This examination is basically a specific request from members of this forum to have me examine Matt Light. Light was chosen by other club members, as they indicated that Jake had compared his game to Light’s. I took advantage of the fact that NFLN had a replay of the Dec 23rd game between the Fins and NE. We lost the game 28-7 and honestly it was painful to watch. From watching clips and the replay of the NE game a few things stood out to me about Matt Light. Light is a heady player, and from what I’ve seen doesn’t get beaten by stunts or twists from the D-line. Light works well with the LG in pass pro. Light gets good width and depth on his kick slide, although there is a problem with looking at film of Light. NE doesn’t run a standard offense in terms of passing a great deal from a running formation like the I, or two TE’s etc. Rather, they use shotgun a great deal of the time when they pass, and they spread the defense out. Thus Light’s kick slide technique will vary because of the way an OT sets up in this formation; off the LOS a little more. Light is definitely a waist bender, and it shows in pas pro. He doesn’t have a good knee bend, and can get caught reaching or leaning. Funny enough though, it must have happened so much that Light does a little trick where he puts his head down spreads his arms and drives himself into the waist/midsection area of the DE. It just slows the DE down as he must negotiate his body around the lower and wider OT. It works, but it isn’t pretty. It does however provide a natural transition into another aspect of Light’s game – he cheats, holds, grabs, trips etc. Anything he can get away with to do the job and not get flagged. To be honest, I love that in an O-lineman, as long as they play for my team. But Light knows he isn’t the most athletic OT out there, and he does whatever he can to do the job and impede the DE. Jake has admitted he does whatever he can get away with to get an advantage. Light’s feet are honestly just slow. He really isn’t a fleet footed fellow, and he gets by on effort and being “Charlie Hustle”. In this instance he again has a similarity to Jake in that when he tries too hard to get back in his kick slide his arms pump too hard, get outside of his frame and as a result his hands drop lower than they should. JT used this to his advantage numerous times during the game. Light also doesn’t rotate or open his hips well, so he has a similarity there too. Although I will mention that since Jake actually bends at the knees very well, it makes him more mobile than Light is. Light can look stuck in mud sometimes, he really can. Light also crosses his feet a hell of a lot during a game, which means he won’t change direction well when facing counter movements. Have you ever seen a DB drill with a coach instructing a DB to cross their feet? I haven’t. The reason – you can’t change direction well, and often times you end up off balance, take more steps or fall down. The reason your base becomes too narrow to allow your body to effectively operate. Your body generates too much force in turning to remain upright with narrow fulcrum like that. Take a top for instance in comparison to a spinning quarter, the quarter will keep going flopping up and down along the outside rim of the coin as it loses speed, what does the top do? Just falls over and loses momentum quickly. The coin much, much further along in the spinning department. The coin ends up with the wider base in the end and can use the latent energy for much longer. Now that I have digressed into coins vs. tops I now know that I have done this too much. Jake keeps a much wider base than Light throughout most of his movements. I highlighted in my last piece about how Jake has a wide base with his toes out and shuffles like a crab more than lift his feet off the ground. It helps hip keep a wide base and prevents him from getting his feet too close together. When he does he doesn’t move well, as any OT would because you’re not in an acceptable athletic position. Light does use his punch well, and gets himself into goods pas pro position most of the time, and is very good at playing the position game. His hands are relatively quick, and he relies on them a lot more than his feet to get by. I can’t say for sure if he has strong hands or not, but I would have to lean that way by his playing style. He is very good at removing the hands of a DE from his body though. He tries very hard to keep the DE from gaining a positional advantage with his hands. He doesn’t want the DE to get his hands all over him and grab him, and he knocks down the oppositions hands very well on the move. Although he doesn’t always slow down or impede the forward progress of the DE as well as he should. The DE tends to maintain a high rate of speed when rushing against Light, whereas other OT’s manage to slow their man down more. Maybe his constant hand checking and not grasping of the man leaves too much space between he and the DE. Thus, allowing the DE to keep his feet moving better than if he had to fight to get free, as he would need a solid base for that. He uses his hands to keep the defender off his body quite well. He doesn’t want the DE too close as it would mean he’d get in a foot race to the corner, and often times he’d lose that race. In my honest opinion Light should be replaced on the left side as he isn’t the most athletically gifted guy out there. Given his feet and lack of overall range it surprises me that he hasn’t been moved to RT before now. He gets the job done, but Brady’s quick release and the fact that NE loves shallow crossing routes and 5 YD outs etc. means the ball is out of Brady’s hands earlier than most, and in my estimation is a security blanket for Light – he doesn’t have to pass pro that long. If the league still favored the 7 step drop, Light wouldn’t be playing LT that’s for sure. Also I just have to harp on this, Light is just abused by an up the field rusher almost every time, unless he gets a chip. I’ve seen NE go to a G pop, where the OT slides in a step or two, and the G drops back and sets as the OT would. They did this to handle the outside rush on a few occasions. Light’s ineffectiveness is really highlighted by the numbers: Jake Long: 6’7” 313lbs 40 YD – 5.22 20 YD – 2.97 10 YD – 1.75 Bench – 37 reps Vertical – 27.5’’ Broad jump – 8’6” Shuttle – 4.73 Cone – 7.44 Matt Light: 6’5” 311lbs 40 YD – 5.29 20 YD – 3.08 10 YD – 1.85 Bench – 26 reps Shuttle – 4.49 Cone – 7.33 I did manage to find 5 plays of Light in his stance so I’ll give the average just for show. The Pats pass mostly out of the shotgun, and I have a feeling I know why. Jake Long 3 point stance – on average Jake did it in 1.00 seconds Shotgun stance – on average Jake did it in 0.84 seconds Matt Light 3 point stance – on average Matt did it in 1.14 seconds (only 5 plays) Shotgun stance – on average Matt did it in 0.98 seconds I’m sorry, but that is just awful. Not much more I can say about that. __________________
There is a certain plodding element to Long's lateral movement, that's the bad news. The good news is that he can move very well for a big guy overall- it just doesn't look very pretty sometimes. I think that he'll do fine- great in run blocking, very good in pass blocking, but there will be a few "uh oh" instances when he gets smoked. What makes it even worse is that he looks awkward and bad when he does get beat. Nonetheless, I think that he's going to be a heck of a LT- the new breed that is good at pass pro and will bury his quicker, undersized counterpart in the running game. Then the flood gates will open for Ginn, Hagan, Fasano, RB & RW, etc. when defenses move eight men in the box.
