Blake Cashman Defeats the Colts

The Minnesota Vikings won against the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday, 16-10. But who defeated the Colts? It certainly wasn’t the Vikings’ offense, which struggled all day. The run defense struggled, allowing 154 yards and a TD on the ground and consistently getting knocked back at the line of scrimmage. 

Even the spectacular Will Reichard missed a kick, even if it was a 59-yard attempt that was blocked at the line of scrimmage. Harrison Smith got the game-sealing interception, his 40th, and Brian Flores certainly deserves credit for the team’s excellent defense, but one player showed up play after play. 

Blake Cashman defeated the Colts.

Arif covered Cashman’s game with an array of stats in his post game article. One stat he didn’t include, because it’s not actively tracked live during play at the moment, is “Defeats.” Defeats were conceptualized as a stat by Aaron Schatz, now at FTN Fantasy, and his team at the now-defunct (although maybe coming back in some fashion?) Football Outsiders. 

The idea behind defeats was to try to capture all of the ways a defender could impact an opposing offense. It doesn’t look like defeats has been carried over to FTN, and because there is no archive, but the definition lives on through fansite blogs referencing the stat. A defeat consists of a play where he makes one of the following plays:

Cashman, with his 12 total tackles (8 solo), 2 sacks, and 4 pass deflections, had an all-around presence in the game that reminded me of the stat, and he had a good one. Schatz confirmed to me that Cashman had 6 defeats over the course of the game, which, while not a record, is a really impressive number.

David in particular was a maven at recording defeats, with 415 in his career, one of only three linebackers to eclipse 400. With 215 career games, that means David recorded fewer than 2 defeats per game. The historical per-season numbers are hard to find, but it was noted that in 2012 JJ Watt set the record with 56 total defeats. That record was at a pace of 3.5 per game, or just over half of what Cashman accomplished in this single game. 

In the article I got the definition from above, KJ Wright ranked 8th in defeats in 2016, with 27 on the season. If he kept up this pace, Cashman would hit that number in just four and a half games. As it stands, I've counted Cashman with 16 defeats so far, which puts him on pace for 45 this season.

Cashman can do everything as an LB, and showed it against the run, as a pass rusher, and in coverage against the Colts. Let’s break down the tape.

Against the Colts, Cashman excelled as a blitzer, generating 6 pressures in just 13 pass rush snaps. Whether it’s Cashman or Wilson, the Vikings’ defense has been excellent at generating pressure from their off-ball linebackers this season. 

That is due in large part to the constant stress the defense puts on pass protection schemes. All of the blitzing often forces running backs into pass protection, and the Vikings typically have 5 defensive line or edge rusher bodies on the field, between their defensive line rotation and the trio of Dallas Turner, Andrew Van Ginkel, and Kyle Van Noy. Presented with those options, offenses are forced to choose to block someone with a back, and they will almost always choose Cashman or Wilson.

That tendency created advantageous matchups for Cashman throughout the game, but he still needed to execute on the opportunities. Cashman’s abruptness and violence as a pass rusher serve him well and led to his high level of execution.

On the play below, the Vikings run a stunt to attack the center and the running back in protection. Cashman is responsible for picking the RB, Jonathan Taylor, after center Tanor Bortolini turns to Van Ginkel. He takes Taylor out of the play with his approach. 

This leaves space for Van Ginkel to disengage and loop around Bortolini, preventing QB Daniel Jones from stepping up in the pocket. Jones has to fade away from Van Noy as well, and the pass falls incomplete.

After executing a pick on a stunt, Cashman benefited as a looper on his first sack. This play is a three-man game, with Jalen Redmond and Tyrion Ingram-Dawkins crashing while Cashman loops around. Redmond takes two blockers: the RG, Matt Goncalves, and Bortolini, which means that LG Quenton Nelson can’t come off of his block on Ingram-Dawkins.

Cashman has a wide-open path to Jones and brings him down for a huge loss. Man coverage by the secondary prevented any early separation and forced Jones to hold onto the ball long enough for the stunt to get home. This counts as a defeat for Cashman.

On the Colts’ very next possession, Cashman produced another defeat. This time he gets to work against Taylor and actually get to the QB rather than just setting up his teammate. Again, note the rush threats.

The Vikings have Van Noy, Ingram-Dawkins, Redmond, Cashman, Van Ginkel, and Turner all threatening a pass rush, and the Colts have just 6 players in protection. If you’re the Colts, who do you block with the RB? The answer has to be Cashman.

However, Cashman is just too quick and violent for Taylor. Taylor needs to cross Jones to get to Cashman, and would ideally frame Cashman up to block him. However, Cashman uses an explosive first step, and Taylor can only hit him at an angle.

This is what’s called a “half man relationship” because Cashman only has to win to his right rather than through Taylor’s full body. This is exactly what he does, and he can hold Taylor off with his shoulder and left arm as he runs through to sack Jones.

On this play, Cashman’s third defeat in this article, he gets credited with a pressure, a QB hit, and a pass deflection as he runs through RB Seth McGowan. It’s a good thing Cashman impacted the play, because you can see from the sideline angle that WR Josh Downs had won on a dig-and-go route and would have been wide open for a TD if Jones had gotten the throw off cleanly.

As in the previous example, the Vikings have as many players threatening to rush the passer pre-snap as the Colts have blockers, leaving the RB on Cashman. Again, the RB has to cross Jones to get to his protection responsibility, and Cashman is too quick, forcing a half-man relationship and quickly disengaging from McGowan after winning first contact to get to Jones. Quickness and violence win again.

Cashman’s performance as a pass rusher is very fun, but I don’t think it necessarily sets him apart as a stellar LB. He’s the most productive off-ball LB as a pass rusher, but Eric Wilson is obviously a close second.

This isn't a criticism, but it’s pretty clear to me that Cashman and Wilson are so effective because of the defense they’re in, not because of unique blitzing or pass-rush ability.

As discussed above, Cashman mostly just wins with violence against RBs, something I think most LBs in the league would relish the opportunity to do. It’s just that Cashman gets to do it all the time because Flores wants him to.

Where Cashman does set himself apart, in my opinion, is his play off the ball in situations where he’s not pass rushing. We’ve seen a player like Ivan Pace be violent going forward as a blitzer but struggle with other aspects of the game. Cashman, on the other hand, excels in both run defense and coverage. Let’s look at run defense now, where Cashman was a strong contributor against the Colts.