5-2 Skidoo

I am ALWAYS up for adding more depth and talent. Who do you have in mind? Trade? Waiver wire?
If not, then I think the current talent base will have to suffice and get Coached UP some more. I am fully optimistic.

I am sure we will do very good come the regular season…

Most are converted d-linemen with a hug learning curve. I suppose that the Mario Haggan experiment might be an attempt to have at least one OLB with experience in coverage…but the bigger issue is getting these guys as many reps in those situations as possible. They’ll only get better…leaving the question that can’t be answered yet: Can they improve enough in coverage to not be a liability when the real bullets start firing. Judging by the pedigree of Martindale and Nolan, I remain optimistic that these guys will be ready to play competently by time it really matters.

I’ve said a couple of times that it seems to me that this year’s D will be vulnerable to a short passing attack. Unfortunately nearly every opponent is capable of putting together a good game plan emphasizing short passes.

So I would agree with the consensus that we are on the right track, but I don’t think we have the horses on defense to pull off 13-3 this year. I’d be happy just to end the blowouts and be competitive in our division.

that it is still early…I am confident in the personel (especially the DB’s) but they are all, for the most part, still new with regard to working with each other in a completely new scheme…I think we will see them improve and start to gel as the PS weeks pass.

I’ll rec it to hopefully help draw a good response. (HT?)

This was one of, if not the biggest, questions I had about our D. It seems like the 5-2 has to have a weakness to correspond to the extra pressure theoretically being brought on the QB. Short passes, particularly to a TE or a player coming out of the backfield, make sense to me as a response. Will we get killed here? (Hope not!)

I think part of the solution for solving the mid-range passing game (I thought that was more the weak point than short) is to get a strong nickel package and learn when to deploy it. Endzone said that the SOLB was forced to choose between to players for coverage, and either didn’t pick the right one or just couldn’t cover them. If our coaches get the feel for when to deploy a nickel in these situations and third CB can do wonders for taking away the mid-range aerial attack.

The other side of that is, that it weakens us against the run. So if we can be very confident in our D-line to muck up the point of attack, we can feel more comfortable going into borderline nickel situations to make up for natural coverage problems with a 5-2.

Just a guess, I’m no expert ;)

that in preseason games you aren’t seeing all the schemes that could be used out this alignment. I would presume that this is the base defense and will be used to evaluate who best fits and adapts to the system. So bottom line it’s too early to tell how effective the scheme will be when all elements are incorporated into the defense. Pre-season games are like extended practices and give the coaches a great opportunity to see what works and what doesn’t so know where to focus their teaching during the following practices.

we used simple blitz packages. Its hard to tell what will really happen considering we didnt show much of what were gonna do during the regular season.

using converted DE=>OLB to cover routinely. Sure, a DE is occasionally asked to drop into coverage in certain packages, but OLBs are expected to cover as part of their essential job function. That coverage is usually on a TE or RB. In today’s offenses, those can be formidable pass receivers.

Preseason games are in part to determine whether a player can do the essential job functions, i.e., cover TEs and RBs. I was not impressed with the coverage skills in general. I’m not referring to the scheme and whether the player could determine his assignment, but once in coverage, how well he did. I liked Ayers and Doom, but I wasn’t impressed with Crowder or Moss in coverage. Did anyone notice the OLB coverage skills in the last game?

I did Ayers out in the flat twice last game sitting on a RB (didn’t get thrown at either time). Is that the kind of shallow zone you are referring to?

In fact, on one of the early catches by the TE 10 yards upfield, it looked like SILB (Davis) and the SS were both covering him, and poorly I might add. Why was the SILB covering on that play – Davis is not known for coverage skills? And on that long TD run by Miller from the catch out in the flat, it looked like again the TE was doubleteamed by the OLB (Reid) and the safety leaving the RB uncovered in the strong flat. I’m not sure who’s assignment it was to pick up the RB.

But those are assignment problems. The flat out coverage skills, the ability to both challenge at the line and also provide tight coverage, to deflect or intercept passes, to follow a cut, these are the skills that take time to learn. To some extent, they are inherent just like speed (specifically, the reaction time to follow a cutting receiver).

I agree EZ. I saw some of the coverage I’m asking about on the weakside but not much on the strongside.

and as we all know every offensive play is designed to make a touchdown. There’s only one catch, there are 11 players on the other side making sure you don’t, or do.

There are 6 players elegible to handle the ball on any given offensive play, so on defense that leaves 5 players unattended to disrupt and allow the other 6 defenders to stop the offense. Whether they are playing zone, man or blitze the quarterback makes decisions at the line of scrimmage of how the offense will be successful on any given play. This also separates great QB’s from good or mediocre QB’s in being able to read defenses and make adjustments.

Defensive players must know their opposing players traits in order to successfully defend their side of the ball and since he has to decide where the elegible player is going it is up to him to either stay with him or let him go for another player hoping he gets picked by his teammate. The touchdown to Miller in the left flat was a missed assignment no doubt, but who was the ultimate loser on that play the OLB or the Safety? Defensive plays are designed to make the offense fail and in this case it didn’t happen so it’s back to the drawing board to figure out what exactly went wrong and how to fix it for next time.

5-2 can either pass rush or run defense and it shows aggressive style of play, but the RB TE and Slot Receivers have to be covered by someone and they have to make plays on them. There were way too many 10-20 yard plays in the 9er game and that’s got to stop. Whether it’s with the ILB’s or the Safeties one of them has to defend the middle and that’s bottom line! DJ? WW? Or Hill and Barrett? Look for these guys to get exploited by the Seahawks if they play like they did last week.