Film room: Moehrig flies all over field in Tampa Bay

Safety had arguably the best game of his career on Sunday

While the Las Vegas Raiders suffered another loss in Week 14 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it was hard to ignore Tre’von Moehrig’s performance.

Moehrig was flying all over the field and had arguably the best game of his career, earning an elite 90.4 grade from Pro Football Focus. That figure was good enough to rank second among all safeties for the week (pre-Monday Night Football).

The TCU product led the Raiders in total tackles with eight, recorded a half-sack and was credited with three passes defended. Additionally, he was targeted five times and surrendered just two completions for 21 yards and a passer rating of 52.9.

So, while the result was ugly for Las Vegas, Moehrig’s outing is undoubtedly worth taking a second look at in this week’s film breakdown.

We’ll start with a few great reps in coverage and this first one saves a potential explosive play and maybe even a touchdown.

The Raiders call a three-deep, two-under fire zone blitz where Moehrig blitzes off the edge as the SAM linebacker. That’s a risky play call because the defense has more pass rushers than coverage defenders.

Also, the Bucs have a great counter for it as the boundary tight end works across the formation to serve as a lead blocker for the running back on a swing route. So, the tight end would be in a position to block Robert Spillane/the MIKE linebacker and the back has plenty of open grass in front of him to run up the sideline.

However, Moehrig recognizes the play-call and initially widens with the back to help disguise his blitz. So, when Baker Mayfield whips his head around to throw the swing route, Moehrig is in the passing lane and makes an impressive play to bat the ball at the line of scrimmage for an incompletion.

Here, Tampa Bay runs an RPO where the boundary receiver motions across the formation, giving the offense a numbers advantage in the perimeter with three receivers and two defensive backs. Especially with the cornerback at the top of the screen playing off coverage, Mayfield makes the correct decision to throw the ball to the flat.

However, Moehrig reads the play, beats the slot receiver’s screen block and delivers a nice hit to jar the ball loose and force another incompletion. That gives the Raiders a chance to get off the field on third down.

This time Las Vegas rotates its safeties, showing Isaiah Pola-Mao as the single-high safety pre-snap before rotating into a Cover 2 look where the corner at the top of the screen has one deep half of the field and Pola-Mao drops into the other deep half.

Meanwhile, Maxx Crosby executes an E/T stunt to get pressure on Mayfield and forces Mayfield to scramble before checking the ball down. Moehrig, who walks down into the hook-to-curl area post-snap, breaks on the pass and delivers another big hit to jar the ball loose.

Notice on the endzone view how he uses his outside arm to punch the ball free, putting the Buccaneers in third and forever.

Moving onto a couple of nice pass-rush reps, the Raiders bring the house with a Cover 0 blitz where every defender in the box is coming after Mayfield. That means the defense has more pass-rushers than the offense can block, putting the running back in conflict in the protection scheme.

The back initially goes to pick up the MIKE linebacker, Amari Burney, but recognizes that the WILL linebacker, Moehrig, is the most dangerous threat. That decision came too late as Moehrig’s speed allows him to defeat the block, and he swipes at the ball which forces Mayfield to tuck it away.

So, Burney becomes the free rusher and since the ball isn’t secure, he’s able to poke it free for the strip sack while Moehrig is in a perfect position to get the recovery.

Technically, this isn’t a pass-rush rep since Moehrig is in coverage. The Raiders are in Cover 3 and have him drop down into the curl-to-flat area. With the wide receiver working across the formation, the running back and tight end staying in to pass block, and no threats coming into his area, the safety can be more aggressive by working downhill.

So, when Mayfield starts to scramble, Moehrig is able to close the gap and meet him at the line of scrimmage to get involved in the sack with K’Lavon Chaisson. That gets the defense off the field and forces a punt.

We’ll end with a nice rep against the run where Moehrig goes outside of his assignment to keep this to a short gain.

The Bucs come out in a balanced set with a tight end on each side of the center. Then, the field-side tight end motions across the formation so Moehrig follows him, likely because the Raiders were in man coverage.

The motion creates a new gap for the offense that the defense must account for against the run since there are now two tight ends on one side of the formation. Crosby is responsible for setting the edge and forcing the running back to run inside while Divine Deablo has the gap outside of No. 88 and Moehrig has the gap inside of No. 88.

However, Deablo takes on the block square instead of keeping his outside arm free, giving the back a lane to the outside. Moehrig is in the right spot, taking away the gap he’s responsible for, but he makes the extra effort by matching the back’s path and making a great tackle about a yard or two past the line of scrimmage to cover for Deablo.

Safeties are often judged by how many different ways they can impact the game, and we just watched the impending free agent make plays in coverage, as a pass-rusher and against the run. His agent undoubtedly stored this game tape for contract negotiations in the offseason.