Your secondary reference to Ryan most likely putting in better blitzing schemes compared to the prior CS is no doubt correct and one of the reasons I am looking forward to his impact, but your larger point is really imo the best explanation for what happened with the D. It was really a tale of before Jenkins got hurt and after he got hurt. The injury was not all - the limited depth behind him was also exposed. Good post, and I totally agree.
well, i agree also that jenx getting hurt was a factor with the pass rush but mangini did stop blitzing......we dropped everyone into coverage cause im guessin manigini tried fixin the lack of coverage by dropping the backers too but really, if we kept up the consistant pass rush by the backers, we would have had a lot better record.....and 9-7 is excellent for winning 4 games the year before
I don't think we stopped blitzing but I have no evidence. I remember seeing a lot of blitzes being completely ineffective. I don't even have the DVR'd games anymore to look again because I got rid of DirectTV. (they're assholes) If you do have the games available, go through and count the number of blitzers per play and note the down and distance. Compare early in the season to late in the season. I'll bet you'll be surprised by the results.
I do remember seeing a significant amount of times when we'd rush 3 and drop everyone else into coverage. However, I do also remember numerous times when we would rush 4-5 at the same time so I can't truly say we stopped blitzing. What I do remember is how easily the protection would pick it up. We became predictable, which turned into being ineffective. Once teams figured out our defense went as far as Jenkins health, and our blitzing schemes down the stretch, we were pretty fucked. And For Mangini it became a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" nightmare.
Plus any lack of blitzing might have been because without Jenkins in there, the opponent's OL was able to pick up the blitz. It all goes back to him.
yea all good valid points.....i just recall a lot more plays our backers droppin into coverage than blitz's after the pats/titans games.....jenx def has something to do with it tho and mangini really got soft at the end of his career with the jets
