A Look At Frank Clark's Film

Hello everyone and welcome to my first ever film article! Today I'll be looking at Frank Clark. My aim in this new article is to try to explain you how Frank improved after his first season in the NFL, with not only film but some pictures as well. The plays you'll see will be sacks and forced fumbles, in the future I'll be looking to implement plays where the player made an impact on the play that won't show up on the stats.

I want to start this article out by giving you some background on Frank Clark. Frank was, as you all know, drafted two years ago in the second round (#63). He came into the NFL after a successful college career at Michigan where he racked up 4.5 sacks, 42 total tackles (29 solo and 10 assists) with 13 tackles for loss in just 10 games. However he failed to replicate that form in his first year in the NFL where he had one forced fumble, 3 sacks and 15 total tackles.

This past year though Frank Clark looked like a different guy out there. He had 10 sacks, 25 tackles and 2 forced fumbles with one recovered for 27 yards. So, what changed? That's what I'll be trying to explain you.

On this play Frank Clark is being double teamed, the saints offensive line gives Brees a couple of moments to throw but when he steps up in the pocket Frank spins away from the lineman and drops Brees for a big 3rd down stop.

On this sack Frank sees the gap that is caused by the centre to go help his guard and tackle hold off Bennett and Avril. This left an open lane for Clark to disengage the tackle and move to the middle where he tackled Tannehill for a big loss.





This sack, despite being a big one (forced a 4th and goal) isn't really Clark's doing. Although he gets credited with the sack it's actually Cliff Avril that trips up Tyrod Taylor allowing Frank to finish the job and jump all over Tyrod. A "clean up" sack if you will.





Another half sack for Clark that was mostly created by Wagner, still he showed resilliency to bullrush the lineman straight into Tyrod's path.









Well, this play is just awesome. Frank Clark completely destroys Nate Solder by overpowering him and when Brady feels the pressure he tries to step up in the pocket but Clark with a handful of Brady's shirt pulls him down for a vital 3rd and Goal stop. Absolutety tremendous.

I know most of you don't want to relive memories from the Atlanta playoff game but this play is one of the few you should remember (for the good reasons). Frank Clark gets off the snap really quickly, hits up the lineman with a juke that almost tricks him but the lineman recovers yet Frank wins again using his hand power, shoving the lineman, and lastly when Matt Ryan moves up from the pocket Clark gets his hands all over him and he doesn't just go for the sack, he also forces a fumble that if recovered by Seattle could had changed the game.

First of all I'd like to apologise, getting the clips, organising my thoughts and doing the voice work was definitely more difficult than I expected. (Damn it Coleman! You make it look easy.) but it was truly the best I could do, not having a computer makes this whole process a lot harder, but still, I apologise and hopefully the next video will be better! Now on to the film! 

From looking at the tape (and from what I've told you above) we should retain the fact that Frank Clark is very effective when using his juke move, hopefully he'll utilise it more next year because it'll prove itself very useful specially when playing against below average tackles. You could also see his bullrush ability is very good as he's capable of moving one or two defenders with his strength and power. As you saw on the sack against the Dolphins Frank also showed his mental ability to read the play and adapt to the situation, he noticed the double team on Mike Bennett leaving a big gap in the middle (where the centre should be), he made the most out of it by getting the sack. Another mental aspect of his game is his ability to strip sack. When Frank Clark goes for the sack he doesn't just want to bring the QB down, he wants to strip the ball too (a trait all Seahawks defenders have), that could prove to be very useful in late game situtions when the Seahawks are blitzing with their very good defensive line.
Overall I noticed Frank Clark's impact on almost every down, whether he was getting open thanks to a Cliff Avril / Mike B double team, him getting the attention of the line, or simply rushing the QB into making a play I truly believe Clark has the ability to be one of the best defensive ends in the league.

Let me know what you guys thought about this new type of article! You can follow me on twitter @Peter1678