New Defensive Formations

Last week Bowles/Kacy came up with some new formations that resulted in a historic performance as far as stopping the run, and also produced a bunch of QB hits. Hopefully we'll see similar results tomorrow against the Giants despite Revis and Marcus Williams missing the game.

Our base defense (1st down, against the run) is now a 3-4 with Snacks at NT and at DE we have Wilkerson and Leonard Williams. Where's Sheldon? Well, it looks like he's taking over for Coples at OLB now and he looked more than comfortable out there. A 6'3 - 300 pound OLB, not sure I've ever seen that. Physically he's very similar to James Harrison actually. He's a true football player who can probably play any position in the front 7 and be very good at it. He's showing great burst off the edge and beating tackles with his speed and agility, he can set the edge, he can play the inside, he drops back in coverage like a safety. It's a lot of fun to watch him play. On the other side it's still Pace, at ILB you have Harris and (finally) Davis rotating each series with Erin Henderson (at least based on the Dolphins game). Based on what the offense is showing us you might also have Pryor in the box.













Sheldon dropping in coverage:





Sheldon coming off the edge:





Now on to the "new" nickel/dime defense to defend the pass (2nd/3rd and long). Another adjustment that was made, one that a lot of fans have been begging for over the past few games / months....Snacks is not part of this package anymore. Considering how ineffective he was trying to generate pass rush this move was just a matter of time. Our go to formation on passing downs now consists of lining up two edge rushers outside (Mauldin & Catapano), and inside you have Sheldon & Wilkerson. It doesn't get much better than that. Catapano is not a household name but he's shown some potential and apparently he's been making plays in practice since he was activated. He had a bunch of nice rushes, had a QB hit. High effort guy. Very unpolished, still very raw, but I wouldn't be surprised if he got 1-2 sacks this week depending on how the Giants LT handles bullrushes, that's really the only thing he does, but he's pretty good at it and he'll get better as he adds new moves and techniques to his repertoire. Mauldin has been fantastic lately as his snaps went up. He's going to be matched up with some rookie free agent on the right side, a big guy too. If he doesn't get any help from the TE/RB Mauldin could eat him up.

Another thing to watch out for are Harris and Demario Davis playing ILB. They usually get right into the Centers face, standing next to Wilkerson & Sheldon, showing blitz and then at the last moment they drop back. Not sure if that was the reason but the Center maybe panicked a little and had a terrible snap on that play (fumble). So, no more Snacks, no more Davis, no more Pace on passing downs. Again, exactly what fans have been asking for and it's paying off.









Then there's the dime defense that was called mostly on 3rd and 15+ type situations. 3 down linemen, outside at DE you have Mauldin and Sheldon, inside at NT there's Wilkerson and right behind the 3 there's Catapano playing ILB where he just sort of reads the play for a second and then decides to either blitz, cover the RB, drop back in zone, whatever, depending on what the offense is dialing up.

Overall personally I'm happy about the adjustments that have been made. I can't wait to see how this "new" group does tomorrow against a Giants line that is in shambles. Have a weird feeling that one of our guys is going to have a huge game (3 sacks). Either Sheldon, Wilkerson or Mauldin. If the secondary holds up.

 

Looks like they're getting their starter back this week (Richburg) who has played well all year. Justin Pugh will also be back at Guard. Was hoping those two would miss another game. Still, there are no excuses, our guys have to win their 1 on 1's and get after Eli.

 

He moves better than a lot of linebackers. Hell, he's more athletic than Pace and Coples and those were our top OLB options. Would love for him to carve out a Watt/Vrabel type role on offense where you line him up in the backfield and either give him the ball or throw playactions to him, he's just a true football player and playmaker who probably played every position extensively for the most part when he grew up. He just has a natural feel for anything he does.

Roughly I'd say he played OLB on 1st down 100% of the time (base defense), on 2nd down I'd say 40% and that's about it. When it was 2nd and short, 3rd and long, 2nd and long etc. he moved inside with Wilkerson. The Dolphins didn't run the ball a lot so he still played DT mostly. I think against the Giants we will see him at OLB a lot, there's no way the run the ball less than Miami did and I don't think Bowles is going to mess with the formula from last week.

 

Thanks! I definitely plan on doing that in the future as well. Not sure when exactly, I think I have to get a new PC for that to not become a pain in the ass. Video editing software combined with those big files eat up all your ram and my PC is pretty old, it takes forever to import those video files and to cut them down. Hoping by next week or a week later I figured something out.

 

Thanks. Miles was on the Jets podcast a couple days ago, I might have the link for you, make sure you check it out. Huge fan of him, as a person and as a player. He looked really good against the Bills.

Here you go: http://www.newyorkjets.com/videos/a...nderson_/048221a7-721e-4c68-a80f-073746ed94bb

 

I hope you didn't start drinking yet.
Otherwise I'd send this over to them, maybe they'll hook me up.
Thanks a bunch as always man, enjoy the game later. Hope to see you in the game thread!