To blitz or not to blitz

With Clemons out we need to find another way to put pressure on Ryan. I do not have the same opinion as some that think Irvin will disrupt his game. The question is do we come with multiple blitz packages. IMO I think it's the only way to get to Ryan and have a chance at stopping their O. Does anyone else agree?

We rarely blitz to begin with, and I don't think losing Clemons will change a thing.

I am hoping we have a few blitzes with Earl in mind. He closes to the QB on blitzes so fast that we could really use that package in this game.

We may never know for sure, but losing Clemons and starting Irvin just in time for the Atlanta game may prove to be a blessing in disguise. Either way, here's hoping Irvin has a lot of success flying off the line and getting to Ryan multiple times.

Long, time consuming drives. That's what we need more than any defensive adjustment.

They can't score if they are sitting on the sidelines.

If we don't blitz this game and offer up some good blitz packages, we are absolutely out of our minds.

FlyingGreg":3gl339no said:

Long, time consuming drives. That's what we need more than any defensive adjustment.

They can't score if they are sitting on the sidelines.

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That is the number one factor. If we can win the TOP in this game close to 2-to-1 we will win.

Watching this game against the Saints.. I think we can get some pressure without blitzing.

Though I'm going to watch a couple of their games in which they dominated too.

We might come out looking like we are in man and have the slot corners blitz, and have LB and other DBS drop into zone

Blitz. Not often, but right up the middle.

Also line stunts to spring Irvin lose up the middle.

seabowl":1tyra8xp said:

With Clemons out we need to find another way to put pressure on Ryan. I do not have the same opinion as some that think Irvin will disrupt his game. The question is do we come with multiple blitz packages. IMO I think it's the only way to get to Ryan and have a chance at stopping their O. Does anyone else agree?

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It's not so much as I think Irvin will disrupt Ryan, it's Scruggs that I think will have a big game. He has been getting close when he's had his chances.

I really don't think we will blitz very often.. I think we CAN get pressure up the inside though.

However, I envision a lot of 4 and 5 man rushes (5 at the most) in this one.

We will be smart with blitzing, delayed blitz and changing up things will be the plan on defense. On offense, control the field position and keep the ball in hand with well executed drives. If we are up by 2 scores, we may blitz more, but good defenses don't keep just blitzing, that just opens up the throwing game and screen passes leaving holes all over. If we can generate pressure with 4 instead of 5, it would be ideal.

I think it would be foolish to go blitz heavy. We can not take risks early in the game and fall behind... despite what we did against the Skins, ours is not a team that is built to come back from large deficits.

I think we go run heavy on offense and play tight coverage on defense... this is what got us this far, why change the recipe now?

Ok, I'm probably going to get blasted and piss people off but here it goes.

Atlanta is a rhythm offense, 3 step drops and 5 step drops, lots of crossing stuff on counts. Three ways to screw this stuff up.

Blitz, I'm not talking send Wagner once in a while, I'm calling bandit package with anyone of them coming from Earl to Kam to Leroy, single or multiples. I'm calling for bandit packages with blitzs, one it's a hard read to make and there are a lot of fast bodies in the middle to deflect and disrupt and to give a lot of looks. Also all of them can come from anywhere and bring pressure. Making Ryan pull the trigger fast or taking away his reads will cause him to take longer to make his throws. With Irvin and a multitude of blitz options this could leave to bad reads and interceptions. We can almost ignore the run and still cover it as a secondary thought as well with assigning gap blitzs.

The second way is to beat up White and Jones from the release, 3 steps and bang or 5 and bang, is how they are used to throwing, then the long 7 step over the top throws. Making Jones and White have to fight to get off the line and then maybe re routing will again throw Ryan off rhythm. That alkong with blitz packages and getting a zero in on Ryans hot reads for bat downs or interceptions. Tony doesnt get the ball down filed anymore 3 to 12 yards is where he works, bodies all over will make those throws harder to make also.

Last way is to have the offense score and cotrol the clock, anything from the defense and special teams is a bonus as well. Making the Falcons play from behind and take chances.

We will need to do everything and take every opportunity to put points on the board. This is the kind of team that if behind can score in seconds and not minutes.

Not having Clemons and trying to do the same ole same o will not work, We have the chance to do stuff with a different look, Bandit package, Irvin and a possible LB as a down guy blitzing Like Peterson used to do. Sending a multitude of DB's from all over shooting gaps on blitzs.

Atlanta does not have a lot of film on the Bandit or possibly a version of it. we simply have not used it much this year.

Anything that can put pressure on that offense and team is a bonus, remeber they are the ones that have never been able to win a playoff game and are the 1 seed, they are suppose to be better, they are at home, they get behind or begin to look like they are not in control only good things can begin to happen for us.

I like it Chris. I say make this happen.

It would have been nice to have a healthy Jason Jones for this one.

You can try blitzing, but Ryan has a 96.1 Rating when blitzed, so it won't change much. Teams that have been effective against us this year get pressure with their front four, since they need to use all their DBs in coverage. ARI, CAR, and TB all have big DTs that were able to give us a lot of trouble...shoot the A gap and you have a shot. I'll be the first to admit I don't know a ton about Seattle's DTs, do they have any big ones capable of getting push? I know more about your edge rushers...you do need stronger guys btw, the quick DTs aren't nearly as good against ours since our guards are quick as well. Struggle with bullrush interior pressure.

EDIT: And another thing after reading Chris's post - I don't know how much you know about the ATL receivers, but while our DL and OL might be more of the finesse type, those two definitely are not. I know you have an extremely physical defensive backfield, and I'm not trying to knock them at all...but Roddy does his best work against physical corners and struggles more against the quick ones that can make up for their mistakes. Roddy used to be a state champion wrestler and likes to use his hands, he gets away with more pushing off and so-such than anyone I've ever seen. Julio is the same way, Roddy's taught him to use his hands when CBs initiate contact at the line, and I've actually seen Julio legitimately throw them aside if they try bump and run.

Looking forward to the matchup. It'll be gnarly seeing this level of physical talent one on one.

Receivers won't matter if Ryans rhythm is messed up on short drops, I say don't matter in a relative way, 3 step drop and fire doesn't happen if they are wrestleing to get past that 5 yds. Blitzing from unknown zones that the Bandit can bring means that with 7 DB's you don't know which one or two or three are coming. Cutler got ate up with that package when we chose to use it. A combination of all these things will make things more unpredictable. All of our DBs with Trufant the exception are fast and bigger then average, Linebackers with DB speed. We can cover a lot of zone area very fast and shut down targetted areas and windows.

This is just my thoughts, Again it's not about your receivers as much as Ryan, being one guy versus 3 or 4.

We have shown against Brady and Rogers that we can disrupt routes and targets, both those guys are rated very high in 3rd down and being able to find their guys. Yes home crowd helped but receivers getting off the ball and the QB finding them doesn't or should not involve how loud the crowd is.

We aren't going to blitz and we don't need to to win at all. We probably won't get much pressure from base package either. It would be awesome if with Scruggs we hit upon a personnel group that leads to base pressure but I doubt it.

We will blitz late only if necessary, ensuring the they adjustments can't be made early and that they will have maximum effect at critical junctures.

Atlanta is not good enough to spend exotic pressure packages on. We can beat them easily without. If we have exotic pressure packages we will save them for later games. We probably won't tho because the way we play defense has worked beautifully.