Free-agent signing Eric Stokes has been one of the few pleasant surprises for the Las Vegas Raiders this season, and his performance in Week 16 against the Houston Texans was another solid outing. Stokes was targeted six times and only surrendered two completions, for 13 yards, no first downs and a passer rating of 42.4, according to Pro Football Focus.
To make matters even better, the Texans tested the five-year veteran with their No. 1 wide receiver, Nico Collins, but only completed one of four attempts for just six yards. Also, Stokes was credited with a forced incompletion and provided some run support by coming up with a defensive stop.
With those numbers in mind, let’s flip on the tape and break down the cornerback’s performance.
Let’s start with the great run fit from Stokes that led to the stop mentioned above.
The Texans are looking to target him in the running game by putting two receivers in reduced splits next to the tight end on the wide side field, which gets the Raiders to put seven defenders, including both linebackers in the game, on the strong side of the formation. Then, they run the ball to the weakside to attack the two defensive backs, safety Isaiah Pola-Mao and Stokes.
Collins, the boundary receiver at the bottom of the screen, releases hard inside to crack block Pola-Mao. Stokes sees that and quickly executes a crack-replace technique, filling the B-gap that the safety was responsible for. That puts the corner in a perfect spot to get involved in the tackle for a short gain.
This is also an excellent rep from linebacker Elandon Roberts, who beats the backside guard and makes the initial contact on the running back.
To pump the brakes on the numbers above a bit, here are a couple of the incompletions between Collins and Stokes where the stats don’t tell the whole story.
The first one is a bad rep where the corner is playing the deep third in Cover 3 and lets the wideout get into his blind spot on the comeback route. It’s surprising that the pass didn’t get completed, especially for a receiver of Collins’ caliber.
The second rep is more excusable since the Raiders are in Cover 4 and Collins runs a short out route. Especially with the curl route from the tight end to occupy Devin White as the curl-to-flat defender, the defense is giving up the short completion to the wideout with the playcall. Quarterback C.J. Stroud just sails the throw.
But overall, Stokes had a solid outing that was more good than bad, and the play above is the opposite of the previous clip, a completion that is a quality rep from the cornerback.
Las Vegas is running quarters, which is a slight tweak to Cover 4 where the defenders have man-match principles, and the defense has an inside-outside bracket on Collins with the boundary safety, Jeremy Chinn, taking away an in-breaking route while Stokes plays with outside leverage. But Houston has a good play call to at least get a completion against the bracket, with the receiver running a quick hitch route.
Meanwhile, Stokes does a good job of recognizing the route and breaking on it to make contact with Collins right after the ball arrives, coming up with a good tackle to prevent any yards after the catch.
We’ll reverse course slightly here by breaking down a rep where Stokes/Collins don’t get targeted.
This is the play after the clip above, so it’s third and four. The Texans want to hit their No. 1 wideout on a slant route for a first down. However, the Raiders are in man coverage and Stokes has an excellent rep in press, jamming Collins at the line of scrimmage and maintaining inside leverage on the slant route.
As a result, Stroud has to come off his first read and work to the other side of the play call. So the pressure starts to hit home, and Stroud’s pass falls incomplete, forcing a punt.
Also, shoutout to linebacker Tommy Eichenberg for avoiding the pick on the slant-flat concept to be in a position to make a tackle short of the sticks had the ball gone to the running back.
Finally, we’ll end with a one-on-one rep between our two primary subjects: Stokes and Collins.
It’s third and long with Houston coming out in a three-by-one formation while Las Vegas is in man coverage. The wideout runs an out route just past the sticks and wins initially, creating some separation since the cornerback is playing with inside leverage. However, Stroud floats the throw a bit, giving the corner enough time to recover and get the force out, as Collins is only able to get one foot in bounds on the high throw.
That results in a forced incompletion for Stokes and a Texans’ punt.
See More:
