Our Defense...

[khiladi]

1. Opposing teams seems to be able to dictate the coverage they want. There was one play against Washington where the Skins motioned their receiver and you could see the Dallas corner (can't remember which one) change his coverage by now playing off the receiver and Washington setting up a play once they got the coverage they were looking for. Usually in the NFL, and what makes the game so hard for offenses, is coverages are difficult to recognize because they are disguised well and can change 2, 3, 4 times before the ball is snapped.

If we played more man, than this wouldn't be an issue. The pass where Moss ran across the field, Henry left him for the LB. Nobody even say Moss get behind the LBs.

Our zone coverages are confusing our own players...

 

[khiladi]

He brings some nice blitzes and usually are defense is incredibly stout vs the run (except yesterday).

Not when he brings it up the middle. His CB blitzes from Henry and Newman were nice, precisely because they were disguised well. The blitzes up the interior, it seems like the offense knows it is coming.

 

[CowboyManDan]

3 and outs are so rare, I forget that's even an option. Our defense needs alot of work!

This is not a championship level defense at all at this point. There's now more than enough talent on defense that I don't know if we're scheming poorly or what.

 

[CATCH17]

Not when he brings it up the middle. His CB blitzes from Henry and Newman were nice, precisely because they were disguised well. The blitzes up the interior, it seems like the offense knows it is coming.

He moves Ware around quite a bit and lets our OLB's come from different angles.

His front 7 blitz packages are some of the better ones in the league and im sure a lot of defensive coaches would tell you that.

Not just his "corner" blitzes.

He juggles it up even more when Ware and Spencer are on the field together.

I love our front 7. I like what we do.

But soft coverage and poor tackling has to stop. Especially against short passing teams like the Eagles, Packers, and Commanders.

 

[khiladi]

He juggles it up even more when Ware and Spencer are on the field together.

That is the number one problem right there on the DL... Spencer should be starting, not Greg Ellis...

But I agree on the zone coverages...

 

[CATCH17]

That is the number one problem right there on the DL... Spencer should be starting, not Greg Ellis...

But I agree on the zone coverages...

Iim passed the point of the Zone coverage thing too.

I can see why he likes to run Zone coverage with the way he does things with his front 7.

But I would rather sacrifice crazy blitzes and just bring Ware off the Edge than be backed off the receivers 10 yards.

Thats where our problem lies. We have 1 or 2 major breakdowns a game. Its unavoidable with basically every team. I can live with that.

But I just cant live with us giving teams so much cushion and letting 2nd and 3rd downs be so managable.

Yesterday was even worse though because we couldn't stop the run and Wade has done a great job stopping the run since hes got here.

 

[Bob Sacamano]

That's exactly what it is IMO.

And I agree, our front 7 is highly overrated. I think our secondary can be good but the scheme we're running flat out sucks. I want to see our CBs getting in WR's grills and being physical with them. I haven't seen it one time this season.


What's sad is we have more talent - overall - on defense than the Titans.

Brian Stewart is in way over his head. It's time for Wade to take over. He might as well, it's not like he does anything with the offense or even has any say with what happens with our offense.

not on the all-important line

they have Albert Haynesworth and Kyle Vanden-Bosch, the other DE is pretty good too

while we have Ratliff taking on 5 guys

 

[Eskimo]

I think it all starts at NT with the running game. If you can move the NT in the running game then the offense can run the ball at will on a 3-4 defense.

In terms of the coverages, someone far smarter than me will have to explain the rationale behind letting WRs have so much space. They either aren't playing the zone right or the whole strategy is hopelessly flawed. I tend to think it is the latter because changeing secondary coaches and bringing in better DBs hasn't improved anything. In fact, we are even worse this year than last year.

I am afraid that this year may already be lost in terms of our ability to defend the run because we don't have anyone on the roster who can play the position. You can't win giving up 6 ypc. I honestly don't see us winning a playoff game this year again because the flaw of being unable to defend the run up the gut is a fatal one.

Now hopefully next year Wade/Stewart are gone, we bring in a proper NT and move Ratliff to DE and change up the zones/coverages.

 

[Eskimo]

Iim passed the point of the Zone coverage thing too.

I can see why he likes to run Zone coverage with the way he does things with his front 7.

But I would rather sacrifice crazy blitzes and just bring Ware off the Edge than be backed off the receivers 10 yards.

Thats where our problem lies. We have 1 or 2 major breakdowns a game. Its unavoidable with basically every team. I can live with that.

But I just cant live with us giving teams so much cushion and letting 2nd and 3rd downs be so managable.

Yesterday was even worse though because we couldn't stop the run and Wade has done a great job stopping the run since hes got here.

No, we haven't been able to stop the run very well during Wade's tenure. It is just that we have built up leads forcing other teams to give up running the ball. We were weak up the gut last year, too.

When Fergy was here, we were better against the run.

 

[Canadian BoyzFan]

I want to go back to the 4-3.

 

[Eskimo]

I want to go back to the 4-3.

No point in doing so since our best players on the front 7 are better suited to the 3-4: Ware, Spencer and Ratliff (at end)

 

[Chocolate Lab]

No, we haven't been able to stop the run very well during Wade's tenure. It is just that we have built up leads forcing other teams to give up running the ball. We were weak up the gut last year, too.

Is that statistically accurate? Knowing you, I'm sure it is... I just didn't think we were that bad.

When Fergy was here, we were better against the run.

Another reason that trade sickened me. Who wouldn't rather have a proven quality 34 NT like Fergy on the nose with Ratliff at an end and a JAG like Bowen off the team? I'm really afraid this was a case of Jerry wanting to show Parcells and everyone else that his player Tank would be better than Parcells' player.

 

[Eskimo]

Is that statistically accurate? Knowing you, I'm sure it is... I just didn't think we were that bad.

CL, it looks like we were tied for 17th ypc on defense last year.

However, I really think not many teams were afforded the luxury of trying to pound us up the middle last year. The teams that really tried to establish the run up the gut had success doing it.

Ratliff is okay when he gets penetration and shoots the gap but how many Jamal Williams type stuffs does he get: the ones where someone is trying to blocking him and just a moment before the carrier arrives he pushes the blocker to the ground and makes the tackle. This is the key to having a 3-4 that can defend the run and we still don't have that guy 4 years after making the switch.

The sad part is Pat Williams was available at the time we signed Fergy - but Fergy is a BP guy so we signed him instead. To make matters worse, Fergy is our best run defender and we give him away to Miami for a 6th.

 

[khiladi]

CL, it looks like we were tied for 17th ypc on defense last year.

However, I really think not many teams were afforded the luxury of trying to pound us up the middle last year. The teams that really tried to establish the run up the gut had success doing it.

Ratliff is okay when he gets penetration and shoots the gap but how many Jamal Williams type stuffs does he get: the ones where someone is trying to blocking him and just a moment before the carrier arrives he pushes the blocker to the ground and makes the tackle. This is the key to having a 3-4 that can defend the run and we still don't have that guy 4 years after making the switch.

The sad part is Pat Williams was available at the time we signed Fergy - but Fergy is a BP guy so we signed him instead. To make matters worse, Fergy is our best run defender and we give him away to Miami for a 6th.

Like I said, Wade Phillips got infatuated with Ratliff as a NT, instead of playing him in his original position. This isn't a knock at all on Ratliff, it has everything to do with utilizing your talents to the best of their ability. Dallas seems to be pretty bad against the run, when it's going up the gut. Hell, most of the QBs we play against have plenty of room to run up the middle, when the pressure comes from the sides. Our NT doesn't hold ground in the middle.

We should have gotten Shaun Rodgers...

 

[Eskimo]

Like I said, Wade Phillips got infatuated with Ratliff as a NT, instead of playing him in his original position. This isn't a knock at all on Ratliff, it has everything to do with utilizing your talents... We should have gotten Shaun Rodgers...

I don't think Rogers is the answer -he plays well for a few snaps a game which is not the way an NT needs to play.

We have to go into the wayback machine on this one - Pat Williams was available when we signed Fergy - to me he is the prototype 3-4 NT.

Our other opportunity was back in 2004: if we had jumped over the Pats we could have drafted Wilfork.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Like I said, Wade Phillips got infatuated with Ratliff as a NT, instead of playing him in his original position. This isn't a knock at all on Ratliff, it has everything to do with utilizing your talents to the best of their ability. Dallas seems to be pretty bad against the run, when it's going up the gut. Hell, most of the QBs we play against have plenty of room to run up the middle, when the pressure comes from the sides. Our NT doesn't hold ground in the middle.

We should have gotten Shaun Rodgers...

Wow. Just wow!

 

[khiladi]

Wow. Just wow!

He's playing pretty good in Cleveland right now. There woes aren't because of him. On this team, he's be freaking ridiculous, with Ratliff manning the defensive end position.

2 sacks, 15 solo tackles, 3 assists... Yards loss are 11 yards...

 

[Rack]

Wow. Just wow!

Granted he is out of shape pretty much all the time but at his best he is THE best DT in the game, Period.

And we could of got him for a 3rd round pick.


Not only would it have improved the interior run defense, but it would have allowed us to put Ratliff at DE where he'd be even more effective.


YEah I agree... we should have gone after Shaun Rogers. We should have DRAFTED him when we had the chance, but we wanted the future Hall of Famer Tony Dixon instead.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Granted he is out of shape pretty much all the time but at his best he is THE best DT in the game, Period.

How often is he at his best, though? Ten percent of the time? Fifteen percent?

Hey, I'm all for a huge Jamal Williams or Vince Wilfork type NT. Always have been. But Rogers is a fat, lazy quitter.

 

[Boysboy]

Granted he is out of shape pretty much all the time but at his best he is THE best DT in the game, Period.

And we could of got him for a 3rd round pick.


Not only would it have improved the interior run defense, but it would have allowed us to put Ratliff at DE where he'd be even more effective.


YEah I agree... we should have gone after Shaun Rogers. We should have DRAFTED him when we had the chance, but we wanted the future Hall of Famer Tony Dixon instead.

I thought our run D struggled when Fergy went down last year. In all 3 of our meetings with the Giants, for example, they ran b/w the tackles very effectively.