Perhaps lost among the endless highlights from the Buffalo Bills’ through domination of the Tennessee Titans on Monday Night Football was the outstanding performance by defensive end Greg Rousseau. A true force all night, Rousseau’s final numbers on the evening: four tackles, one sack, and two tackles for a loss in the Buffalo Bills 41-7 blowout win. Let’s head to the tape and review his great play.
Play 1
The most important thing for any EDGE rusher is the ability to bend around offensive tackles. Here we have Rousseau on the left side, with his hand in the dirt and lined up on the outside shoulder of the tight end. When the ball is snapped the tight end makes no effort to chip Rousseau at all to slow him down. He goes to his speed rush then finishes as he lowers his level and bends around the tackle to cause the pressure. This speeds up quarterback Ryan Tannehill and forces him to quickly get rid of the ball. Rousseau is getting to the level now where he needs to be chipped in order to slow his pass rush down or he’s just going to beat offensive tackles.
Play 2
To be a top EDGE rusher you can’t just win with speed and bend. You need to win with power as well. Here we see Rousseau standing up outside the tackle pre-snap on the left side. At the snap, Rousseau pushes the tackle back on initial contact with his power. He then beats the tackle in the hand fight, rips inside, and beats the tackle in a foot race to Tannehill who throws the football away.
Play 3
The final part of being a disruptive EDGE is competence in the run game. Rousseau has his hand in the dirt on the right side, this time lined up outside the tackle. The Titans pull their guard to the left to block Rousseau. He just straight-up beats the guard in a foot race. The Titans’ guard barely even touches Rousseau. Rousseau goes around the guard because he isn’t able to get a good block on him. He then tackles running back Derrick Henry below the knee for the stop. This was a textbook and extremely difficult tackle by Rousseau. To have the quickness to beat the pulling guard then bend around for the perfect low solo tackle on Henry shows substantial development as a player.
Summary
Greg Rousseau has become a pretty disruptive force for the Bills, as a key part of a deep defensive line. He can stand up or have his hand in the dirt. In terms of his pass rush, he can win with power or with speed and bend. He can be a force as a pass rusher but plays the run well too. The sky’s the limit for the 6’7” defensive end out of the U.
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