I’d use some of the same stats in support of Manny’s defense. Namely, 3rd down defense from 2017 to 2018. He saw a weakness and he addressed it. That’s the sign of a good (maybe “aware” would be a better word?) coach.
There’s been several years of debate now on Mannys system. Guys like you and I who’ve been on these boards forever likely have their opinion formed by now. I’ll always err on the side of aggression. Maybe that’s partly a hangover from the D’No/Golden scheme, but it’s also true as a stand-alone statement. I like havoc, even if it means an occasional big play given up.
As far as the old 4-3 base you mentioned, we don’t have the horses to just line up and beat you. Not to mention, offensive football has advanced light years since we ran that style of defense.
To me, it comes down to a lack of personnel. I don’t really need to pick on any one defender because none of them have really shown anything this year. No one stands out. If it’s the same defense, as you suggest, then where are the Willis/Quan/JJ/MJ type guys, who should presumably be plug and play if it’s a gimmicky system? We just don’t have the guys this year. At least not yet, being that we are young and these guys are gonna take time to develop.
This is my no means an endorsement for Baker. The jury is still out. It’s only been 2 games so I’m not writing him off, but 4th and 17 was bad. But before I’d chastise Manny for trying to keep continuity in the defense, I’d rather see him take the playcalling reigns back over.
I pretty much agree with this. I think that it is probably too early to determine whether Baker is going to be good enough or not, but I would say that he didn't appear to be great in this game. I agree that Manny's improvement from 2016 to 2017 to 2018 shows that as a coach, he was able to adapt his defensive system (by adding the striker, running some of those unnecessary blitzes less, etc.), and we generally saw the positive results of that. The call of the blitz on 4th and 17 does remind me of some of the times Manny ran those types of blitzes on 3rd and long without success and seemingly recklessly, and hopefully this will also be a learning experience for Baker. Like you, at this point I am definitely not endorsing Baker, but I do think that some of our defense's struggle has been due to personnel issues.
Tthe losses of Willis, Jaquan and Redwine have also been a huge factor in how our defense is playing. Honestly, the past 2 years, I thought that McIntosh, and then Willis, were the best and most impactful players on our defenses. Those guys blew up so many plays, caused so much havoc, had so many and caused so many TFLs, that made the entire defense function at another level. Before the season, I, and many others, said that Ford was likely the most important player on the defense, because this 4-3/4-2-5 defense requires penetration from the DT position. So far, it seems like Ford has played well and made some plays, but has not been nearly as disruptive as those past 2 guys. As a result, the entire defense hasn't been as disruptive. Ford looks like he has the potential to continue to improve to be a force, but right now, he is playing like a good, but not great Miami DT.
And Jaquan was honestly our cleaner, that dude just cleaned up so many busts, prevented so many bad plays from happening, and now, we are seeing what happens when you don't have a guy like that on the backend in this defense. Hopefully, Hall or Bolden evolve into that guy, but we're desperately in need of someone to do that soon.
Hopefully, as our young guys develop, we'll see our defense improve. In the meantime, we need Baker to do things to put them in a position to succeed, and running a blitz like that on 4th and 17 was not the type of call that does that.