Just repeating what Chatham said on his podcast but going 3-4 also helps with Elandon Roberts having a more defined role where he doesnt have to his head so much and hiding KVN's calf injury by not making him go sideline-to-sideline.
Yep.
The way I see it, and have always seen it, going back a ways, is the idea that the 3-4 allows the LBs to come flying downhill to clean up the play. Roberts is a pure 3-4 guy, and I think on 3rds, you sub him out for Marquis Flowers and allow Flowers's speed to spy Mariota. Flush him down the middle in the 3-4, have him try to run inside, and then come up and make the play. But, they need their fastest LB This is where McClellin is severely missed, but Flowers has done pretty well replacing that role.
Something like this:
T. Flowers, Branch, Brown, Guy/Butler, Harrison
Van Noy/Roberts
On 3rds, bring on Wise (he's taken way too many snaps) and kick Butler to 4-3 DT
Flowers, Guy, Butler, Wise
Van Noy, Flowers, Chung (Rover role)
Something along these lines.
The D is deep and super versatile.
The league has seen a regression in pure passing QBs like the last 5 years.
It's 2004 all over again, when guys like Byron Leftwich or someone like that would come in to Foxborough and find themselves down 7-0 immediately, and the D snuffs out the one dimensional QB.