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Since we had a very recent thread discussing CBs, Mike Rumph and all that stuff, with users speculating the amount of value that Manny Diaz puts into his cornerbacks play (if he puts any value into it at all). The truth is, over the past year or so, theres been a huge debate as to what is more important on the defensive side of the ball: Is it the coverage or is it the Pass Rush?
Now, every defensive coach handles this question different, not only with how they treat Free Agency and the build of the roster (in NFL terms, in college terms it would be recruiting and portal), but also with the question of creating a scheme. There is the Buddy Ryan, who is infamous for creating the 46 defense that was all about pressure and getting into the backfield. Theres the Bill Belichick, who always wanted you to think your way through the field, not going with a heavy pass rush until the situation screamed pass. And then theres the Matt Patricia, who just ******* sucks at everything.
Pass Rush can eliminate bad coverage to a certain extent. Defensive coaches want the opposing QB to get nervous and throw with bad mechanics. Thats why pressure as a statistic is way more reliable when it comes to evaluating pass rush compared to sacks, since it happens more often and is more consistent over the course of the game. The interception by Ivey vs NC State is partly due to Nesta Silvera pressuring the QB and making him throw a slightly inaccurate ball. It wont show up on his stat sheet in terms of sacks, passes defended or a TFL, but it is visible on the tape. The last thing you want your QB to do is throw from a stable platform, picking his reads. Right?
Not necessarily. You can pressure the QB as much as you want, some figure it out and throw despite getting drilled afterwards. Dan Marino isnt very mobile, however, with him being an all-time great QB, he became the only QB to rip the 85 Bears into pieces. Using quick throws against the Bears secondary (who were the weakest link), Marino threw for 270 yds and 3 TDs. Tom Brady made a living by completing quick throws into good matchups shortly before getting mauled. Although he struggled for much of the game against the Rams in the Super Bowl (twice, to be fair), he led the Patriots to their sixth championship on a drive that exposed the Rams coverage, all while using the same play over and over again. Mind you, that Rams front had Ndamukong Suh, Aaron Donald and Dante Fowler Jr., three players that arent too bad at their job. Quarterbacks are also getting better and better throwing on the run in scramble drills. And that happened to us vs NC State. Hockman rolled out numerous times, completing passes on the run vs coverage that broke down. You can expose a defense that relies on its pass rush when you scheme your offense so that you use the aggressiveness against them. Brandon Graham forced the game-winning play in Super Bowl 52, and he said: "We have two seconds. After that, we have to get lucky".
Thats essentially what happened in the Clemson vs Miami game. Clemson threw tons of screen passes to Etienne, who led the team in catches, instead of letting Trevor Lawrence sit in the pocket all game and try to play hero ball.
So, how does that lead to our defense? Its simple. This defense requires the Front Seven to make most of the plays. It is designed that way. If they cant disrupt the play enough within 2.5 seconds, its a problem. Its not designed to let the cornerbacks play good coverage, its designed to enforce bad decision making by the QB. Thats why Miami recruits stellar D-Linemen in almost every class and struggles with cornerbacks. And this high-risk approach can work if your Front Seven makes the plays and gets enough pressure to disrupt the QB. However, with offenses becoming more throw heavy, with running attacks becoming more and more based on misdirection and options and with quarterbacks becoming more and more mobile, not only do defenses struggle in general but defenses with a high emphasis on the Front Seven being very aggressive at the LoS struggle even more.
Denver beat New England in 2015 in the AFC Championship Game. The talk was all about New Englands offensive line getting brutalized, Von Miller dominating and Tom Brady getting drilled to the excitement of a lot of football fans. The truth however was that the Denver secondary allowed the Front Four to eliminate every quick throw that the Patriots wanted to throw. The only reason why the Patriots managed to get down the field late was Rob Gronkowski beating double coverage on a 4th and 10 in what I consider the official moment of Gronk being the single-hardest matchup problem in the history of the NFL. Atlanta tried to do the same thing a season later; however, the defense got worn out as the game went on and we all witnessed the biggest choke in Super Bowl history. Until the James White TD in the third quarter, Atlanta dominated by sending four and playing man coverage behind it. It led to five sacks and nine tackles for loss against an offense that was 6th in sacks allowed, had a RB that rushed for 1000+ yards and set the Rushing TD record for the franchise, while a ****ed off QB had a 28-2 TD-INT ratio in 12 games (I know, the Falcons lost, but through three quarters, they absolutely dominated one of the best offenses in the league).
Do I expect Manny Diaz to change his defensive strategy a bit? I actually do. We all make jokes about his "How do you quantify that?", however, when you actually look at the analytics here, they strongly suggest on loading up on cornerbacks, since it is the key driving factor in a good defense. The thing that keeps teams from drafting cornerbacks all the time is the fact that they are harder to scout compared to defensive ends and defensive tackles, with a lot of younger cornerbacks struggling early on in their career. Its what our offense actually exposed more and more in the past weeks. 1vs1 matchups on vertical throws, and, to everyones excitement, we have started to take advantage of these. Our defense should be designed to make 1vs1 coverage an advantage for the defense.
If you are still reading and ended up here, I apologize for making this so very long.
Now, every defensive coach handles this question different, not only with how they treat Free Agency and the build of the roster (in NFL terms, in college terms it would be recruiting and portal), but also with the question of creating a scheme. There is the Buddy Ryan, who is infamous for creating the 46 defense that was all about pressure and getting into the backfield. Theres the Bill Belichick, who always wanted you to think your way through the field, not going with a heavy pass rush until the situation screamed pass. And then theres the Matt Patricia, who just ******* sucks at everything.
Pass Rush can eliminate bad coverage to a certain extent. Defensive coaches want the opposing QB to get nervous and throw with bad mechanics. Thats why pressure as a statistic is way more reliable when it comes to evaluating pass rush compared to sacks, since it happens more often and is more consistent over the course of the game. The interception by Ivey vs NC State is partly due to Nesta Silvera pressuring the QB and making him throw a slightly inaccurate ball. It wont show up on his stat sheet in terms of sacks, passes defended or a TFL, but it is visible on the tape. The last thing you want your QB to do is throw from a stable platform, picking his reads. Right?
Not necessarily. You can pressure the QB as much as you want, some figure it out and throw despite getting drilled afterwards. Dan Marino isnt very mobile, however, with him being an all-time great QB, he became the only QB to rip the 85 Bears into pieces. Using quick throws against the Bears secondary (who were the weakest link), Marino threw for 270 yds and 3 TDs. Tom Brady made a living by completing quick throws into good matchups shortly before getting mauled. Although he struggled for much of the game against the Rams in the Super Bowl (twice, to be fair), he led the Patriots to their sixth championship on a drive that exposed the Rams coverage, all while using the same play over and over again. Mind you, that Rams front had Ndamukong Suh, Aaron Donald and Dante Fowler Jr., three players that arent too bad at their job. Quarterbacks are also getting better and better throwing on the run in scramble drills. And that happened to us vs NC State. Hockman rolled out numerous times, completing passes on the run vs coverage that broke down. You can expose a defense that relies on its pass rush when you scheme your offense so that you use the aggressiveness against them. Brandon Graham forced the game-winning play in Super Bowl 52, and he said: "We have two seconds. After that, we have to get lucky".
Thats essentially what happened in the Clemson vs Miami game. Clemson threw tons of screen passes to Etienne, who led the team in catches, instead of letting Trevor Lawrence sit in the pocket all game and try to play hero ball.
So, how does that lead to our defense? Its simple. This defense requires the Front Seven to make most of the plays. It is designed that way. If they cant disrupt the play enough within 2.5 seconds, its a problem. Its not designed to let the cornerbacks play good coverage, its designed to enforce bad decision making by the QB. Thats why Miami recruits stellar D-Linemen in almost every class and struggles with cornerbacks. And this high-risk approach can work if your Front Seven makes the plays and gets enough pressure to disrupt the QB. However, with offenses becoming more throw heavy, with running attacks becoming more and more based on misdirection and options and with quarterbacks becoming more and more mobile, not only do defenses struggle in general but defenses with a high emphasis on the Front Seven being very aggressive at the LoS struggle even more.
Denver beat New England in 2015 in the AFC Championship Game. The talk was all about New Englands offensive line getting brutalized, Von Miller dominating and Tom Brady getting drilled to the excitement of a lot of football fans. The truth however was that the Denver secondary allowed the Front Four to eliminate every quick throw that the Patriots wanted to throw. The only reason why the Patriots managed to get down the field late was Rob Gronkowski beating double coverage on a 4th and 10 in what I consider the official moment of Gronk being the single-hardest matchup problem in the history of the NFL. Atlanta tried to do the same thing a season later; however, the defense got worn out as the game went on and we all witnessed the biggest choke in Super Bowl history. Until the James White TD in the third quarter, Atlanta dominated by sending four and playing man coverage behind it. It led to five sacks and nine tackles for loss against an offense that was 6th in sacks allowed, had a RB that rushed for 1000+ yards and set the Rushing TD record for the franchise, while a ****ed off QB had a 28-2 TD-INT ratio in 12 games (I know, the Falcons lost, but through three quarters, they absolutely dominated one of the best offenses in the league).
Do I expect Manny Diaz to change his defensive strategy a bit? I actually do. We all make jokes about his "How do you quantify that?", however, when you actually look at the analytics here, they strongly suggest on loading up on cornerbacks, since it is the key driving factor in a good defense. The thing that keeps teams from drafting cornerbacks all the time is the fact that they are harder to scout compared to defensive ends and defensive tackles, with a lot of younger cornerbacks struggling early on in their career. Its what our offense actually exposed more and more in the past weeks. 1vs1 matchups on vertical throws, and, to everyones excitement, we have started to take advantage of these. Our defense should be designed to make 1vs1 coverage an advantage for the defense.
If you are still reading and ended up here, I apologize for making this so very long.
