemen to pick up and neutralize the line game.
Meanwhile, Crosby recognizes that he isn’t going to win on the stunt and that Williams is about to let it rip. As a result, he gives up on the futile pass rush and gets his hands in the air to bat another pass. But the play isn’t over yet, and he tracks the ball in the air to come up with the pick.
Moving on to a couple of pass-rush reps, Chicago tries to keep Crosby in check by running play action and having the tight end motion across the formation to chip block before releasing on a route. However, the pass-rusher recognizes that and sees the right tackle overset to create an inside rush lane. So, he gets a quick win with an inside swim move, negating the tight end’s attempt to chip block him.
Then, the right guard tries to help his teammate by looking for work and picking up Crosby, but the latter defeats that block too by using a rip move. Combine that with Tyree Wilson beating the tight end on the other side of the line, and Williams has to scramble before sailing the pass incomplete.
We’ll see a similar rep on this final clip where Chicago runs play-action and has two blockers account for Crosby again. This time, he knows he has to stay outside to protect against the bootleg from Williams, and manages to beat the tight end with an outside rip move.
Simultaneously, the left guard is pulling across the formation to pick up Crosby. However, he also beats the guard with a rip move and forces Williams to scramble before the quarterback tries to throw across his body. That gives Eric Stokes enough time to find the open receiver and drive on the route, coming up with a PBU to prevent the explosive play.
Personally, what I liked most about Crosby’s performance against the Bears is that he found ways to impact the passing game despite the offense doing their best effort to keep him in check. That came from either batting passes at the line of scrimmage or simply beating double teams to still get pressure.
Mix that in with the four-time Pro Bowler’s efforts against the run, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a more dominant performance from No. 98.
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