Defensive Formations - New Cowboys D-Coordinator

[eromeopolk]

Mike Nolan's only claim to fame was the Ravens defense. He converted their 4-3 Super Bowl defense to a 3-4 Defense with huge DE and NT, fast LBers in the middle with 2 Pass Rusher LB (Peter Boulware, Thomas, and then Suggs), BIG CBs (McCalister) that could flex to S (Gary Baxter), and a ball hawking FS (Ed Reed).

After Nolan left the Ravens stayed in a 3-4 with Rex Ryan as DC. However the great and famous Ravens Super Bowl defense was a 4-3 defense coordinated by Marvin Lewis.

 

[DuncanIso]

Mike Nolan's only claim to fame was the Ravens defense. He converted their 4-3 Super Bowl defense to a 3-4 Defense with huge DE and NT, fast LBers in the middle with 2 Pass Rusher LB (Peter Boulware, Thomas, and then Suggs), BIG CBs (McCalister) that could flex to S (Gary Baxter), and a ball hawking FS (Ed Reed).

After Nolan left the Ravens stayed in a 3-4 with Rex Ryan as DC. However the great and famous Ravens Super Bowl defense was a 4-3 defense coordinated by Marvin Lewis.

agree.

It’s amazing people don’t know Nolan’s history.

i was stunned when he was hired, especially after BBDB Marinelli. The last thing we need is another BBDB DC.

a little research and you will find the MM and Nolan connection.

 

[DuncanIso]

At least we have Edwards.

 

[xwalker]

cant see all the corners, but is this Cover 1 press man?

The play is 3rd and 8.

• Jaylon replaces the missing DT with LVE and Joe Thomas as the off-ball LBs.
• Jaylon rushes the passer on this play.
• Top of the screen Byron Jones plays the Kris Richard kick-step press (stay in place until the WR commits inside/outside).
• 2nd from top Nickel CB Brown plays kick-step press.
• 3rd from top Awuzie plays off man.
• Bottom of the screen Heath in man coverage on the TE.
• Rodgers scrambles left and gets the 1st down as he runs out of bounds but there is a holding penalty on Green Bay.

Next play is 3rd and 18.

• The Cowboys use the 3 man DL again.
• They play zone with everyone except Jaylon and the 3 DL being 10+ yards off the line.
• Jaylon drops into coverage.
• The play is a pass behind the line to the RB on the left.
• Play result 4th and 9.

 

[dwmyers]

In the 2018 season Super Bowl, Belichick made a small alignment/assignments adjustment from the base 4-3 and 4-2-5 that he had been using that season.
- Belichick's adjustment screwed up the Rams precision zone blocking scheme and removed the weakness of the 4-3 and 4-2-5 vs the outside zone.

Detroit Lions figured this out. Beli either saw it on tape or Patricia told his former boss.
Video on the adjustment here, by our former OL coach.

 

[dwmyers]

i'd like to take Nolan's work as DC per his Baltimore Ravens dayz, into reviewing work as well.
His whole entire body of work - what player preferences and schemes he used to work with , in both teams.
What did he do when he had top talent to work with - was he at his best in those days.

Nolan had a reasonable defense in 2012. Going from 2012 to 2013, MN lost of his pass rush and explosion when John Abraham was no longer with the team and Weatherspoon began to lose a step or two.
Tried to replace with Osi Umenyiora and he was a bit less than half as productive as Abraham.

In short, give Nolan pass rushers and he's fine. If you give him garbage talent you'll get a garbage defense. Incidentally, I asked @falcfans on Twitter about MN and invite the rest of you to do the same.
If someone knows Voch or Mark Holmes, a combined show/podcast might be a lot of fun.

D-

 

[quickccc]

The 2003 Ravens were 6th in points allowed and 3rd in yards allowed.

The 2004 Ravens were also 6th in points allowed.

Mike Nolan appears to be one of those guys like Wade Phillips that is a good DC but got in over his head as an NFL Head Coach.

His last season as a DC with the 2014 Atlanta Falcons, the talent level was not very good.
- He lost 3 of the better starters that season.

I would NOT say Nolan is a good DC, based on his coaching record.

his defenses rank among the worst in the NFL.

he hasn’t had a DC job since the nightmare season in Atlanta in 2014.

the only reason he was hired is because MM was hired by Nolan in 2005 to be the Niners OC.

- Both starting ILBs were 2nd year UDFAs.
- Almost all of the "name" players on that defense that were not on IR ended up out of the NFL within 2 years.
- Desmond Trufant was the primary in his prime player that didn't go to IR that season.

which is why i brought up Nolan's success in Baltimore because of some posters feel the need to point and criticize
at Nolan's ATL defense while totally ignoring or detouring away from his Balt defense success.

 

[DuncanIso]

which is why i brought up Nolan's success in Baltimore because of some posters feel the need to point and criticize
at Nolan's ATL defense while totally ignoring or detouring away from his Balt defense success.

The Baltimore DC job was 17 years ago.

the disaster in Atlanta was 6 years ago.

no one else would give him another DC job because he does a terrible job.

he’s lucky MM got the HC job. They are big buddies.

 

[dwmyers]

Just because it's funny: #71 was called "The Beer Man" by the local media guys.

Check the "liner notes" for this interview as an example..

 

[xwalker]

Detroit Lions figured this out. Beli either saw it on tape or Patricia told his former boss.
Video on the adjustment here, by our former OL coach.

Interesting. He shows that adjustment that I've posted about over and over.

He says the Rams made a good adjustment later in the game but Belichick forced them to play something other than what got them to the Super Bowl.

 

[fivetwos]

There are very few HC and coordinator jobs in the NFL.

It's disgusting how the last staff as much as had these jobs given their inability/refusal to adjust not only during games, but at all.

Hope it was worth it to waste that decade Jerry. You just may run out of time. Now get out of the way and salvage something for yourself and stop making the rest of us suffer. Thank you.

 

[dwmyers]

Interesting. He shows that adjustment that I've posted about over and over.

He says the Rams made a good adjustment later in the game but Belichick forced them to play something other than what got them to the Super Bowl.

Yes, it's a great analysis and he posted it within a couple days after the game. What's interesting is that most media folks credited the Lions for the adjustment,
from what I remembered, but the Lions made secondary adjustments, according to this article:

https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2019...int-slow-los-angeles-rams-offense-andy-benoit

while the famous DL adjustments according to Coach Alexander came from the Saints.

D-

 

[JBell]

Nolan has an eye for talent. He didn't have great success as a head coach in SF, but he sure did as a GM. Harbaugh won with his players.

Patrick Willis, Dashon Goldson, Ray McDonald, Lawson, Haralson, Brown were all drafted by Nolan on the defensive side of the ball. And he persuaded Justin Smith to sign there, who went on to be a 5x pro bowler and All-Pro. Not to mention drafting Gore, Staley, and Alex Smith on O.

After we hired him, in one of his off-season interviews he talked about how he preferred big + fast + athletic guys over "smaller" guys because those are the guys that tend to stay on the field longer. Diggs/Gallimore/Robinson all fit that mold.

I have zero doubts that Nolan had some influence in the big, press corners we drafted.

 

[CATCH17]

Nolan > Marinelli

All I really need to know.

I’m a Nolan fan.

A lot of this forum hates the hire and points to statistics.

We will see.. I think the guy throws a lot at the QB..

 

[ConstantReboot]

Great post @xwalker. Thank you for that.

Just saddens me to say that I wish we got have gotten TJ Watt.

 

[xwalker]

Nolan has an eye for talent. He didn't have great success as a head coach in SF, but he sure did as a GM. Harbaugh won with his players.

Patrick Willis, Dashon Goldson, Ray McDonald, Lawson, Haralson, Brown were all drafted by Nolan on the defensive side of the ball. And he persuaded Justin Smith to sign there, who went on to be a 5x pro bowler and All-Pro. Not to mention drafting Gore, Staley, and Alex Smith on O.

After we hired him, in one of his off-season interviews he talked about how he preferred big + fast + athletic guys over "smaller" guys because those are the guys that tend to stay on the field longer. Diggs/Gallimore/Robinson all fit that mold.

I have zero doubts that Nolan had some influence in the big, press corners we drafted.

Yes, it is interesting that Nolan was both Head Coach and General Manager. He had not been a Head Coach on any level but went from being a D-Coordinator to HC & GM.

Hard to say about the big CBs. The Cowboys were already in the mode of looking for big CBs because Kris Richard to as adamant as any coach about big CBs.

 

[xwalker]

Yes, it's a great analysis and he posted it within a couple days after the game. What's interesting is that most media folks credited the Lions for the adjustment,
from what I remembered, but the Lions made secondary adjustments, according to this article:

https://www.prideofdetroit.com/2019...int-slow-los-angeles-rams-offense-andy-benoit

while the famous DL adjustments according to Coach Alexander came from the Saints.

D-

It makes me feel good about my own analysis which I've been posting about since shortly after that Super Bowl.

 

[Bowdown27]

Nolan > Marinelli

All I really need to know.

We’re already better and haven’t played a snap yet.

 

[Future]

Independent of whether or not Nolan has been good or bad, this defense will create a lot more turnovers just by being more varied. They're also going to give up a lot more big plays, if I had to guess. They're going with the opposite philosophical approach to defense than they had under JG. The multiple fronts/looks is evidence of that, and it's the 2014 Falcons defense that they're going to look to replicate.

I'm most excited for what they might do out of a 3-3-5, with Jaylon as a rusher .

 

[xwalker]

Independent of whether or not Nolan has been good or bad, this defense will create a lot more turnovers just by being more varied. They're also going to give up a lot more big plays, if I had to guess. They're going with the opposite philosophical approach to defense than they had under JG. The multiple fronts/looks is evidence of that, and it's the 2014 Falcons defense that they're going to look to replicate.

I'm most excited for what they might do out of a 3-3-5, with Jaylon as a rusher .

The Marinelli scheme got away from "bend don't break" in 2019.

The weakness against zone run blocking that the Rams highlighted in the 2018 season playoff game forced them to make changes in an attempt to correct it; however, the changes just ended up causing them to give up big pass plays.

Sadly, Belichick showed the blueprint for defender zone run blocking in the Patriots-Rams Super Bowl but Marinelli wouldn't adjust his DL scheme.