Week 2 Key Matchup : White vs McCaffrey
I’ll never forget it.
On a Sunday morning…around 11:02a Eastern Standard Time.
The Carolina Panthers and their backup QB, Kyle Allen were on the 25 yard line. Allen took the snap, took a second to look downfield hoping to throw off the the BUCS LBs and Safetis. He went to the flat where he found #22 wide open.
McCaffrey caught it, ran 7 yards…shook Vernon Hargreaves, the guy that had made a game winning tackle against him a few weeks prior, down to his drawers…..ran right past Jordan Whitehead and stiff-armed Devin White on the way to the end zone. Damn!
Like many of fellow BUCS fans that had gotten up early to watch that International Game in London, I was commenting via social media immediately.
I had watched a good bit of Devin White during his time at LSU. White had a lot of similarities to former BUCS MLB, Kwon Alexander, who was also a former Bayou Bengal.
Same strengths. Same flaws.
Those flaws included being over aggressive and going high too often which caused missed tackles.
Now, what got me wasn’t just the play itself in real time; it was the replay and the image that was shown after.
That look on White’s face told the story.
He was on the bad end of a highlight. And he didn’t like it at all. I felt like that was a turning point for him and his season.
Maybe his career.
Since that stiff-arm, #45 hasn’t been the same.
White finished 2019 playing like a monster in the middle. He finished the season with 91 Total Tackles and 4 Tackles For Losses.
He’s played pissed off. And he’s carried that into the 2020 season.
In Week 1, White finished with 11 Total Tackles against New Orleans making numerous stops on their versatile RB, Alvin Kamara.
This Week, it’s Christian McCaffrey he’s up against again.
Let’s take a look at some of tendencies of both players you should pay attention to on Sunday.
PASSin’ me by??
Expect to Devin White in pass coverage a lot on Sunday against McCaffrey. Especially to the left side of the field. McCaffrey catches a lot of passes out of the back field. And they tend to be short and to the left.
Luckily, White got some practice with a similar look and a similar player in Week 1.
#45 knows he’s gonna have to keep his head on a swivel when it comes to passes like this come Sunday.
Carolina will likely run screens and pick plays to slow White down in his pursuit of McCaffrey. It doesn’t come into fruition in the play above, but you can see the TE route puts him directly in front of the LB and leaves McCaffrey open.
Here, McCaffrey lines up in the slot and, again, it’s the left side of the field that is favoured.
A failed attempt, but an attempt to the left nonetheless. Expect to see McCaffrey here several times throughout the game.
It’s gonna be interesting if Bowles has Devin White shadow him when he shifts to the slot or when goes wide.
White definitely wants the matchup.
“Oh, most definitely.
I mean anytime he go wide, you know, I gotta go do it.. ...and I want to do it .....and I will do it.
So I mean everybody know, like, that’s one of the reasons why I was drafted. To go, you know, man up on those guys.”
Carolina almost doubled their pass attempts on the right hand side of the feld going to the left. 13 short pass attempts to the left as opposed to 13 to the right against the Raiders in Week 1.
McCaffrey was the target on the majority of those attempts.
On one of the few deep attempts to the left, McCaffrey did draw a pass interference call. And that’s just as good as a catch.
White is gonna have to be on his business if he does end out there with McCaffrey.
Can’t Keep Running Away
McCaffrey had a total of 97 yards with 23 carries against Las Vegas in Week 1.
The BUCS allowed only 82 yards rushing total against New Orleans. And that limited Alvin Kamara to 16 yards on 12 carries.
Much like with the passing game, the run game for Carolina had a noticeable tendency with the run:
McCaffrey seemingly favoured the right side. Particularly the edge.
Last season, he averaged 5.7 per carry when hitting the ride side edge. This led to a 53% success rate when running to that side.
60 of his 97 yards came from the right edge of his offensive line.
Setting the edge to allow Devin White and/or Lavonte David may be key to stopping the rushing threat of McCaffrey.
With the BUCS D-line, setting the edge shouldn’t be much of a worry if the trend they set last season, which was present in Week 1 continues.
Where Devin White has to be most concerned about is maintaining discipline and not falling into the trap of being overaggressive when McCaffrey runs up the middle.
Other than bouncing it outside, McCaffrey has had a tendency to run tough up the middle on the left side of the center. Against the Raiders, he averaged 4.0 yards per carry on his 8 attempts in that direction.
Facing Tampa’s stout defensive line with the likes of Vea and Suh in the middle, it’s gonna be tough for McCaffrey to get comfortable taking running straight ahead.
White should be afforded plenty of opportunities to meet McCaffrey in the backfield when Carolina aims to run up the middle.
But White sometimes overshoots his target when he’s not patient on the attack. So, he’s gonna have to play with a really high level of discipline against another solid RB like McCaffrey.
One of the of the interesting things about the White is he ‘s shown to correct himself after making a mistake.
After the overpursuit, he got himself back on the track the following drive and showed patience and textbook tackling on a similar play.
Against Las Vegas, the Panthers didn’t run McCaffrey to the left side much. Only 2 attempts.
And they averaged 2.5 yards when they tried to run inside the tackle there.
On the edge, they only ran once to the left for 4 yards.
Still, White and the Defense can’t fall asleep on #22’s ability anywhere on the field. Given how their LT struggled in the run game last week, I wouldn’t expect to see a lot of runs to the left.
It’s Round 3 of White vs McCaffrey.
McCaffrey’s looking to get his first 100 yard game of the season against one of last year’s best run defenses.
And he like to run to the far side. Far right, that is.
White’s out to help shut down the guy that woke him up and lit a completely different kinda fire under him.
Don’t be surprised to see #45 DroP him behind the line of scrimmage several times.
Lots to be excited about.
Lots to look out for.
#PayAttention
