------Nolan tried some sort of whacky "it's a 3-4 but don't call it a 3-4" and forgot that the whole deal with the 3-4 is you need run defenders in the tackle spots. You can get away with lighter guys in the passing game but it kills you in the run game. That combined with losing two of those interior defenders in Hill and McCoy really screwed us. And who is gonna look bad when the interior looks bad? The lbs who are taking on way too many blockers.
That doesn't excuse running away from contact, and then chasing after the scrum 2-3 seconds later.
There are few linebackers who can consistently win against guards and centers who outweigh them by 50 pounds or so. Schemes are set up to keep those blockers tied up long enough that the linebackers can get into gaps and fill holes before the blockers get to them. You have four defensive linemen and five offensive linemen, so one of them has to force an extra blocker to block him long enough for the linebackers to get where they need to be. When that doesn't happen, the linebackers are dodging blocks to try to get around those much bigger men to get where they need to go.
So many fans look at Jaylon and LVE's play and for some reason can't figure out that it was a direct result of the defensive tackles not being good enough to do their job. Linebackers dodge blocks and make tackles downfield when they have bigger linemen constantly in their faces.
If we don't fix the line this offseason, we can expect the same thing ... and we can expect the same blame being placed on the linebackers that should go toward those DTs. That doesn't mean that Jaylon or LVE played as well as they should have, but a big part of how they played is a direct reflection of what was in front of them.