Why was the run D so bad? Well for one we didn't have the talent to run the 4-3 Under Base, so we played in Nickel for most of the season. JFM doesn't fit well in the 4-3 Under, we had no Leo once Lawson went down, and Rankins can't 2 gap......so we abandoned the system in favor of one that's easier to run on. 2) Rankins was terrible against the run, and Fatukasi saw less snaps than he would have if we ran more Base. 3) we had no LB's outside of Mosely, and he would routinely face double teams a result. 4) Maye wasn't playing SS as was planned, once Joyner got hurt. Then once Maye also got hurt, there were guys off the streets filling the void 5) Coaching was awful. I know they were hamstrung by lack of talent and injuries, but there was no creativity, no adjustments, no answers for anything really. I don't understand why Saleh didn't get more involved. I'm not going to pretend Q and Fats were the problem rather than these much larger issues. I've seen both guys blow up enough runs to know what they can do. Unless we have a monster draft, and the coaches get a whole lot better, this D is going to get abused again on the ground.
A trap block is a form of a guard pulling. He got trapped into next century against the Colts as an example. And when the pulling guard went the other way he’s too slow to follow and not strong enough at the point of attack to affect the center in a negative way. You can’t tell me that we had two good run stuffing defensive tackles last year but the 29th ranked rush defense in the league and they weren’t apart of the problem. Fatukasi exclusively played on early downs. If he was so good, the run defense would’ve at least been marginally better than it was.
Ok i understand what you mean now with the Guards. You may be right regarding the Colts game.....I was too busy getting infuriated by Mosley eating double teams while the other ILB just took himself out of position on his own. In terms of the overall D, it was a disaster, only some of which I detailed above. It's oversimplifying tho, to state that because we were the worst D in the league, that players x, y and z all must suck. Should we just cut Mosley and Q also? Of course not. You look at who is doing their assignments, and build around those guys with more guys capable of doing their assignments too. You don't move on from good players, only to create more holes in the cheese.
Totally down with #5. That worries me still. This defense also lacks LBs , we better land some in this draft , we lost and replaced guys basically to break even, not really better or worse, bit better in secondary. LB ,DE ,DT...still needs plenty help.
Simple. Fan base demanded a 'CEO type HC' that just wonders the halls and high-fives both the offensive and defensive players equally. When we had a HC of the Defense (Gregg Williams) we got the most out of our defense in years, and he got ran outta town.
His all-out blitz in the Raiders game was probably the stupidest call I've ever seen in professional sports.
It’s the bolded, I was roasted already for saying this but out off all the points you mentioned, it really boils down to coaching. Saleh is another flavor of the month coordinator that is not cut out to be a HC. Not getting involved on defensive side of ball and helping his DC get creative to stop the run is inexcusable.
I am afraid you might be right. It’s very disappointing that Ulbrich is back. You mention Saleh not getting involved, I thought maybe it was just because he didn’t want to disrespect his friend and would make a change after the season. But here we are, the defensive coordinator that led the franchise’s worst defense is back for more of the same
It was the linebackers & scheme that was atrocious. even if you mistakenly think Fatukasi was the problem, what have they done to upgrade the position and replace him? Nothing.
They’ve done nothing period to improve the run defense. The point is that Fatukasi was a part of the problem, not the only problem, and he’s heralded here as some unbelievable run stopper. If he was as he’s spoken about, our run defense wouldn’t have been so bad, even with shitty linebackers.
I’m not saying Saleh should have taken over, but there was no change, the occasional blitz was done to stop the bleeding, after opposition had done their damage already. I saw the Saleh interview where he was asked about the run and he put it on the LB, saying because scheme was new they were a little late getting to their spots, whenever they hesitated a bit it turned into a big gain. However to @Jonathan_Vilma point, if we had legit run stoppers, LB don’t always have to be perfect, it didn’t hurt Moseley from having his best year. We all knew coming into this season the wide 9 defensive scheme is susceptible to the inside run, all NFL teams know it as well, if all of this is common knowledge then how is it the Jets didn’t have an answer?
Idk and they also couldn't stop a screen pass either. These are things a good coach does everything he can to fix in season. Those excuses from Saleh are unacceptable IMO
I disagree. Fatukasi is just one guy who only saw 50% of the snaps anyway. I saw a big body who was hard to move in the middle. Now we dont even have that
Should we just talk about what you want to talk about? Its relevant, considering that D line was a mess and needs help.
Hopefully Jets will pick up someone like Neil Farrel (LSU) on day 3, he’s a big boy who is good against the run. They need someone to help on LOS if Saleh is going to continue to rotate linemen on a consistent basis.
Meh Fatukasi wasn’t a fit here. This defense asks more of the back 7 to help in run defense then anything. And he’s gone on record to talk about the corners/safeties and LB just as much as the DLine.
