Our weakness to college formations

[ALP]

OK, so after seing the Miami game, and having watched the denver game previously, i think i understand a weakness of the NEP when playing college formations such as "horses" (against denver), wildcat, and the "pistol" formation the fins used

McDaniels knew this, and has now showed it to the rest of the league, because the dophins adopted a similar strategy in trying to beat us.

In order to counter such formations, the way our secondary plays is different during one of these formations. The play soft. they give he wr's a BIG cushin. I dont know why, but thats why mcdaniels impelmented that formation, to get our cb's to play soft, and then had orton throw curl routes all day long.

sound familier? it should, its exactly what the phins did. and they consistently got 6-8 yards, and our cb's looked bad b/c of it, geting beat by no name recievers on 3rd and med-long.

That is something Bill has to counter now, b/c other teams will do it. We need to get the cb's ON the wr's, no matter what in order to beat Indy...

 

[maverick4]

That is something Bill has to counter now, b/c other teams will do it. We need to get the cb's ON the wr's, no matter what in order to beat Indy...

I would love for this to happen, we have the talent in the secondary to do it. Pees himself is too passive to want his corners to play up at the line very often, but hopefully now he'll be FORCED to do it, given what you just wrote.

 

[pdangle]

It's funny, our defense has been built from the ground up to stop NFL style offenses. Yet when faced with unquestionably simpler schemes, they falter. Why? Unfortunately for us, the style of defense needed to stop these types of offenses is so radically different from what we've done for so long, it's no wonder we struggle.

Conceptually, BB needs to incorporate some type of flexible base wildcat defense into the overall playbook. From there they must practice, refine and live it. It's like chess (or war), when your opponent goes exotic, proven positional play and defensive strategies will eventually uncover any inherent weakness and prevail. In football, this doesn't mean just sitting back. It means playing sound D, perhaps aggressive, perhaps not. But most importantly believing in the system and going full tilt. I think once our above average skill defenders (and to a degree the NFL in general) realize this, they will eventually begin forcing mistakes, then begin countering, and eventually completely nullify this style of offense.

And if they score some points, god bless 'em. It just means Brady, Moss, et al. are back on the field - and I like those chances.

 

[BennyBledsoe]

It's not just the Patriots defense but really...any defense in the NFL. Most haven't seen these plays in ages and haven't practiced against them in just as long.

 

[ausbacker]

It all counts for nothing if we unveil a beast pass rusher in the next year or so. That's the last missing piece of turning this into an exceptionally young and nasty defense.

 

[alamo]

McDaniels knew this, and has now showed it to the rest of the league, because the dophins adopted a similar strategy in trying to beat us.

Let me get this straight... you are saying the Dolphins played the wildcat against us last Sunday because the Broncos game showed them it would be effective against us?

 

[ALP]

Let me get this straight... you are saying the Dolphins played the wildcat against us last Sunday because the Broncos game showed them it would be effective against us?

no, they got their wr's to run the out routes all game, b/c our cb's would play off, B/C they ran the wildcat....hence making their passing game effective as well

 

[Sicilian]

I didn't think our pass defense was all that bad against the Phins. There were two plays in particular that could have easily been INTs but the ball just squeaked through Bodden's (and later Springs I think) arms and the Phins receiver caught it.

Miami had 201 passing yards, and 5.4 per attempt. Those are not bad numbers for our defense at all. And that's counting a 23 yard pass to Camarillo at the very end which was meaningless (and the D was likely instructed to allow anything in front of them to catch the ball, since Miami was out of timeouts).

We had some struggles with the QB run, and over the course of the game our run D got worn down a bit, but honestly, you're nitpicking if you think this team shouldn't have given up any passes or, god forbid, a team might be able to have a successful curl route once in a while.