Tical21
Well-known member
- Joined
- Mar 16, 2012
- Messages
- 5,541
- Reaction score
- 82
One of my big concerns for this season was how our defense was going to evolve. Since the success of our cover-3 has been so widely publicized, you knew that teams were going to devote a lot of time figuring out how to beat it. Over the first half of this season, we deviated from it far more often than we have the past two years, and it largely led to miscommunication and open receivers, so we knew we were going to just get back to basics. We seemed bound and determined this week to re-commit ourselves to the cover-3.
Arizona was waiting for it. They started off the game right away with the deep comeback. They hit floods. They ran our corners up the field and hit wide open guys in the seams beneath them. They widened us out and found the soft spots in the middle. You name a way to beat the cover-3, they did it. Richard got so sick of watching cover-3 beaters eat us up that he lost a huge gamble trying to make a play. So we finally changed our gameplan, manned up and blitzed. And it worked for quite a while. Ultimately though, Arizona adapted, and we didn't have another counter. We got caught being predictable with our blitzes.
We'll still get away with our cover-3 against middling QB's, but the good passing teams have such good plans in place for us now, we have no choice but to adapt if we want to survive. Does that mean more man? Does that mean more cover-2? Does Pete have any other tricks up his sleeve, any other ways to change the game again? Our cover-3 has been historical. We'll be forever tied to it, almost like the Bears and their 46. But it has run it's course. Time to find another way to put our studs in the best positions for success.
Arizona was waiting for it. They started off the game right away with the deep comeback. They hit floods. They ran our corners up the field and hit wide open guys in the seams beneath them. They widened us out and found the soft spots in the middle. You name a way to beat the cover-3, they did it. Richard got so sick of watching cover-3 beaters eat us up that he lost a huge gamble trying to make a play. So we finally changed our gameplan, manned up and blitzed. And it worked for quite a while. Ultimately though, Arizona adapted, and we didn't have another counter. We got caught being predictable with our blitzes.
We'll still get away with our cover-3 against middling QB's, but the good passing teams have such good plans in place for us now, we have no choice but to adapt if we want to survive. Does that mean more man? Does that mean more cover-2? Does Pete have any other tricks up his sleeve, any other ways to change the game again? Our cover-3 has been historical. We'll be forever tied to it, almost like the Bears and their 46. But it has run it's course. Time to find another way to put our studs in the best positions for success.