The D, what are the problems?

[jammerhawk]

Just curious as to the viewpoints of those who watch various position groups, what are the problems?

The DLine is not getting consistent pressures on opposing QBs, is this personnel, scheme weakness, lack of edge speed, little interior pressure, or an unfortunate combination of all of the above.

What is wrong with the pass D and why is the team getting eaten alive by opposing passers? Is it personnel, scheme, week tackling? I like what we've seen from griffin this season and it is clear Flowers has taken a step backwards, but still is capable CB. Is our NCB good enough? To me the team seems to think the S group is weak and has been working on it for 3 seasons now.

Are the LBs really playing as well as many of hoped? They seem to be tackling poorly or only down field quite frequently. Any thoughts.

 

[bbsplitter]

#1 We need to stop this 3 linebacker experiment and go into nickel coverage when the situation calls for it.
#2 We need less telegraphed blitzes. My mother could predict when we are blitzing based on the situation.
#3 We need our D-Line to create more pressure because it results in us blitzing more when we don't.
#4 We need to change up our coverage more, having a predictable defense is one thing, but not changing a single thing depending on the opponent is ludicrous. We simply don't have the talent to do that.
#5 We need PC to stop trusting the defense. This sounds crappy, but really he is putting his defense in situations that the 2013 D could handle, but this current team cannot, and that is just compounding how crappy they look.

 

[seahawks08]

I agree on the telegraphing piece, I could predict them sitting in the 300 level purely how they were hand signalling. I think some of them are over doing stuff they shouldn't be. They need to focus on their assignments if they know what they are, they need a sense of situational awareness. I haven't seen the defense playing as an unit for a while. It almost feels the defensive captains/leaders are not able to put the players in right spots. Pass rush is zero and Ansah has not shown anything and is not able to be in pursuit. Either he is injured or is not in football shape would just be my guess. If we can generate pass rush, this is going to be a terrible defense. If we generate pass rush, you get turnovers. Sound tackling and stick to your assignments and do not over commit. Trust your team mates and let them play their assignments.

 

[Bobblehead]

NO upfront pressure. You can't have a defense working properly if you don't have your legs, Hawks don't have the legs.

 

[Mizak]

It’s very telling that the Texans didn’t want to pay big money to keep Clowney. I have not heard his name much when I watch the games.

 

[Smellyman]

The turn and bail by the corners is not working. They are not good at. Sherman was an absolute surgeon and doing it.

Flowers and Griffin are strong fellows. Need more jamming at the line. Now having poor safeties to cover deep could be an issue, but Blair is coming on and Diggs could be an answer too.

Giving up 12 yard catches at will won't get it done though.


Edit: this effects the pass rush too. I swear teams get it out quicker, under 2 secs, against the Hawks than other teams (no stats, just a feeling). Why hold it when easy pitch and catches are ripe for the picking.

 

[Polk738]

The turn and bail by the corners is not working. They are not good at. Sherman was an absolute surgeon and doing it.

Flowers and Griffin are strong fellows. Need more jamming at the line. Now having poor safeties to cover deep could be an issue, but Blair is coming on and Diggs could be an answer too.

Giving up 12 yard catches at will won't get it done though.


Edit: this effects the pass rush too. I swear teams get it out quicker, under 2 secs, against the Hawks than other teams (no stats, just a feeling). Why hold it when easy pitch and catches are ripe for the picking.

Griffin is doing fine, Evans was just a monster yesterday but Flowers....damn....his bail technique was just so bad against Godwin and Evans. Taylor is awful, hope Diggs takes his spot.

 

[Sox-n-Hawks]

Honestly, the biggest problem is getting a safety that Pete and Norton trust in single high safety looks. Blair might be that guy. If he is, you’ll see a shift in the defense as a more typical Pete look comes back.

 

[Blitzer88]

Everything haha.

 

[HawkGA]

Speed, speed, speed. They need to get speed on that DL. They don't have it right now. Right now they have a bunch of people who can play inside or outside, but that means nobody who can excel on the outside. I'm gonna be a broken record on this until something better happens or somebody comes up with a better suggestion, but they need to start putting Queem at DE on obvious passing situations. Get some speed coming off the edge. Start off with it on 2 minute offenses or third and really long. He's not gonna stand up against the run, so just use him at times when you know they aren't gonna run.

One other note: Pete is too obsessed with stopping the run. The league isn't a running league anymore. He's trying to stop the thing teams don't actually do. It's a horrible strategy.

 

[Sports Hernia]

Lack of aggressiveness, the soft zone, lack of talent in the secondary, LB’s playing like slow old men, no pressure on opposing QB’s by the DL.

 

[Mad Dog]

One other note: Pete is too obsessed with stopping the run. The league isn't a running league anymore. He's trying to stop the thing teams don't actually do. It's a horrible strategy.

Umm the 49ers run the ball and they are the team we have to beat. When the Rams were good, they were gashing us with Gurley. Stopping the run is important in the NFC West.

We are 7-2 and can't stop the pass. Tell me how it's a "horrible strategy". There are plenty of teams that still run to set up play action. Just because the Chiefs throw all the time, doesn't make it the best model. SF, LAR, CAR, MIN are all teams we face coming up that totally depend on the run to set up play action.

 

[warden]

Pass rush

Teams have learned that against the Hawks is to get the ball out quick which does not give the time for the DL to get pressure. We seem unable to defend the quick passes which throw off everything else. The next thing the longer developing plays are now working. The group is just not working in harmony. We will get better, it is just taken longer then we hoped. This team will never stop working it until they get it right. They always play their best ball in December

 

[cymatica]

I vote for the soft zone coverage/not disguising coverage. Almost every pass Wilson completes there is a corner right on the receiver, in contrast, we see several yards of separation almost every damn completion on us. Obviously something is wrong in the scheme behind the dline, either predictability, being too conservative, or both. Dline looks uncoordinated sometimes too, like every man for himself.

On another note, seems like anytime a team tries a draw on 3rd and long they get good yardage, yet it almost never works on other teams. Something about this scheme is just not working and teams know EXACTLY what to do.

 

[chris98251]

12 yards of cushion, everyone waiting on the offense rather then setting the tone against the offense, really everyone playing on their heels till they recognize the play. No smacking them in the jaw.

This is finesse, not physical which is what Pete said he wanted.

 

[AgentDib]

We are 7-2 and can't stop the pass. Tell me how it's a "horrible strategy". There are plenty of teams that still run to set up play action. Just because the Chiefs throw all the time, doesn't make it the best model. SF, LAR, CAR, MIN are all teams we face coming up that totally depend on the run to set up play action.

And that's besides the fact that our two losses have been to teams that ran on us.

 

[cymatica]

We are 7-2 and can't stop the pass. Tell me how it's a "horrible strategy". There are plenty of teams that still run to set up play action. Just because the Chiefs throw all the time, doesn't make it the best model. SF, LAR, CAR, MIN are all teams we face coming up that totally depend on the run to set up play action.

And that's besides the fact that our two losses have been to teams that ran on us.

100% fact. When teams commit to the run, we can't stop it more often than not.

 

[getnasty]

We are 7-2 and can't stop the pass. Tell me how it's a "horrible strategy". There are plenty of teams that still run to set up play action. Just because the Chiefs throw all the time, doesn't make it the best model. SF, LAR, CAR, MIN are all teams we face coming up that totally depend on the run to set up play action.

And that's besides the fact that our two losses have been to teams that ran on us.

NO didn't run the ball on us, we simply threw that game away on special teams, Carson fumble for TD and one bad penalty by Al Woods. Ravens ran the ball but most of that was Lamar Jackson scrambling on pass plays. I actaully think the defense hasn't been bad in both games we lost which is kind of wierd.

Much like Smelly i feel like quartbacks get the ball out so damn quick against Seattle, i'm sure were wrong but it would be interesting to see the stats on it but make sense with soft zone coverage.

I'd like to see more press man with the safeties over the top in Nickel or Big Nickel packages when warranted. I don't mind the 3 backers on run downs but after that i'm good.

We need speed at the edge and we just don't have it, Frank Clark/Cliff Avril type guy. I feel like we see 4 guys just bullrushing not even any kind of spin more or anything. Also don't feel like the Hawks stunt much either but i have no facts backing that up.

 

[xray]

Can't stop the run or pass consistently . Just not a very good across the board ; which includes the coaching .

 

[jammerhawk]

OK, but is that on the personnel, tackling, or scheme? I do believe Norton is over his head as a DC, he is very poor at adjusting his D to counter what is working against it.

Please indicate your specific concerns, it’s clear they are giving up lots of yardage.

To me, the DBs are not playing press and man enough, the OLBs are playing off and in zone coverage too and are tackling poorly, there are far too many missed or broken first tackles which are happening beyond not at the LOS. They are inconsistent. Worst of all is the seeming invisibility of the Leo and any interior pass pressure. I truly believe the only DLine players who have shown much of anything are Clowney and Jefferson.

The team plays a soft zone coverage and are not often beaten over the top, but when they are the results are dramatically awful, T2 showed us some ugly instances. This is intentional but allows teams to have free releases from the LOS. The worst part of that is when a solid RAC player like Julio or Evans shows up the opposition eats the D’s lunch all day. Of course both those players are amazing at catching contested balls as well. Too me scheme is a problem and tweak tackling demonstrates poor positional coaching.