Quote:Yannick isn't a great athlete no, only slightly above Fowler. He can bend very well, however, and that makes all of the difference in his case. Joe Goodberry wrote about the play below in an article illustrating bend that I unfortunately can't find now.. It included a better slow motion video of the play, but it can still get the point across. 

 

https://vine.co/v/5vPB0n3WeIm

 

As you can see, 90% of the play is the exact same for Dante and Yannick. Their get off starts at the exact same time, they get virtually the exact same acceleration, the exact same depth on their rush, exact same positioning on the respective OT, etc. Mirror images of each others rush. And then they have to bend to get to Flacco and you can see what happens when a DE can bend and one can't. Dante gets pushed past the pocket harmlessly as we have seen so many times, while Yannick gets the sack fumble. 

What I see in that clip is less about bend and far more about hand usage imo.

 

I see Fowler taking one big arm chop at the RT, then try and drive his shoulder through him. Which we've all seen multiple times this year from him and it's rarely worked (rarely ever works regardless of who the player is. OTs are just too strong).

 

I see Ngakoue using good hands technique and slapping away the LT's hands. That's why the LT lunged and had his head down because he tried to punch/grab Ngakoue and got nothing but air.

 

Just my 2 cents when looking at that particular clip.

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