Diaz, Baker and Zone

[ghost2]

It's harder to play Safety in zone than it is a man. In man you're just helping, the CB is doing all the hard work.

Regardless of talent, man is almost always gonna force tighter throwing windows. I would rather play man and risk getting beat deep than play OUR version of zone, which allows teams to nickel-and-dime us all the way down the field.

Either way, it's not just a man-vs-zone issue with this defense. It's THE WAY we do things. That's the problem. Our zone is the prehistoric spot dropping variation. We just cover grass and don't match up with routes.

When it comes to man coverage...
I don't/wouldn't call man coverage unless I'm sending heat. It's hard to play man if you're not putting pressure on the QB.

The Miami Dolphins have the best 3rd down defense in the NFL, and it's cause they heat MF'ers up and play man coverage. The Dolphins will send 6/7 guys and play Cover-1 or Cover-0. The ball has to come out!
Even when Baker/Manny blitz, a lot of time they play zone behind it. This often leaves somebody open.

If you're creative, there's ways to prevent yourself from getting beat deep when you play man.

When heating it up...
If I play press-man there's really only 2 routes that the offense likes - vertical/fade or slant. (or screens) There's generally not enough time to throw anything else if you're sending heat. Shallow crossers and stuff like that take too long to develop. When Baker/Manny scout an offense, they can observe what said offense likes to throw when they get press-man blitzes. If they like to throw fade, prepare your CB's to play press-bail. If they like to throw slants, emphasize taking away the inside. If you're worried about an inside quick slant, drop one of your D-linemen into the throwing window.
If you're worried about them beating you deep then play off-man when you send heat. In off-man most offenses will try to throw slant. But when playing off-man, you have your DL and LB's walk up to the line-of-scrimmage like they're all coming, then drop 1 or 2 of them into the hook/curl zone when the ball is snapped. Now you're taking away any hot/quick inside routes while also preventing the deep ball.

EXAMPLE - first play of this kid's highlights...



Football is a game of chess and we ain't even trying to play it.

Saw this post after I asked my question. Great stuff @Coach Macho

 

[canes732]

Hard to blitz and play man when your safeties suck and CB are average. That 2018 defense had NFL safeties and CB. It allowed Diaz to be more aggressive. I’m curious if its scheme or talent or what. Are we playing more zone cause Baker is comfortable with that or does Baker/Diaz not think we have the talent to blitz and play man on the back end.

Combination of both. Also Baker stinks and manny stinks

 

[CaneDawgCrew]

Zone = Tight prevent
Bend but don't break

Don't like any of them. How about we just fly to the ball with the big decision while on the way being "should I let him keep his helmet on"?

 

[1mg of Epi]

What I'm reading here is we don't have the safeties to execute the scheme in man, which I was concerned about before the season started.

I'd have to think safety play is the worst it's been since Diaz has been here.

They stopped that 21 point hemorrhage vs OKST by moving from a soft zone to man. They have the players to execute man coverage vs our schedule. Miami runs into talent issues when moving up a level, not vs UVA etc. But we still give receivers from those **** teams 10 yard cushions.

The D has been looking a lot like what D’no gave us. Spot drops and all

 

[Kjdcanefan]

This scheme is predicated on good safety play and Gurvan Hall has been, up to this point, a disappointment. Hopefully Kam and JW20 are monsters. That will allow Blake to play more man defense, but will he do it is the question.

 

[Arehel]

Hard to blitz and play man when your safeties suck and CB are average. That 2018 defense had NFL safeties and CB. It allowed Diaz to be more aggressive. I’m curious if its scheme or talent or what. Are we playing more zone cause Baker is comfortable with that or does Baker/Diaz not think we have the talent to blitz and play man on the back end.

You can blitz and play zone behind it. Just leaving gapping holes in the defense.
That's been the calling card of Bakers, Void Blitz Defense.
I don't agree with it, I think the premise is brutal and if you have a QB who knows he's hot read quick enough, you get torn apart.
This is the main reason why we beat up and look like studs vs garbage opponent or medial ones, while against higher level teams

Semi-serious question/observation for the defensive gurus on the board: is there a defensive scheme out there that doesn't require first-round talent at a specific position to succeed? I recognize that all defenses have holes and gaps and a range of responsibilities. However it seems that for Diaz's D to work we need super-safeties. For Shannon's man/cover 2 it was getting pressure with the front 4. For D'Nofrio it was...well nevermind.

Just curious if there are "player friendly" defenses out there that you like, similar to "player friendly" offenses...

Match coverage helps which is what coverage @Coach Macho spoke about. Don’t need super athletes is but the coverage players have to be more cerebral and make quick decisions.
you teach fundamentals if you doing this but you’re also teaching general passing concepts over and over again so they know who’s hi-lo etc. Big time studs help, but seniority and a lot of ball help just as much.

The con is with match you have to use a box player in coverage.
I’ve taught with heady players and killed it, then tried to do it with younger players and it wasn’t nearly as successful.

The coverage ladder is essentially, first teach man and the types of man coverage and where your help is, then teach one and where the windows are, then when they understand that you move on to match coverage.

 

[Arehel]

They stopped that 21 point hemorrhage vs OKST by moving from a soft zone to man. They have the players to execute man coverage vs our schedule. Miami runs into talent issues when moving up a level, not vs UVA etc. But we still give receivers from those **** teams 10 yard cushions.

The D has been looking a lot like what D’no gave us. Spot drops and all

They stopped the hemorrhage because OKst stopped throwing the ball and ran it because Wallace was out.
watch the difference in play calling on OKst side when King goes out. They essentially walked into what we were defending for.

 

[Golsen82]

Dude we might be trotting out Tyler Van Dyke and his four career snaps in that game.

I wonder what happens if we lose by 70.

Promote baker!

 

[1mg of Epi]

They stopped the hemorrhage because OKst stopped throwing the ball and ran it because Wallace was out.
watch the difference in play calling on OKst side when King goes out. They essentially walked into what we were defending for.

OKST just decided to stop throwing the ball after scoring 3 straight TDs?


ok.

 

[Ericsoncane]

They stopped the hemorrhage because OKst stopped throwing the ball and ran it because Wallace was out.
watch the difference in play calling on OKst side when King goes out. They essentially walked into what we were defending for.

They ran the ball more to also adjust to our man defense. It opened up the zone read qb keep. When we changed our strategy they changed there's also. Would you expect them to keep doing the same thing?

 

[Arehel]

OKST just decided to stop throwing the ball after scoring 3 straight TDs?


ok.

Not entirely, but just at play calling. They threw I think 13 out of the 1st 14 plays.
sounds strange but honestly look.

 

[Arehel]

They ran the ball more to also adjust to our man defense. It opened up the zone read qb keep. When we changed our strategy they changed there's also. Would you expect them to keep doing the same thing?

Until you can prove to stop it, why not?

 

[Ericsoncane]

Until you can prove to stop it, why not?

We did to a certain extent. That's why they switched to the zone qb keep and threw more slants. They also started doing some hurry up to catch us off guard. What they did in the first quarter wasn't working in the 2nd quarter. Good coaches like gundy know this

 

[No_Fly_Zone]

2020	35.7%	64.3%	133.64 (60th)
2019	40.1%	59.9%	119.78 (29th)
2018	55.7%	44.3%	101.39 (1st)
2017	48.7%	51.3%	116.46 (23rd)
2016	47.0%	53.0%	119.49 (29th)
Courtesy of Sports Info Solutions

How Miami Hurricanes defense has differed under Blake Baker

UM has used zone coverage with Blake Baker calling the defense more than it did with Manny Diaz as defensive coordinator from 2016-18.

theathletic.com

The chart shows from left to right: man%, zone% and opponent QB passer rating. Miami's blitz rate has also dropped from 43.5% in 2018 to 35.5% in 2020.

How can Miami improve on defense? The simplest answer is ****can Blake Baker and return to playing predominant press-man with either 2 high safeties or single-high pressure. Miami hasn't been a good zone defense in well over a decade, the players don't like it and don't execute it. The only zone defenses that work are pattern-match schemes that shift pre and post-snap, requiring well-schooled smart veteran defenders. Diaz and his staff do not have a track record of development and the only zone they know how to run and teach is spot drop garbage.

This is great information. Looking at these numbers, I'm all the more curious to see the breakdown of QB passer rating in zone vs. QB passer rating in man coverage. My eyes tell me there were definitely games (OkSU, for example) where our defense performed better when we played man coverage versus zone coverage. If the numbers bear that out, but we played almost 2/3 of our snaps in zone this year, that's yet another indictment on Baker/Diaz.

 

[nycane]

Been saying it’s not the same **** manny was running when he was DC. It’s similar but Blake has us in way more zone and doesn’t pressure as much. It’s gotta change.

Could be the result of our talent at safety

Blake has horrible timing

 

[1mg of Epi]

Not entirely, but just at play calling. They threw I think 13 out of the 1st 14 plays.
sounds strange but honestly look.

They did. They stopped throwing the ball every down when baker stopped with his soft zone spot drop bull****.

At least it only took 3 TDs for baker to adjust... he didn’t adjust at all vs UNC.

 

[Arehel]

They did. They stopped throwing the ball every down when baker stopped with his soft zone spot drop bull****.

At least it only took 3 TDs for baker to adjust... he didn’t adjust at all vs UNC.

And he never will.

 

[franchiseboi]

This seems very relevant now

 

[HighSeas]

When it comes to man coverage...
I don't/wouldn't call man coverage unless I'm sending heat. It's hard to play man if you're not putting pressure on the QB.

I like 2-man press on 3rd and short-medium against pocket QBs. Diaz used to run it a ton in those situations before Baker arrived. You know the offense is scheming routes near the sticks so you suffocate them and the QB holds the ball hoping for something to open up and pick up the conversion. That's how you get coverage sacks or tight window throws that you can tip up into INTs.

 

[Midlo Cane Fan]

Been saying it’s not the same **** manny was running when he was DC. It’s similar but Blake has us in way more zone and doesn’t pressure as much. It’s gotta change.

Could be the result of our talent at safety

I heard T-rob likes bump & run.