LB Cover Skills

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Because the linebackers aren't bad in coverage. Not sure how anyone watching the defense last year would think they're a liability. Now in 2017, it was an issue because Diaz continuously trotted out a third linebacker against spread sets and like clockwork, one of them would get beat trying to cover a WR in the slot. Incorporating the striker position helped solve that issue.
 
Most fans have talked about how bad the LBs are in coverage but pff seems to think different. I'm iffy on some of the pff stuff but what yall think?




to be fair to both sides...PFF nor do we fans know exactly what coverage is called nor whose responsible for what. It is impossible for PFF to grade without knowing the play called or the responsibility of said player on the play call.
 
to be fair to both sides...PFF nor do we fans know exactly what coverage is called nor whose responsible for what. It is impossible for PFF to grade without knowing the play called or the responsibility of said player on the play call.
True. Without knowing the call, it's impossible to tell every single players' assignment on every single play. But yes, you don't have that good of a pass defense statistically if the linebackers can't cover anyone.
 
The preponderance of swing passes, check downs and open passes into the flats suggest someone was missing an assignment. I was amazed by the number of passes caught by the opposition with three defenders standing around them a nary a breakup to be seen. But then, when the great minds in the NFL can't defend Edelman when he catches 10 plus passes a game continues to stun me. Am I the only one who yells, why don't you defend that guy at the TV?
 
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Our fans usually turn these types of threads about Shaq, Pinck & Zach into LB bashing session.

But Pinckney had his best statistical season last year & Shaq had the most TFL's of his career, I also feel McCloud improved and had a much better season from 2017.

Now people will drag the **** out of our LB's & blame them for the bad games we had but Wisconsin, GTech & BC weren't entirely their faults. The Defensive line deserves just as much blame if not more for those terrible Run Defense performances.

Are they the Bermuda Triangle, of course not, are they on the same level as the Miami great LB's of the past, no they're not, but are they good enough for us to have one of the best Defenses in the ACC/Nation this season? I believe so.

What I'm interested to see is how Blake Baker will differentiate from Diaz, obviously at the core he'll maintain the aggressive high pressure style, but where I believe he'll do things a bit different is how much Man/Zone we use on the backend in coverage.

With the Striker becoming a more pivotal role in the Defense & having a younger more athletic secondary I believe we'll see a lot Nickel coverages which takes pressure off LB's to be solely responsible in the run game, will allow them the freedom to roam & shoot the gap coming off delayed Blitzes.

With the additions to the DLine, they need to be more stout upfront in stopping the run, the LB's have to maintain gap discipline but our interior linemen need to stop always letting RB's get to the 2nd level. To me it's about cohesion in the front 7, the DLine disrupts at the point of attack & the LB's/S's bring the pressure then cleanup, it can't all just be on the LB's all the time imo.
 
The preponderance of swing passes, check downs and open passes into the flats suggest someone was missing an assignment. I was amazed by the number of passes caught by the opposition with three defenders standing around them a nary a breakup to be seen. But then, when the great minds in the NFL can't defend Edelman when he catches 10 plus passes a game continues to stun me. Am I the only one who yells, why don't you defend that guy at the TV?
The patriots at times would run the same play over and over and nobody would still cover edleman. Nobody tried to press him or anything.
 
Our fans usually turn these types of threads about Shaq, Pinck & Zach into LB bashing session.

But Pinckney had his best statistical season last year & Shaq had the most TFL's of his career, I also feel McCloud improved and had a much better season from 2017.

Now people will drag the **** out of our LB's & blame them for the bad games we had but Wisconsin, GTech & BC weren't entirely their faults. The Defensive line deserves just as much blame if not more for those terrible Run Defense performances.

Are they the Bermuda Triangle, of course not, are they on the same level as the Miami great LB's of the past, no they're not, but are they good enough for us to have one of the best Defenses in the ACC/Nation this season? I believe so.

What I'm interested to see is how Blake Baker will differentiate from Diaz, obviously at the core he'll maintain the aggressive high pressure style, but where I believe he'll do things a bit different is how much Man/Zone we use on the backend in coverage.

With the Striker becoming a more pivotal role in the Defense & having a younger more athletic secondary I believe we'll see a lot Nickel coverages which takes pressure off LB's to be solely responsible in the run game, will allow them the freedom to roam & shoot the gap coming off delayed Blitzes.

With the additions to the DLine, they need to be more stout upfront in stopping the run, the LB's have to maintain gap discipline but our interior linemen need to stop always letting RB's get to the 2nd level. To me it's about cohesion in the front 7, the DLine disrupts at the point of attack & the LB's/S's bring the pressure then cleanup, it can't all just be on the LB's all the time imo.
Im interested to see how much influence baker has too. He ran a 4-2-5 at la tech and i want to see how much of that they use here.
 
On the subject of the striker, Finley only had 28 tackles, because of his lesser playing time, but had two interceptions, which is the same as Quarterman and Pinckney combined. And what are passes defended? On the Miami website, the final statistics for the season indicate the entire team only had 41 passes defended. Could he be passes broken up? In that case the LBs had only three or four total.
 
Im interested to see how much influence baker has too. He ran a 4-2-5 at la tech and i want to see how much of that they use here.
That's what we use here, hence the Striker with Rome Finley being used more last season.

We're a 4-3 base team that also uses the 4-2-5 that's Diaz's Defense, & Baker is a Diaz disciple from his days as a GA at Texas.
 
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Our fans usually turn these types of threads about Shaq, Pinck & Zach into LB bashing session.

But Pinckney had his best statistical season last year & Shaq had the most TFL's of his career, I also feel McCloud improved and had a much better season from 2017.

Now people will drag the **** out of our LB's & blame them for the bad games we had but Wisconsin, GTech & BC weren't entirely their faults. The Defensive line deserves just as much blame if not more for those terrible Run Defense performances.

Are they the Bermuda Triangle, of course not, are they on the same level as the Miami great LB's of the past, no they're not, but are they good enough for us to have one of the best Defenses in the ACC/Nation this season? I believe so.

What I'm interested to see is how Blake Baker will differentiate from Diaz, obviously at the core he'll maintain the aggressive high pressure style, but where I believe he'll do things a bit different is how much Man/Zone we use on the backend in coverage.

With the Striker becoming a more pivotal role in the Defense & having a younger more athletic secondary I believe we'll see a lot Nickel coverages which takes pressure off LB's to be solely responsible in the run game, will allow them the freedom to roam & shoot the gap coming off delayed Blitzes.

With the additions to the DLine, they need to be more stout upfront in stopping the run, the LB's have to maintain gap discipline but our interior linemen need to stop always letting RB's get to the 2nd level. To me it's about cohesion in the front 7, the DLine disrupts at the point of attack & the LB's/S's bring the pressure then cleanup, it can't all just be on the LB's all the time imo.

I'm interested to see what Baker has in store for us as well. We neglect to mention that he was the d-coordinator for the guy who just broke the NCAA sack record. I'm interested to see what our D will look like.

We don't give the trio as much props as we should. They are extremely solid and will have a future in the NFL. Having the striker position, like you stated, helped tremendously. What I want to see is our guys trust their instincts more. It appeared in 2016 that's what they relied upon...in 2017, as they got more in tuned w/ the defensive philosophies, they got caught thinking too much. In 2018, we saw a little bit of both. I need them to get back to trusting film study and using instincts. The moment Shaq, in particular, thinks, he's out of position 10/10.
 
That's what we use here, hence the Striker with Rome Finley being used more last season.

We're a 4-3 base team that also uses the 4-2-5 that's Diaz's Defense, & Baker is a Diaz disciple from his days as a GA at Texas.
I know. I'm saying more true 4-2-5 principles. Diaz used the striker more so as a coverage LB.
 
The preponderance of swing passes, check downs and open passes into the flats suggest someone was missing an assignment. I was amazed by the number of passes caught by the opposition with three defenders standing around them a nary a breakup to be seen. But then, when the great minds in the NFL can't defend Edelman when he catches 10 plus passes a game continues to stun me. Am I the only one who yells, why don't you defend that guy at the TV?

Most times a DC says **** the flats...we'll rally to the flats. You know what that means?

Quick question...whose responsible for the coverage are about 3 yards away from the LOS?
 
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