I just got finished watching our first Super Bowl win against the Rams from back in 2001 (I've only really been following football since 2006) and one of things I found extremely interesting about it was that the Pats were putting a lot of pressure on Warner (I think it was something like 3 sacks, 7 hits and 14 hurries) but were doing it with only a 3 or 4 man rush. The commentators noted on a number of occasions that the reason they were able to do so was that our DBs had the Rams receivers completely blanketed downfield. There were a good deal of plays where Warner had a ridiculous amount of time in the pocket but the play either ended in a loss or no gain and I'm pretty sure all the sacks came on plays where the DBs had everyone covered and eventually one of our guys got through.
Just thought it was an interesting coincidence that I'd end up watching this game only days after a draft in which many people (myself included) were disappointed that BB didn't draft a pass rusher but saw fit to use a high pick on a physical, press corner.
Thats the thing about coverage. If you cover til the clock in the QBs head goes off he checks down, whether the pass rushers are really close or not. Plays have a time limit, and QBs get antsy and want to get rid of the ball, because they think something must be on their blind side.
Another advantage of good coverage was what we saw with Rodney Harrison. BB used to send him on slightly delayed blitzes all the time. He would have a running start toward a blocker that was near the QB. So even thought he was normally picked up almost every time the QB had to get rid of the ball, just in case the RB missed the block.
BB has always stressed that pass defense is about timing. You have to time the rush to fit the coverage and hold the coverage to fit the rush.
We wil never be a great pass rush team in our base defense because we play 2 gap, which ******s the individual pass rushers ability, because we are conservative. Our best rush has always been in obvious passing situations and often with the blitz. If we are not comfortable that the DBs can cover long enough if the blitz gets picked up, we blitz less, or we blitz fewer rushers.....of we have the first half of 2005.
For those that like aggressive defense, you should be screaming from the rooftops for cover guys, because cover guys allow blitzing allow one on one rushers, allow confusion and decpetion. Good rushers get doubled often, beat their man 3-4 times a game and if you are really lucky get a sack on one of those.
Improving coverage changes the makeup of your defense and scheme. Improving your pass rushers creates a couple of plays a game where they hurry the QB and maybe you pick up a handful more sacks over the course of the season. Last year we were 11 sacks lower than the best ever BB defense, and the 36 we had ranked right in the middle at 6th of his 11 years.
What is VERY interesting is that over the second half of the season, we reduced the completion percentage from almost 70 to 57.4% and the scoring improvement was excellent. When you look at the history of completion percentage allowed, we were never over 60 from 00 until 2008. 2 of the last 3 were over 60% and if you really look at the numbers that completion % seems to have a strong correlation to the overall quality of defense.