Must Watch: Week 6 vs Ravens

[Galian Beast]

This isn't really a statement in regards to defense. The defense was completely unable to stop the run in this game. Perhaps that was partly due to scheme, and partly due to missing Anthony Spencer. It was a pretty poorly played defensive game all together, but we were within a missed field goal of beating the super bowl champions. Take into consideration the special teams failure that lead to a kick return for touchdown, and you can see where this is going.

Notes for the game:

- DeMarco Murray had 22 snaps, and had to be replaced in the game by Felix Jones and Phillip Tanner. And while Felix had a decent outing, his overall performance during the year shows why they would want to draft a replacement to back up Murray.

- Like Jerry said, we played a lot of 12 and 13 in this game. Witten played 89/89 snaps, Phillips played 48 snaps, and Hanna played 11 snaps. Vickers only played 15 snaps. For more context Ogletree played 35 snaps.

Phillips isn't a great blocker by any means, but we were able to run roughshod over the ravens with this formation. I think the clear thinking is that with Escobar it would give us a serious advantage in the passing game that Phillips didn't really give us.

Ogletree had an absolutely awful game. 0 receptions and 4 targets. One major drop at near the end of the game that cost us 4 points. Makes a lot of sense why we would try to upgrade with Williams.

The fact that we needed to upgrade the offensive line was also painfully obvious in this game. The fact that we needed to get smarter players was also painfully obvious.

I think this game also put a bad taste in Jerry's mouth for Rob Ryan, but overall I think Jerry just wanted to end this 3-4 experiment, and I don't blame him. There really wasn't any sense of creativity from it and I don't think it was using our personnel well. I would say we had finally moved towards a quicker 3-4 with Lee and Carter, but in the 3-4 their main purpose was just to be run stoppers. The 4-3 really opens up things for almost every player in the front seven, and the Tampa 2 really opens things up for our secondary to make plays. I think the lashing we got against Seattle and Chicago really cemented that in Jerry's mind.

So the idea was to open up the offense, become a better running team, and a better redzone team. The shift to the Tampa 2 should make this team more consistent, and force more turnovers.

My biggest worries remaining are right tackle and right guard, and to a lesser extent left guard.

I'm not too concerned at safety anymore, and unlike most others I think this undersized defensive line is going to do well focused on the pass rush. I think our linebackers are athletic enough to really dominate the intermediate area of the field. It will be interesting to see what Carr and Claiborne do though. I really don't think they are suitable for a Tampa 2 at all. My guess is we don't resign Carr at the end of his contract, and we try to trade Claiborne at some point before his contract is up, but maybe they will surprise me. They are aggressive corners after all. They just need to become much better tacklers at this point. And they are certainly overvalued for the scheme.

 

[Idgit]

We changed defenses to fix the takeaway problem. If you look at the defense we brought in, and you look at the players we added defensively, that's pretty clear.

And I'm ok if Jerry was impressed by what they're doing on defense in CHI and SEA. Those teams were pretty damn impressive on that side of the ball. Given that JG had connections to Kiffin and Marinelli, it's almost a no-brainer in retrospect (though it was a complete head scratcher to me when it happened).

 

[CATCH17]

We changed defenses to fix the takeaway problem. If you look at the defense we brought in, and you look at the players we added defensively, that's pretty clear.

And I'm ok if Jerry was impressed by what they're doing on defense in CHI and SEA. Those teams were pretty damn impressive on that side of the ball. Given that JG had connections to Kiffin and Marinelli, it's almost a no-brainer in retrospect (though it was a complete head scratcher to me when it happened).

The takeaway problem won't stop until we start playing with a lead.


We're going back to a bend but don't break style and we could really struggle getting off the field on 3rd downs if we let teams dink and dunk us.

 

[DFWJC]

Just a note; I think the Ravens were missing two of their best defenders.

That said, as whacky as last years was, that team beat the Giants on the road, beat Cincy on the road, lost a tight game at Atanta, lost by a missed FG at balimore, and beat Pittsburgh.

Those were highlights that at least showed some potential.

No need to go through the log list of low-lights.

 

[Galian Beast]

The takeaway problem won't stop until we start playing with a lead.


We're going back to a bend but don't break style and we could really struggle getting off the field on 3rd downs if we let teams dink and dunk us.

The Tampa 2 encourages dink and dunk, because the more plays that it takes to go up the field, the more opportunities players have to try to make plays on the ball. It's a very aggressive style of offense.

We were 28th in takeaways last year, the Bears were 1st and Seattle was 6th. Largely stemming from our lack of interceptions. Something that has been a problem with this team for the majority of time we were in the 3-4.

 

[Idgit]

The takeaway problem won't stop until we start playing with a lead.

We're going back to a bend but don't break style and we could really struggle getting off the field on 3rd downs if we let teams dink and dunk us.

I don't think so. The two things tend to go hand in hand, so it's hard to separate them. It definitely would help if we could make teams one-dimensional. We're more likely to have trouble on early downs than we will stopping teams on thrid downs in obvious passing situations, I think.

In any event, last year's Bears team just won ball games by taking the ball away on defense. Their OL was worse than ours by a wide margin, and their QB took chances, too.

SEA, too, was a team let by a defense that ran the ball effectively and was able to keep their rookie QB out of dangerous situations. And he was mobile enough to extend drives in a pinch. That's a pretty safe recipe for success of you've got the press corners and the big rangy safeties those guys have.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

For all the nits you can pick about that game, the last half-minute or so is probably what lost it. See sig.

 

[reddyuta]

The takeaway problem won't stop until we start playing with a lead.


We're going back to a bend but don't break style and we could really struggle getting off the field on 3rd downs if we let teams dink and dunk us.

We will rarely play with a lead because of Garrett,he is so scared of opening up the game in the beginning that we rarely score points in the first half and rarely score first.only when we are way behind is everything on the table for offense and we play more No huddle.

 

[jterrell]

I am a fan of the 3-4. Was my fave defense to play and to watch.

I was LT in Tecmo Bowl. LOL.

All that being said the 3-4 tries to take everything away from you. Rob Ryan wants to beat you 100-0. He doesn't want to give up anything.

The Tampa 2 does give up things but also plays not to break and asks you to execute many times to score. So you have chances to make more plays on the ball. You play back to start then come up and make plays.

In a lot of ways it is like man vs zone in basketball. Tampa 2 is a zone. The 3-4 is using man.

 

[Paniolo22]

I'll never forget the Chicago game a couple of years ago with Wade. We were absolutely killing Cutler, and he beat us with one pass in the second quarter, and Wade completely called off the dogs. Consistent pressure on the QB leads to turnovers if our DBs would turn and find the ball every once in a while. Regardless of what D we play, we need pressure to get more turnovers

 

[FiveRings]

I think the most important thing to take into consideration from this game is how good our run game was and how big a hand Costa had in its success

 

[cowboyfan4life2]

I still can't believe we lost that game, only we could run for the insane amount of yardage that we did, recover an onside kick, and still find a way to lose.

 

[Hoofbite]

Run defense?