FullyERicht
Thunderdome
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2013
- Messages
- 5,591
Four reasons this defense is so utterly wretched:
The number 4 reason: The most important position on a 3-4 defense is the "Lawrence Taylor" OLB. Demarcus Ware, Terrell Suggs, Aldon Smith, LaMarr Woodley, Clay Matthews, Quinton Coples, Chandler Jones, Mario Williams (in Houston), James Harrison, Robert Mathis (under Pagano). It's simply the most athletic dominant freak athlete player on your defense. And this staff plays Shayon Green there, who is easily our least athletic defender.
The number 3 reason: Specialists. AQM and McCord are brought in for one thing: rush the passer on third and long. How can we expect them to improve as run blockers, playing coverage, dropping into zones, and reading plays when their entire existence is to do some uncreative stunt? These are not finished products, and by having so many specialists you are basically ruining any talent advantage you might have. Curtis Porter might have become a disruptive inside presence, but he never gets to rush the passer.
The number 2 reason: The Hybrid fronts: This is related to number 2, but deserves expounding upon. Nick Saban's 2011 defense featured Courtney Upshaw (a first round talent, who was dynamic and dominant in college). Courtney Upshaw is no more athletic, talented, strong, or fast than AQM or McCord. Yet he played EVERY DOWN. And he always played OLB, even when he was rushing the passer with his hand on the ground, meaning he wasn't shifting between being a DE and an OLB. He wasn't being coached up by a guy who for half the DE's he is teaching two gap principles, and the other half of the DE's single gap rushing. If we play 3-4, AQM is our LT OLB. He should be coached up by a dedicated LB coach, or more preferably an OLB coach. He should be learning to cover in man on occasion, play a zone, zone blitz, learn contain in the run game, and perfect his outside pass rush. He shouldn't be wasting time in the same position group as say Anthony Chickillo. But he is. Essentially they are teaching two very different fronts at the same time.
If we are a 4-3 team, Anthony Chickillo should be working on passrush, shooting the gap, so when 3rd down comes and he is asked to be a one gap interior rusher, he's not forced into a role that is opposite of his training. If you ask guys to wear two hats, they will never look good in either hat. When the NYG started doing the 4 DE on third down thing, they weren't asking two 2-gap guys to move to the interior and turn into one gap guys. They instead used FOUR gap shooting passrushing DE's. When the Steelers get third and long, their 2-gap DE's stay on the field, and basically try to occupy OL so that there are gaps for blitzers, all the while an edge rusher faces a 1-1. Pick one of these philosophies and use it. Using both, on the college level, is IDIOCY.
The number 1 reason All of the above, while foolish, detrimental to development, and impossible to field an elite defense, could still be worked around if we ran a 4-2-5 or 3-3-5 and either either: 1)played man coverage all game underneath Cover 0, Cover 1 2) played Cover 6 cover 2 and zone blitzed a lot.
Why are we asking our best defenders (our CBs) to play like Safeties, while taking our worst defenders (our Safeties), and asking them to move post snap with varying reads and responsibilities? And at the same time asking our 3-4 ILB to play sideline to sideline over a huge area like 4-3 OLB? Running a cover 3 out of a 3-4 two gap with no natural pass rush and no intricate blitzes is idiocy, to me.
And one last thing. It worked decently well at temple bc: 1) they could change coverages and blitz much more b.c. Temple kids are there for five years, which will never happen here unless our players suck 2) MAC QBs are more prone to mistakes and impatience which lead to turnovers 3) Mo Wilkerson is an elite stud NFL player who was probably such a focal point for MAC OL blocking schemes that their system appeared better than it actually was.....
The number 4 reason: The most important position on a 3-4 defense is the "Lawrence Taylor" OLB. Demarcus Ware, Terrell Suggs, Aldon Smith, LaMarr Woodley, Clay Matthews, Quinton Coples, Chandler Jones, Mario Williams (in Houston), James Harrison, Robert Mathis (under Pagano). It's simply the most athletic dominant freak athlete player on your defense. And this staff plays Shayon Green there, who is easily our least athletic defender.
The number 3 reason: Specialists. AQM and McCord are brought in for one thing: rush the passer on third and long. How can we expect them to improve as run blockers, playing coverage, dropping into zones, and reading plays when their entire existence is to do some uncreative stunt? These are not finished products, and by having so many specialists you are basically ruining any talent advantage you might have. Curtis Porter might have become a disruptive inside presence, but he never gets to rush the passer.
The number 2 reason: The Hybrid fronts: This is related to number 2, but deserves expounding upon. Nick Saban's 2011 defense featured Courtney Upshaw (a first round talent, who was dynamic and dominant in college). Courtney Upshaw is no more athletic, talented, strong, or fast than AQM or McCord. Yet he played EVERY DOWN. And he always played OLB, even when he was rushing the passer with his hand on the ground, meaning he wasn't shifting between being a DE and an OLB. He wasn't being coached up by a guy who for half the DE's he is teaching two gap principles, and the other half of the DE's single gap rushing. If we play 3-4, AQM is our LT OLB. He should be coached up by a dedicated LB coach, or more preferably an OLB coach. He should be learning to cover in man on occasion, play a zone, zone blitz, learn contain in the run game, and perfect his outside pass rush. He shouldn't be wasting time in the same position group as say Anthony Chickillo. But he is. Essentially they are teaching two very different fronts at the same time.
If we are a 4-3 team, Anthony Chickillo should be working on passrush, shooting the gap, so when 3rd down comes and he is asked to be a one gap interior rusher, he's not forced into a role that is opposite of his training. If you ask guys to wear two hats, they will never look good in either hat. When the NYG started doing the 4 DE on third down thing, they weren't asking two 2-gap guys to move to the interior and turn into one gap guys. They instead used FOUR gap shooting passrushing DE's. When the Steelers get third and long, their 2-gap DE's stay on the field, and basically try to occupy OL so that there are gaps for blitzers, all the while an edge rusher faces a 1-1. Pick one of these philosophies and use it. Using both, on the college level, is IDIOCY.
The number 1 reason All of the above, while foolish, detrimental to development, and impossible to field an elite defense, could still be worked around if we ran a 4-2-5 or 3-3-5 and either either: 1)played man coverage all game underneath Cover 0, Cover 1 2) played Cover 6 cover 2 and zone blitzed a lot.
Why are we asking our best defenders (our CBs) to play like Safeties, while taking our worst defenders (our Safeties), and asking them to move post snap with varying reads and responsibilities? And at the same time asking our 3-4 ILB to play sideline to sideline over a huge area like 4-3 OLB? Running a cover 3 out of a 3-4 two gap with no natural pass rush and no intricate blitzes is idiocy, to me.
And one last thing. It worked decently well at temple bc: 1) they could change coverages and blitz much more b.c. Temple kids are there for five years, which will never happen here unless our players suck 2) MAC QBs are more prone to mistakes and impatience which lead to turnovers 3) Mo Wilkerson is an elite stud NFL player who was probably such a focal point for MAC OL blocking schemes that their system appeared better than it actually was.....
