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Penei Sewell made his NFL debut amidst trying circumstances. The Detroit Lions rookie offensive tackle had to shift from right tackle, where he’d spent all offseason learning to play, to the left tackle spot to fill in for injured starter Taylor Decker.
Sewell got just two days of practice at left tackle. He also drew a difficult assignment in the San Francisco 49ers and DE Nick Bosa. After an up-and-down preseason and well over a full year without playing or even practicing football after opting out of his final season at Oregon, it was a major challenge.
I went through the game film and focused on Sewell on each and every one of the Lions’ 92 offensive reps. I marked each play for a good or bad rep from Sewell. For good plays, he earned a plus. For bad plays, he earned a minus. Not every play merits a mark, either. If you feel the need to consider plays that don’t earn a minus as a win,
The NFL won’t allow us to use videos to illustrate points here, unfortunately.
First half
Sewell fired out and earned a plus on the very first play, a run block where he crashed inside and then engaged the LB in space very nicely. It was one of four plusses he earned on the first drive, three of them on run plays.
He did get one minus on the opening drive. On Detroit’s fourth snap, Sewell set up too far outside and got beaten for a QB pressure on his inside shoulder by Bosa. His hands were too high when he attempted to recover, an issue he’s battled throughout training camp, too.
One play that is important in explaining the process here came on the second drive. Sewell got away with an egregious hold on the ill-fated screen pass. It should have been called a penalty; if it happened against the Lions, fans would scream to high heaven about it. I gave Sewell a minus for that even though the officials missed it.
On the third drive, Sewell had a picture-perfect pass set against a stand-up rusher to his outside. Absolutely swallowed him with perfect balance and mirror footwork. It was LB Samson Ekubam, who is clearly no Bosa. Still a well-deserved mark in the plus column for Sewell, however.
At the half, Sewell earned nine plusses and seven minuses. Six of the nine plusses came on run plays, while five of the seven minuses were in pass protection. I credited him with two allowed QB pressures — both by Bosa attacking his inside shoulder — and a TFL surrendered on a whiff on a run block.
Second half
Sewell scored many more plusses in the second half, but it does come with something of an asterisk; Bosa barely played after the first drive of the third quarter. In fact, of the 15 plusses Sewell notched after halftime, just two came when Bosa was on the field and only one directly vs. No. 97.
Sewell flat-out dominated Arden Key and found far more successes than failures in matchups with Ekubam. The big rookie earned plusses on three straight plays against Key.
Some highlights:
Sewell expertly picked up a delayed outside rush from Ekubam, failing to bite on the inside action designed to confuse him. He pancaked his man on the Jamaal Williams TD run with a great down block. On the final scoring drive, Sewell walled off Key nicely after initially losing the hand battle.
It wasn’t perfect. There were six minuses after the half. The worst came on a screen pass where he just flat-out missed his mark. Another came on a play negated by a penalty. He gave up two pressures after the half, one on a fantastic bull rush by Bosa that walked Sewell back into Goff, the other on an outside spin by Ekubam where Sewell overset to his inside and the LB read it.
The total tally
Sewell earned 24 plusses and 13 minuses in 92 snaps. That’s a strong ratio for a debut game, particularly given the context of playing out of his regular position. He gave up four total QB pressures and one TFL in the run game. When he wasn’t facing Bosa, Sewell largely dominated — especially after halftime. And he did well enough against Bosa to feel good about the performance, too.