Dexter Lawrence's dominance forces teams to find 'creative' new blocking methods

After the Week 3 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, it is apparent that opposing teams will do whatever it takes to stop Cincinnati Bengals defensive tackle Dexter Lawrence.

Lawrence has been an absolute game wrecker through the first three games of the season, and opposing coaches and offensive lines are being forced to come up with new and creative ways to stop him.

In what might have been considered a down game for Lawrence from a game-wrecking standpoint, he was still able to put his fingerprints all over the Week 3 loss to the Steelers. Lawrence finished with two sacks and three tackles for loss, but Pittsburgh running back Jaylen Warren was able to put up 127 rushing yards. That's with an 87-yard run called back on a ticky-tack holding penalty.

Dexter Lawrence was clearly the focus of the Pittsburgh Steelers attack

The constant double teams faced by Lawrence are evidence enough of the focus that the Steelers placed on him, but the method of double-team blocks used against Lawrence further proves this point. Many of the double teams Lawrence faced saw one of the Steelers blockers, most often guard Mason McCormick, grab and lift Lawrence's leg, leaving him hopping backwards on one foot.

This isn't only a blatant holding penalty, but it's worse than the average holding penalty, as it puts Lawrence at a massive risk of injury. Other Bengals defensive tackles, T.J. Slaton and Jonathan Allen, were faced with the same technique.

According to article 12-1-3(c) of the NFL rulebook on NFL.com, holding is when a player:

"Use his hands or arms to materially restrict or alter the defender’s path or angle of pursuit. It is a foul regardless of whether the blocker’s hands are inside or outside the frame of the defender’s body. Material restrictions include but are not limited to: grabbing or tackling an opponent; hooking, jerking, twisting, or turning him; or pulling him to the ground."

McCormick appears to violate several aspects of this rule when using his new technique. He "hooks" the leg "outside the frame of the defender's body" using his "hands or arms to materially restrict or alter the defender's path," while also "pulling him to the ground."

McCormick said in an interview with Steelers reporter Chris Adamski that this wasn't the first time he'd used the technique.

"I've used it here and there in the past.: McCormick said. "Yeah, I just used it."

Lawrence is in a league of his own when it comes to the number of double teams he faces, but even that wasn't enough to stop him from wrecking the game in the Week 2 win over the Houston Texans. The Steelers saw that and knew they had to do more than just double-team the defensive tackle.

The Cincinnati Bengals and Dexter Lawrence have to figure out how to mitigate the damage done with this technique

If there's one thing this Bengals regime should be familiar with at this point, it is the fact that they won't be given the benefit of the doubt from the officials. Lawrence can be seen pleading with the refs, presumably telling them to look out for the technique, but it was to no avail.

If other teams across the NFL see the success of this technique and know they can get away with it, there's no reason to believe they won't do the same thing. Among 34 NFL quarterbacks, Bengals QB Joe Burrow ranks dead last in EPA gained through defensive penalties.

While it is on the other side of the ball and it may be influenced by other factors like the number of shots taken by the offense, this is a statistic that shows the Bengals are not going to get the calls from the officials that other teams might be able to expect. That means Lawrence and the Bengals are going to have to find a way to mitigate the technique without help from the officials.

One way to prevent the use of this technique is to limit the number of double teams Lawrence faces in general. Lining him up in positions away from the nose tackle and using stunts to free him up could be ways to do this, but there is also inherent risk in those methods.

The most important thing that the Bengals should be focused on is making sure Lawrence doesn't use one planted knee to hold up the weight of three NFL linemen (including himself) and end up hurt, thus throwing a cosmically-sized wrench into the Bengals season.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow