Pressure Defensive Theory

[VACowboy]

The strengths of the Dallas defense are the DL, Terrance Newman and Roy Williams. Why not design a defense to take advantage of this specific personnel? I propose an aggressive 4-4-3. Here's how it lines up:

LDE: Ellis
DT: Butler
NT: Furgeson
RDE: Ware

OLB: Williams
OLB: Burnett
ILB: James
ILB: Nguyen

C: Newman
C: Henry
C: Reeves

That's right. Roy at outside linebacker with three corners on the field. The thinking is that you put your best players on the field in the best positions to take advantage of what they do. Roy's best around the line of scrimmage. Ware's a pass rusher. Glover is cat quick, a slashing, penetrating DT. Ferg's a big run-stuffer, the perfect compliment to Glover lined up on the nose. Burnett's speed make's him an asset on blitzes and in coverage. Etc. It's a package that puts all the team's best blitzers and pass rushers on the field at the same time. And, I know, such an alignment would be a liability against the pass, but the theory is that with three corners always on the field instead of two and a safety you get better coverage out of your DBs. You have quick linebackers on the outside who can cover (most) TEs and RBs on the outside (Coakly would fit perfectly, but ya go with what ya got). You play a lot of man coverage and blitz on every play, the strategy being: You can't run through a brick wall and you can't throw if you're lying on your back (a consistent pass rush is as good a weapon against a passing game as superb coverage). Pressure, pressure, pressure, all the time.

This is sort of how Bud Foster coaches defense at VA Tech, kind of a 4-6 type of theory. And maybe it wouldn't work at all. It's still cool to think about.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

That's essentially what we do when we play a cover-1 with Roy dropping down into the box, though... He may be labeled a safety and not a LB, but when he's down around the line, he's playing the same role.

You could do this at limited times, but I see two problems: One, we don't have a great coverage free safety that's fast enough to get from the middle of the field to the sideline on deep passes. (As you guys probably know though, I'm totally on board with your idea of trying Reeves in that role. He's fast and a good tackler. But for some reason Parcells hasn't done that.) And two, as nice as it sounds to let the corners man up, I think we saw last year that even the best corners will get beat under those circumstances. A lot of Newman's troubles last year came because the team thought he could handle single coverage all over the field, and as we all know, he couldn't, at least at times. Now maybe the less-than-100% knee had something to do with that, but I think seeing Bailey and other good corners get beat repeatedly showed that it was more the new illegal contact enforcement. (Fortunately, that seems to be less of an issue this year, though.)

So I think we can and will do this at times... But you don't want to do it too often, or it can lead to big plays.

But hey, I do love the idea of depending on our corners like that.

 

[VACowboy]

Yeah, it would be a risky scheme to play anywhere close to full time, but it would be fun to watch!

 

[Chocolate Lab]

This week might be a good time to try it, too... Say you have Toomer on Newman and Burress on Henry. Even with no help at all, Newman should be able to handle Toomer. Have the FS shade over to help Henry on any jump balls to Burress. I think it's realistic because the Giants will probably, at least at times, be so focused on keeping Eli clean that they'll use a lot of max protect and send only two guys out into patterns.

'Course, then the pressure is on our front guys to actually get to the QB.

But yeah, it is fun... I loved all those zero coverages in 2003 when we put everyone on the line and went for it. Makes your heart stop sometimes, but it definitely shows some brass ones.

 

[K-Mart]

Might make it difficult also that we don't have a player name Butler on the team, I'm guessing you ment Glover. Considering we are ranked 10th in the league right now and have been in every game we've played I'm not sure that the defense needs much tinkering.

 

[K-Mart]

And what if they line up in a 3 wide set? Who covers the slot... Roy? I don't like that match up.

 

[VACowboy]

I obviously meant "Glover" when I typed "Butler." It happens. If they go three-wide we go with a nickle package. Not so hard to figure.

 

[dwmyers]

The strengths of the Dallas defense are the DL, Terrance Newman and Roy Williams. Why not design a defense to take advantage of this specific personnel? I propose an aggressive 4-4-3.

Actually I think our best defense is the nickle. Since Roy Williams is really a kind of linebacker our nickle is equivalent to a 4-3, our 4-3 might as well be a 4-4 8-in-the-box, and a real 4-4 would be scary

David.