Anytime you have young guys, there is going to be a pretty significant roller coaster. One series they will be lights out, another they will get chucked on all day long. Today's stuggles were quintessential young guy stuff in the secondary, and tallent stuff on the flanks of the front 7.
The run plays were largely caused by TBC either getting blown off the line or shooting the C gap to try and make a play while engaged. Two gapping only works if everyone is on the same page, and on a few of those plays TBC gave up the gap integrity of the D gap. This was either from kickout blocks or just simple engagement. It was pretty clear though that TBC was directly targeted early in the game. They were cracking down on him, posting him out, kicking him out with a pull, ect...it was pretty clear that they went at him. The reason a lof of those runs were effective was that TBC gave up his outside shoulder, negating the playside flow to the football from the ILB. Flow to ILB has playside a to c gap. It works beautifully when the edge is sealed and the back is turned into the c gap as the playside ILB comes knifing in. His most important job as the edge man is to never allow the play to get outside of him, especially away from the SS or if they are in cover-2, He had a tough game out there against the run, but that was never his strength.
Towards the secondary. Poor angles and rookie errors. They just didn't play well when they were exposed. The most obvious example was when they flexed 21 out to x on Meriweather and ran what basically amounts to a pick route with the slot. With the corner drawn up on the receiver, it gives Spiller a footrace to the pylon against the safety. If it's perfectly executed, it will force Meriweather to take an indirect angle. It wasn't executed perfectly, so it became an angle game with agile tailback vs safety. This is a matchup Spiller should win. However, he won this matchup because Meriweather took a risk at attacking the inside instead of remaining in his zone and breaking down on Spiller. He was gambling. Can't do that in this defense.
On the touchdown over McCourtey, they were in 2 man under. Chung needed to be there to make a play on that ball, as that play is a cover-2 beater designed to drop the ball in between the beaten corner and the safety towards the numbers. That's an experience and recognition thing where Chung needs to read that route sooner and not respect the TE route designed to keep him at home. That's why his Mike is so damn deep in that coverage, let him deal with that. They draw it up that way to pause the playside safety to allow that ball to get dropped in there. Again, youth and inexperience and will improve with time.
Other than that, there were some missed tackles out there that really are inexcusable, but will improve with time.
On the positive side, anyone notice the chemistry these young guys have together? Specifically on the Chung pick, notice how fast all the DB's broke into a perfect wall for him and advanced towards the vacated field. This is going to be one hell of a defense one day, guys, they are showing all of the signs of a young team starting to gel together.
Oh...and anyone else notice BB on the sideline with the headset and offense play sheet during the most succesful drives of the game? Hmmmm....
