Brian Stewart on 103.3 right now

[VA Cowboy]

I hope the results on the field turn out as good as the talk sounds right now.

Everything they're saying now about being more aggressive and putting guys in the proper schemes and playing to their strengths sounds great. Hopefully it'll be that easy come game time.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

What's wrong with a 4 man rush and a 2 deep scheme? That's essentially what both teams in the Super Bowl use.

But they are built much more around speed and quickness. Not just faster safeties, but much faster LBs. Bill, of course, wanted size over speed.

Stewart was pretty direct and non-PC, which was nice to hear. One of the hosts asked something about Roy's ability to cover deep, and Stewart said something like, "Every player brings something to the table and has a contribution to make. Roy's contribution will be in an area other than that."

Hopefully they will podcast the interview, as it was pretty good. There wasn't as much fluff as there sometimes is when coaches talk to the media.

 

[parchy]

It's not like Chicago and Indy have all pros back there at safety.

But they have actual safeties, and in today's NFL, you're seeing more SS that can cover and more FS that can hit. Antoine Bethea filled that need. The guy can turn his hips and run with any TE and just about any slot receiver in the league. And Chicago had an All-Pro at nearly every defensive position. Offenses were worrying about their front 7, their corners and then their safeties just had some minor mop-up duty. Look to their signing of Archuleta for proof. If they really needed impact safeties, you think they would've signed him?

I remember combing over some draft mags a couple months ago and reading up on guys like Reggie Nelson and Brandon Merriweather, who can lay wood but who can also play centerfield, and do it damned well. You just have to build things around Roy to cater to his strengths, and after playing next to absolute garbage at FS for so long (Watkins excluded, although he wasn't terrific either) it's going to start effecting you.

If Hamlin plays like he once did, I betcha anything Roy starts sticking around the locker room more after games and we stop hearing about how bad he is in coverage. He hasn't had a real, experienced free safety next to him... ever.

 

[theogt]

But they are built much more around speed and quickness. Not just faster safeties, but much faster LBs. Bill, of course, wanted size over speed.

Stewart was pretty direct and non-PC, which was nice to hear. One of the hosts asked something about Roy's ability to cover deep, and Stewart said something like, "Every player brings something to the table and has a contribution to make. Roy's contribution will be in an area other than that."

Hopefully they will podcast the interview, as it was pretty good. There wasn't as much fluff as there sometimes is when coaches talk to the media.

Eleventy-thounsand % agreed. When your LBs are 260+ pounds, it's a recipe for disaster.

 

[J-DOG]

We have to be missing something. How is it possible that a HoF coach just misses on something that badly in Roy's coverage skills? He KNEW Roy couldn't be trusted deep, but he continually put him back there on islands... all the way up to the last game he coached.

I just don't understand it, and it's making everything Wade's doing look a lot better. He's finally patching these holes.

Those defenses are basically what has worked for Parcells in the past.
Those Giant defenses were very basic and they basically just had better personnel than a lot of teams and that is why they won so much.
Our defense wasn't really exposed until Sean Payton showed everybody where our weak spots were. Parcells did teach the scheme instead of teaching a defense to take advantage of player's strength's. Sean Peyton is just the opposite and Drew Brees and Reggie Bush were the biggest winners because of that.

 

[superpunk]

Stewart's either lying, or I don't know what I saw watching that Cincy-SD game. They were rushing a four man line and isolating their safeties deep. And Chad Johnson obliterated them.

 

[ScipioCowboy]

What's wrong with a 4 man rush and a 2 deep scheme? That's essentially what both teams in the Super Bowl use.

I'm no expert, but in my opinion, comparing those Super Bowl defenses to the '07 defense is somewhat dubious. They're completely different units, with opposing styles and players. The Cowboys of the mid-90s ran a 4-3 defense that emphasized speed and quickness; the linebackers were essentially oversized safeties. Last season's Cowboys ran a 3-4 defense predicated on size and strength. Speed and quickness were secondary considerations.

It seems that Parcells' defensive philosophy is becoming increasingly antiquated in today's NFL. Have you ever questioned why Dallas was the only 3-4 team that still utilized a pure 2 gap scheme last season?

 

[ScipioCowboy]

What's wrong with a 4 man rush and a 2 deep scheme? That's essentially what both teams in the Super Bowl use.

And I now realize that I've completely misinterpreted what you meant. My apologies.

 

[ZeroClub]

I get that some people coach within their scheme, but it still doesn't make any sense. If you see a guy struggling, you make exceptions. It's just what you do. It conjures up this image of BP sitting in a room by himself continually trying to jam a round peg into a painfully square hole... for three years.

Parcells thought he had drafted and/or purchased free agent square pegs for the square holes. Parcells was trying to square off the rookies ... helping them develop into the square hole stoppers.

Parcells clearly believed that Spears was a square peg. Obviously, Spears didn't like life as a square peg.

This situation is a lot like what surrounded Landry's Flex defense. The defensive line didn't like playing that system. And you'd hear the players complain about it. They wanted to shoot gaps, play aggressive, pin their ears back ....

Landry's system required the DL to play counterintuitively - to control territory and react instead of merely attacking - and those guys on the DL didn't like it a bit. They disliked the Flex scheme just as much as Spears, Canty, etc. disliked Parcells' scheme.

Had Landry been fired and replaced with a Wade Phillips type (sometime in the late 1970's or early 80's), you would have heard a collective sigh of relief from those guys who played DL in the '70's. Those DL would have cheered Phillips' more aggressive philosophy. And hearing the players, fans would be wondering how Landry, a future Hall of Fame coach, could have gone so wrong with his scheme.

An obvious difference between Landry's Flex and Parcells' 3-4 is that Landry's Flex was very effective. Parcells' 3-4 didn't quite get there in Dallas. Maybe it would have with a little more time and another player or two.

 

[DCBoysfan]

Maybe it was the other guys back there that couldn't be trusted. As "bad" as Roy was, those guys were worse.

But I noticed that alot also, you can't rush just 4 and play two deep and not expect to give up some big plays, it is hard to cover for 7-10 seconds in the NFL. The guys back there still need to do a better job than last year but the rush and secondary both go hand in hand

 

[Juke99]

I get that some people coach within their scheme, but it still doesn't make any sense. If you see a guy struggling, you make exceptions. It's just what you do. It conjures up this image of BP sitting in a room by himself continually trying to jam a round peg into a painfully square hole... for three years.

I think a tremendous amount of his success came from his assistants in the past.

He deserves credit for picking those assistants...No question.

I just don't think he was a very good "X's and O's" guy and since he really was most comfortable in one scheme, he stuck with it to a fault.

I always said he wasn't the same coach as he was in prior years.

He brought in some good players and tried to force fit them into his scheme which is exactly the opposite of what Phillips is doing.

 

[malbis030347]

I guess that's why the commercial on NFL Network that 'Roy Williams covers more ground than just about anyone in the NFL' is true...? lol...lol