I don't remember where I heard this -- it may have been during the game, or on The Blitz, or Monday Morning QB, or any one of those Monday football shows... the D complained to Sutton about playing too conservatively and not "setting them free" to rush the passer and get in the backfield on run plays. I assume they did this during the bye week after they saw how well they played in the 2nd half of the Browns game. if memory serves me correctly, didn't the Pats players also complain to Mangini last year about not playing aggressively and not getting after the QB? and that's what led to their transformation towards the end of the year and yet another Playoff run (maybe DirtyWater can drop some knowledge here). well if the D play-calling continues like we've seen the past game-and-a-half, then our major issues may be solved. i was so impressed by the D, especially pressuring Brady all game long. if we do that to the rest of the QB's we face, they're going to have major problems. furthermore, take out Dillon's big run, and the Pats didn't carve up our Front 7. i'm excited to see this new aggressive D; hopefully Sutton and Mangini will continue to "set them free." cheers
That may well be the case edawg, however, be careful here. What I mean here is if blitzing very often is the only way you can stop the pass or run, youre playing with fire. If it was that simple then every defense would blitz on every down. Superbowl teams are the ones who can rush the passer with their regular 4 downlineman(playing a 4-3 of course) and of course stop the run with a regular base D, with limited stunting and blitzing.
For the future, we will need to be able to rush with four lineman, and stop the run with a base defense. But right now, since we don't really have good personel with the defensive system anyway, we need to blitz anyway. If we can go far into the playoffs, or even finish with above a .500 record that's a plus. I say that we just let it all hang loose and blitz the shit out of teams. The Steelers and Eagles are the best blitzing teams in the NFL, along with the Broncos, and it's no secret trend that these three teams are good year in and year out. Every team doesn't blitz, because they don't have the defensive lineman to draw blockers and open up holes for blitzers, or the coordinators to put together blitz packages. I think that's one of the reason 3-4 teams are the best blitzing teams. They usually all have big lineman, and can keep up multiple blockers with atleast 1-2 defensive lineman. That frees up a lot of lanes, and will force offenses to keep more men to block. With the way our secondary has been covering during our blitzes, I'd say send them, so the offense brings more players to block, and less ground the corners have to cover. Then the pocket naturally will break down, or create no throwing lanes for the quarterback.
Agreed. The one thing I would say is the amount of fronts and stunts they created , confused the hell out of Brady and the Oline. Sometimes I really didn't know if we were going to blitz or not.
Against the Pats we used a hybrid D which really worked well , and to be honest maybe they've hit on something there. Instead of going all out 3-4 or 4-3 use a combination of both with hybrid DEs/LBs. I loved what I saw against NE and I think Suttons eyes were opened into what (given some free reign) his D are capable of.
Blitzing may be the way to attack the Bears. From Fox Sports Ben Maller: "Smith's stand behind Grossman doesn't fully address the question that Chicago and the NFL have about the Bears' quarterback situation. The other, bigger, element is whether Grossman is the answer and whether he can cope with the kind of blitz pressure that caused him problems against Minnesota, Arizona and Miami."
John Vilma was on WFAN this morning with Joe Benigno. When questioned by Benigno, he said it was true that some of the players went to Mangini and Sutton asking to be "freed up". The coaches agreed to give them more blitzing packages BUT warned if they start giving up big plays, they would have to go back to their vanilla defense for now.
it's not about blitzing all the time; but we hardly blitzed at all before Cleveland and NE -- when we did, we sent like one extra guy. to me, that's just a waste. in NE, we sent guys from all over the place, no matter what down it was; and sometimes not at all. i especially liked how we brought everyone up to the line on 3rd downs, and then backed a lot of them off before the snap. and i think that's the key: keep the Offense guessing when you're going to blitz, which consequently creates confusion along the OL, as well as the QB. the fact that we confused Brady speaks volumes. this should have opened the coaches' eyes. cheers
I think the best way to put it is that on sunday we had our best "3-4 performance" of the season.... That is the way the 3-4 is upposed to be played...confusing looks and blitzing line backers and safeties....I saw hobson blitz, I saw barton blitz, I saw rhodes blitz.....thats what the 3-4 is
exactly. there was one down where it we appeared to overload the right side of the line and would blitz. at the last second, we shifted and blitzed from the left side. that type of disguise and flexibility is the purpose of the 3-4. if we can continue generating that kind of pressure - through blitz and deception - AND stop the run, this D will not have as many problems. cheers
