Cameron Jordan might be the NFL’s most unblockable pass rusher

Up until the Cowboys game in Week 13, the New Orleans Saints were looking damn near unstoppable to a lot of folks, myself included. Then, Dallas unleashed a venti sized cup of whup-ass on them on national tee vee, and it seemed like maybe we all needed to re-evaluate things.

That high powered Saints offense?

Only managed to put up 10 measly points all game.

Their future Hall Of Fame, record-breaking quarterback?

Drew Brees was off from the very beginning of the game and didn’t look like himself. He even ended any chance of a comeback with an uncharacteristic interception at the end of the game.

That was only their second loss of the season, but the way they lost really seemed to take some of the wind out of the sails of everybody who had been true believers. And up next on the schedule for New Orleans? The only other team to have defeated them this season.

The last three games of the regular season for the Saints are against the Steelers at home and the Panthers twice. On paper at least, the Bucs represented their easiest game of the last month of this season. After their clunker against Dallas, beating the Bucs was of vital importance in their efforts to nail down the number one seed for the NFC in the playoffs.

The Bucs, however, may not have been the easy win they appeared to be on paper. The team was staging a late season resurgence, winning their last two games at home and looking to make the Saints number three. With Jameis Winston playing better football of late and not committing turnovers, the Saints defense was going to have their hands full.

I expected one guy on that defense in particular to show up, and Cameron Jordan did not disappoint.

What’s wild is when you watch the film it’s evident that the Bucs were also very aware of Jordan’s game wrecking abilities as they threw everything but the kitchen sink at him to try to slow him down.

Spoiler Alert: It did not work.

In fact, some of Jordan’s most impressive work on Sunday came when the Bucs threw two or three guys at him and he still found a way to make a play.

A prime example is the play he made with a little over seven minutes to go in the first quarter. The Bucs had a first-and-10 at their own 33-yard line looking to add to their 7-0 lead. On this particular play Tampa wanted to give a play action look, so they had two running backs in the game as well as a tight end, what some would call 21 personnel. The tight end, Antony Auclair, was lined up as a wing on offense’s right side of the formation. Fullback, Alan Cross, was lined up as the stud tight end on the offense’s left side of the formation. The tailback, Peyton Barber, was alone in the backfield lined up in the dot behind Jameis Winston who was under center.

The offensive line was supposed to all block to their right, mimicking a zone run blocking scheme. Auclair was supposed to go behind the offensive line across the formation to block the edge defender that way and give a split zone/belly look. Barber was supposed to take an initial track as if he was running zone to the offense’s right, then continue on out to the flat in that direction. Cross was supposed the bump the edge rusher momentarily, then leave him to Auclair and head on out to the flat to his side.

In theory, that run look would fool the second level defenders into coming up to play the run and opening up the passing lanes behind them. It would also provide what amounts to two chippers (Cross and Barber) along with a sixth blocker that stayed in the whole way (Auclair) to help insure the New Orleans front was blocked up and Winston had time to throw the ball down the field.

In theory at least.

Jordan lined up in a 4i, just inside of long time starting Bucs right tackle Demar Dotson. It ended up being the right guard, Caleb Benenoch, and the center, Ryan Jensen, who were assigned to block Jordan on this play because of the zone run look they wanted to sell. That was a problem for the Bucs because Benenoch is ... not very good. Even help from Jensen was not going to be able to save him against a beast like Jordan.

Benenoch did step wide at Jordan’s outside shoulder like he was trying to reach block him, but Jordan was not having it and jacked Benenoch up into the backfield. As soon as Jordan saw that Barber didn’t actually have the ball, he pressed Benenoch back with his inside arm and executed a swim move inside of Benenoch with his outside arm to beat Benenoch clean as a whistle in the blink of an eye.

Jensen, who had been trying to help left guard Ali Marpet block the nose tackle tried to come off that block to cover for Benenoch, but it wasn’t meant to be. Benenoch had been beaten so quickly and so cleanly, that all Jensen could do was try to reach across Jordan’s body and grab him to slow him down. That proved to be an exercise in futility. Jordan powered right through Jensen’s outstretched arms with a rip move and kept right on his way to the quarterback.

Winston must have felt and/or seen Jordan coming because he quickly stepped up in the pocket and uncorked an overthrow well beyond a double covered Chris Godwin just so he could get the ball out of his hand before Jordan made contact. The Bucs were fortunate he was able to get that pass off at all. A half second longer and Jordan would have had a clean shot on Winston that may very well have resulted in a fumble in addition to a sack.

It went down as a pressure for Jordan. However, it was also fortunate for the Saints that Jordan beat Benenoch and Jensen so quickly because had Winston had even a half second more to survey the field he might have noticed there was no one within 10 yards of Cross in the left flat and nobody at all in the right flat with Barber. If Winston was able to throw what would have amounted to a gimme pass to either guy, the Bucs would have had a big play. In the case of Barber, he likely would have ended up somewhere deep in Saints territory, if not in the end zone.

Yeah ...

*Sidenote: for my friends who have GamePass, you have got to watch the end zone view of this play in slo-mo just to see what Marcus Davenport does to Auclair when he comes across to try to block Davenport. You’re welcome.*

It didn’t even seem like that much of a big play in real time, but it turns out Jordan probably kept the Bucs from getting a huge gain. And he had to beat a double team to do so.

He was just getting started.

Early in the second quarter the Bucs had another first-and-10, but this time they were all the way down to the Saints’ 22-yard line. Tampa decided to go with another play action pass. This time Cross was in the backfield in an I formation with Jaquizz Rodgers as the tailback. Auclair was the stud tight end on right side of the formation. Instead of faking a zone running play, the were supposed to show fullback lead weak.

Jordan was once again in a 4i opposite Dotson, but this time Dotson was actually assigned to block him. On the snap Dotson stepped down inside and shot his punch right at Jordan, trying to sell the run fake and also trying to make sure he was in good position to pass block. He ultimately failed on both counts.

Dotson stepped down inside and shot his hands at Jordan instead of coming off hard and run blocking him, which tipped Jordan off that it was a pass in the first place. Shooting his hands at Jordan was also a mistake because Jordan immediately went to a window wiper move and swatted Dotson’s wrists to the left to keep Dotson’s hands off of him while Jordan stepped inside into the B gap. Dotson looked like someone had put cement in his shoes after that. His feet were stuck in the ground, and he could not recover.

At that point Benenoch tried to help Dotson. Then, Jordan did something that really amazed me. He ripped through Dotson’s inside arm with his outside arm and ripped through Benenoch’s outside arm with his inside arm at the same damn time!

Benenoch had no shot of picking up Jordan on that play. Jordan beat Dotson with the quickness and he was halfway past him before Benenoch realized he was even supposed to be blocking him. Dotson still tried to keep up with him, but eventually Jordan’s rip had Dotson on his back as he approached the quarterback.

Jordan was again able to get to Winston just after Winston had released the ball. Once again the ball was headed in Godwin’s direction deep down the field, but it ultimately fell incomplete.

I can’t tell if Winston rushed his throw and that play because he isn’t that great at deep balls even when he doesn’t have pressure. However, had he held on to that ball even a half second longer, I believe that Jordan was almost certainly going to take him down for a sack. That counted as another pressure Jordan was able to notch after beating two Buccaneers.

Ok, trying to block Jordan with two guys wasn’t working out, how about three?

Funny you should ask!

Two plays later the Bucs were facing a third-and-8 from the Saints’ 20 yard line having gained two yards on second down. I should point out for context that the Bucs were up still 7-0 at that point.

With it being third-and-long there was no need for the subterfuge of a play action fake this time, but that didn’t mean the Bucs wouldn’t pay Jordan a little extra attention to try to keep him under wraps. Winston was lined up in the shotgun with Rodgers lined up beside him. Cameron Brate was lined up as the wing on the right, across from Jordan, who was standing up in a nine-tech this time.

First, Brate (1) made sure to bump Jordan on his way out to run his route. Then Dotson (2) tried to over set Jordan to guard against his speed rush, knowing that Benenoch (3) was sliding his way to help with any inside move.

I’m sure setting Jordan that way sounded good in his head, but when Dotson actually tried to block Jordan, everything went left. Dotson shot his punch probably a little too early, and once again, Jordan swatted Dotson’s hands out of his way. This time, after executing the wiper move, Jordan turned his shoulders so he could get skinny while sliding inside of Dotson into the B gap. Benenoch, who had initially engaged with Sheldon Rankins, again tried to get over to help Dotson, but Jordan exploded into the B gap and made the lunging Benenoch a total non-factor in the play.

Meanwhile, over on defensive right edge, Davenport was busy beating Bucs left tackle Donvan Smith like a drum with a speed rip move that was so effective Smith had to grab him, and still couldn’t stop him from getting to the quarterback. Davenport’s pressure forced Winston to drift up and away from him in the pocket. More succinctly, it forced him right into Jordan’s path of destruction.

Just when Davenport thought he had a sack after he had beaten Smith so soundly, Jordan stuck his face right in Winston’s chest, knocking him backwards and out of Davenport’s clutches. I guess he doesn’t like sharing.

That sack went in the books for a loss of 8 yards. Those 8 yards may or may not have had part in Tampa missing their field goal attempt on the next play. Jordan’s pressure kept Winston from seeing Rodgers who had checked through the line and was open just short of the sticks with a little room to run. And of course, the fact that the Bucs came away empty handed on a drive where they made it all the way down to the New Orleans 20-yard line was a pretty big deal, too.

Now, Jordan made a ton more plays on Sunday besides the three I highlighted. Hell, he had another sack and four other pressures against the Bucs. Even when he wasn’t the guy getting the pressure or the sack, he was still blowing up blockers left and right. These three plays stood out to me because he had to beat multiple Buccaneers just to make them. It goes to show, even when a team game plans for Jordan, he can still blow up those plans.

I know the final score may not seem like it, but at halftime things weren’t actually looking so hot for the Saints. With Jordan leading the way on defense, they were able to get back on track in the second half and pull out the victory in impressive fashion. For his part, the two sacks, six pressures and three other tackles, was enough to earn Cameron Jordan Hoss Of The Week honors for the second time this season.