Richard Smith, am I the Only One?

[Joshua]

I think a lot of people dislike him because they see a timid defense and want more aggressive play. What a lot of people forget is that the few times we have tried to be aggressive, it has backfired more often than not.

[Joshua]

I'm not a big Smith fan so I'm not sure why I'm defending him, but when you have suspect corners and safeties and linebackers (except for Demeco) who are terrible at blitzing, it's tough to run much more than a vanilla defense.

Let's face it, this team put its picks and money in the front four and our D will sink or swim based upon their ability to get to the passer with just a 4 man rush. So far, the results have been mixed. Mario - good, potentially great; Amobi - developing, high hopes; T. Johnson - somewhere between average and bust depending on your point of view; Weaver - disappointment, considering the money.

[KJ3]

Originally Posted by Joshua

I think a lot of people dislike him because they see a timid defense and want more aggressive play. What a lot of people forget is that the few times we have tried to be aggressive, it has backfired more often than not.

this is exactly why i don't appreciate his defense and philosophy of "bend don't break". except i remember it as when we took the aggression out good things happened. matter of perception i suppose?

one thing is certain: "bend but don't break" can REALLY EASILY be "bend over" and that's what happened for a majority of last year.

in my opinion a defense can be passive or aggressive. passive, which we employ, is too reactionary for my likes. i would LOVE to see more forcing action onto the offense instead of recieving all the action. aggressive isn't necessarily picking "engage eight" on madden every play blitzing of course would be the obvious gauge but really i just want to see some "f*ck yourself mr. opposing offensive player" attitude. corners jamming and not just giving up 7 yards every play, receivers wary of treading the middle, some big hits. aggressive play. don't just sit back and take it for 7 yards everytime because offenses will take a 7 yard pass every down and all the way down.

EDIT: oh yea, whoever said kubiak's offense is vanilla needs help watching the games hahaha...

DOUBLE EDIT: i also wanted to throw in that i'm loving the type of player this regime has brought to defense though!!!

[kravix]

Originally Posted by KJ3

EDIT: oh yea, whoever said kubiak's offense is vanilla needs help watching the games hahaha...

I guess vanilla was a bad word to use.

I meant that the off was watered down and not 100% implimented. Which is basically what we have seen from the Def. Sage said it in an interview not to long ago. He also said that they were opening up things that they hadnt been able to do in the past because the system is finally in and they arent in the learing curve at mini camps and OTA's.

Now I could be halucinating here on this point so feel free to correct me or support me... I think i remember from the first year talk from the coaches and players on def about the def system actually being very complex. They had tried to impliment it all at once and then pulled it all back to a very basic scheme because it was way too much for the players to digest in the short period of time and they ended up playing very basic again last year because of so many secondary players going down.

[KJ3]

Originally Posted by kravix

I guess vanilla was a bad word to use.

I meant that the off was watered down and not 100% implimented. Which is basically what we have seen from the Def. Sage said it in an interview not to long ago. He also said that they were opening up things that they hadnt been able to do in the past because the system is finally in and they arent in the learing curve at mini camps and OTA's.

Now I could be halucinating here on this point so feel free to correct me or support me... I think i remember from the first year talk from the coaches and players on def about the def system actually being very complex. They had tried to impliment it all at once and then pulled it all back to a very basic scheme because it was way too much for the players to digest in the short period of time and they ended up playing very basic again last year because of so many secondary players going down.

well, remember that it was mixed up with sherman's power running style so......it was really weird. but be fair to kubiak, he always mixed it up. he always gave defenses a few looks even if a few of them weren't his looks.

from what i understand about the d they line up the same way but call different plays to give an illusion of "vanilla" when really there is some double-chocolate cherry blast waiting somewhere. i realize last year was some sort of mega-nilla because of all the injuries and such but i just don't want to be anywhere close to last year's d.

especially with how well our d'line and lb corps have turned out. both depth charts are solid from top to bottom.

[Roy P]

I would like to see more movement from our defense. They don't necessarily have to blitz 6 every third down. I would like to see some shifts before the snap to disguise pre-snap reads the QB might be looking for. The closest thing I can point to is that Mario would sometimes line up at RDE and LDE at other times. Perhaps I'm just to big of a fan of the Eagles' Jim Johnson and the Giants' Spagnoulo in terms of Zone Blitzing. There's something to be said for running a 4-3 with 3-4 principles.

The big concern is with our secondary. While the Eagles are loaded with talent, the Giants won a Super Bowl with average players on the back end.

[papabear]

Originally Posted by Roy P

I would like to see more movement from our defense. They don't necessarily have to blitz 6 every third down. I would like to see some shifts before the snap to disguise pre-snap reads the QB might be looking for.

I'm not so worried about the pre-snap shifts. It's just as effective if you line up the same way every time, but do different things out of it. If the QB sees the same look every time than there is nothing for him to read. Of course you have to time the snap if this is what your trying to do or else you give things away......and actually change up what you are doing once the play starts. If it's cover 2 with man coverage underneath mixed in with sending one LB 3 times a game, well the QB doesn't really have to make too many pre-snap reads and all the shifting and disguising in the world won't help. Keep'em guessing. I don't care how. Just do it.

[KJ3]

Originally Posted by papabear

I'm not so worried about the pre-snap shifts. It's just as effective if you line up the same way every time, but do different things out of it. If the QB sees the same look every time than there is nothing for him to read. Of course you have to time the snap if this is what your trying to do or else you give things away......and actually change up what you are doing once the play starts. If it's cover 2 with man coverage underneath mixed in with sending one LB 3 times a game, well the QB doesn't really have to make too many pre-snap reads and all the shifting and disguising in the world won't help. Keep'em guessing. I don't care how. Just do it.

i hated when they would make the LB's especially our boy in the middle crowd the lines and then drop back like 10 times a game. the fakey-stack only works if the opposing offenses are wary of the blitz. you have to blitz for them to be wary of the blitz. blitzing effectively is even better.

god....our defense must have been overwhelmed to the max last year. our little group here has had about 40 solid ideas to make the D better and we are just fans. surely a highly paid D Coordinator thought or tried the same things?