We ceased our pattern of blitzing on nearly every play about midway through the 2nd quarter last night and instead played a mostly numbers-neutral, assignment defense for the rest of the game. The result was better gap control on run plays, tighter coverage on pass plays, and far fewer chunk plays. I wouldn't be surprised if we don't do more of this over the balance of the season, especially versus Pitt.
We have a lot of top athletes and talent on defense. We may be evolving to a style that requires a defense to beat us one-on-one moving forward, rather than the high-risk defense that attempts to create a numbers advantage up front, but allows a numbers disadvantage downfield.
Inasmuch as offenses have largely figured out how to handle Manny's pressure up front, and then take immediate advantage of the numerical mismatch downfield, this would be a welcome change.
We shall see if last night represented a permanent change in defensive philosophy...
We have a lot of top athletes and talent on defense. We may be evolving to a style that requires a defense to beat us one-on-one moving forward, rather than the high-risk defense that attempts to create a numbers advantage up front, but allows a numbers disadvantage downfield.
Inasmuch as offenses have largely figured out how to handle Manny's pressure up front, and then take immediate advantage of the numerical mismatch downfield, this would be a welcome change.
We shall see if last night represented a permanent change in defensive philosophy...
