Film room: Settling the Powers-Johnson/Heyward dispute

Did the offensive lineman beat himself or get beat?

Recently, Las Vegas Raiders offensive lineman Jackson Powers-Johnson went on Maxx Crosby’s The Rush podcast and recapped his Week 6 performance against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

According to Pro Football Focus, that was Powers-Johnson’s worst game of the year, earning a season-low 42.7 grade from the site. Also, he gave up the first sack of his career, which Cam Heyward capitalized on. However, the Oregon product drummed up some controversy by saying Heyward didn’t beat him, he beat himself.

The five-time All-Pro responded on his podcast, Not Just Football with Cam Heyward, by implying that he beat the rookie several times throughout the contest. For those curious, Silver and Black Pride’s Bill Williamson recapped the back and forth.

So, let’s flip on the tape and settle the dispute by looking at a few of the reps between these two.

We’ll start with the sack that started the “controversy”.

Powers-Johnson’s claim that he “beat himself” is that he overset in pass protection. That’s definitely the case as he gets overaggressive with the jump set and ends up drifting too far inside. Notice how he overlaps with the center, Andre James.

That is the primary reason Heyward gets the sack, but the defensive linemen does do a good job of recognizing the overset and executing a hump move to use JPJ’s momentum against him en route to the quarterback.

This is the next play and part of where Heyward is coming from by saying he won a few reps in the one-on-one matchup. He wins at the point of attack by having better pad level and tighter hand placement than Powers-Johnson, which gets JPJ to open the gate/hips and creates a shorter edge.

So, Heyward wins around the edge and can get to Aidan O’Connell right as O’Connell releases the ball to affect the pass, leading to the incompletion. This goes down as a pressure for the pass-rusher.

This next one is a win for Heyward, though it doesn’t technically result in a pressure since O’Connell gets the ball out quickly. Regardless, it’s a rough rep for Powers-Johnson.

The 14-year pro gave the rookie some trouble with the long-arm move, recording a few other wins in addition to the clip above. JPJ had an issue with exposing his chest in this game, which Heyward took advantage of. That allowed the pass-rusher to win at the point of attack and turn the offensive lineman’s shoulders, creating an inside lane to the quarterback.

To paint the full picture, Powers-Johnson did have a few nice reps in pass protection against Heyward.

The big difference between the clips above and the three previous ones is the offensive lineman’s hands. Here, he does a much better job of keeping his hands tight and also works the defensive lineman’s hands after contact to stop the pass-rush moves. That’s why Heyward falls on his face in the second rep.

There weren’t many notable reps in the running game between these two, but Heyward did get the better of Powers-Johnson a handful of times.

The rep above was the worst of the bunch as Heyward works laterally post-snap and catches JPJ leaning before working the hands to make JPJ miss and fall on his face this time. As a result, the defensive lineman defeats the block and works flat down the line of scrimmage to make the tackle for a one-yard gain.

Overall, Powers-Johnson did beat himself more than Heyward beat him on the sack in question. However, the veteran did have several other wins throughout the game to get the best of the rookie. That being said, there’s no shame in having a tough time against a future Hall of Famer during your third start in the NFL.