LFITQ wrote:This one is simple IMHO. And it doesn't require a lot of changing of personnel.
Back to basics.
Our Secondary can't go from Lockdown U to Meltdown U in the course of one season without help. IMHO this is because of schemes and to do with letting the inmates run the asylum. Ritchie held an iron fist over his defence. Players loved Ritchie and respected his knowledge. IMO Benevides doesn't command the same level of respect, and I doubt he demands he either. As the new guy on the block, I believe the players are given more freedoms in their coverage than would have happened under Ritchie. Add to the fact Washington is now a secondary coach and not far enough removed from the players he used to play with, and I think you have a secondary that is more loose than focussed.
How to fix that? Simple. Get back to basics. Have Benevides and Washington lay down the law this week. Bring back some tapes of Ritchie's defence and re-integrate that back into the fold.
As for LB'ers - it again goes back to basics. Glatt, though often much maligned on this board this season, is still young and that youthfulness tells me that he can't go from a top notch MLB to relegated to Special Teams in the course of one season - at least not without help. Add to this fact that I believe Glatt leads the league in "tackles for a loss", shows me that Glatt still has the ability to be effective. The problem here is that the schemes often take him out of position and team's are running to where he is not, forcing him to play "catch up". Again going back to a basic MLB position where he has a main responsibility for stopping the run and I bet you improve the LB play immensely. Sometimes coaches can over-think their schemes and actually draw players out of their main responsibility. Coaches can forget the basic role of each player and try and do something weird and strange to confuse the offense. Most of the time this isn't working with today's offenses.
On the front line I would basically increase the rotation. Our bread and butter with this defense is pressure on the QB. So you send pressure and you keep the front line fresh. Keep the rotation going strong, keep the bodies fresh, keep the front line going after the QB and getting the pressure to force mistakes. Last week's game was a prime example of how we kept going to a 3 (or even) 2 man rush on the backup QB's letting them get their feet and feel confident. Send a 4 or 5 man rush and they get a little more agitated and bouncy.
IT can be done, but the change has to come from the coaches on D, and not necessarily in the manner of player personnel changes. We have the horses, we jsut have to understand how they work most effectively and not take them out of their element.
Good post. Having a first-year defensive coordinator and defensive backfield coach has been the team's biggest weakness this year. Some of the rotations, coverages and assignments have not put players in position to make plays.
