James Conner's 2018 season has been a roller coaster of impressive performances and ineffective plays, but much of that has to do with the blocking in front of him.
And that's not necessarily the quality of blocking, but the style. Specifically, Conner is much better when he has a lead blocker in front of him:
What's impressive about Conner's early start is how hard of a runner he's been against defenses. According to Pro Football Focus, he currently leads the NFL in missed tackles forced:
Most missed tackles forced as a runner and a receiver through the first 5 weeks this season:
James Conner - 32
Saquon Barkley - 27
Kareem Hunt - 26
Lynch, Gordon, McCaffrey - 23@JamesConner_ is one hard man to bring down! #Steelers
— PFF PIT Steelers (@PFF_Steelers) October 8, 2018
Approximately 25 of those 32 forced tackles missed came on running plays.
When I watch all of Conner's runs, there is a big difference of performance when it comes to certain styles of plays. He is superb whenever he follows a lead blocker, say on a pitch, power, counter trey, etc., and struggles when he's forced to choose his own hole without someone to follow.
One factor that illuminates this is 20 of those 25 missed tackles came on plays where he had a lead blocker.
The numbers show that even better when I broke down every single run and looked at their impact on the Steelers' first five games:
How can results be that different? Let's look at the film.
Here's a play when he ran without a lead blocker. The Steelers use these zone blocking schemes because they have worked extremely well for years with Le'Veon Bell carrying the ball. But that hasn't worked for Conner in 2018, and you can see how not only he doesn't perform as well in these moments, but the offensive line doesn't gel much with him either:
Both Ramon Foster and Alejandro Villanueva getting one-on-one opportunities against linebackers should get the Steelers a big hole, but Conner is unable to squeeze through and his gain is limited to three yards.
Conner had three games where he averaged more than four yards per carry on running plays with a lead blocker, but just one game where he's done that without a lead blocker.
Take his second touchdown run against the Falcons when he followed Roosevelt Nix off-tackle to the pylon. Nix does a superb job throwing the lead block, but Conner has no hesitation about how he should stick to Nix's hip and follow it on a clear path to the end zone:
The key is seeing how confident Conner looks in given situations and how that can lead to more missed tackles and bigger plays. Watch how he follows Villanueva on a pitch out wide:
Conner not only cuts at the exact right moment to turn up and get inside of Villanueva's block, but he keeps his head up and puts a vicious spin move on Damontae Kazee.
In these situations you can see Conner explode through holes when there's lead blocker to follow. What's beautiful about that for the Steelers is they have many blockers to fill that role. Villanueva, Foster, Nix, Maurkice Pouncey and of course, David DeCastro.
Watch how DeCastro becomes the man for him on this 30-yard run. Conner comes from a single-back formation and sees DeCastro do his job in taking the edge man out. As soon as Conner sees his gap he accelerates and cuts back inside of linebacker Duke Riley. Once he makes his first man miss, he's off to the races:
The key to this kind of success is how defenses start to react when they see those pulling lineman set up those runs. Linebackers are taught to train their eyes on guards. If a guard pulls and runs away from their gap, that usually means it's a run play. If you follow that guard, you'll find where the ball is going.
When an offense has been pounding a defense with pulling linemen that turn into lead blockers, linebackers will start to overreact to guards pulling from their spot on the line to negate those blocks. The impact of that success can turn into more success by playing off that overreaction.
Watch how Randy Fichtner dials up a play-action pass that has DeCastro pull, but simply to pass block for Ben Roethlisberger in the pocket. As soon as he pulls to the left, you can see both linebackers Riley and De'Vondre Campbell follow DeCastro and vacate the middle of the field.
While they wait on the left side of the line for a running play that never comes, Jesse James works back to the middle of the field they left open, and Roethlisberger has an easy completion:
The Steelers' first five games have shown a pattern of undeniable success for the ground game that can impact every group of the offense.
By using lead blockers more, the Steelers allow their offensive linemen to better impose their will on defenders by building up momentum. That momentum gives Conner's eyes a target to follow and run more confidently to gain yards.
When all that starts to click, defenses will be put into a position to either stay back and continue to get pounded by a run game, or commit hard to those lead blockers and open up easier passing windows for Roethlisberger.