Killer, back-breaking, TD-returns

zn wrote:

I happen to think that any viable NFL system can be executed well. So I am not big on choosing among systems. In many different discussions over the years, what often appear to some to be inherent and fatal system flaws will then, on the field, work fine…I’ve seen that happen over the years. Though I would be silly to promise that because I would have to see it myself before I thought that had happened.

Having said that, it is common for people to resist Wms. because he appears to be too risky. My own feeling is that they have to work on execution more than anything. I felt the same way about the offense.

OK, I’ll just try this one more time.

My beef is not with blitzing per se. As I have repeated ad nauseum, I was impressed with the AZ DC who called a very aggressive game with lots of blitzes BUT played a sound deployment at the same time. In the Ram games, I never saw him sacrifice good coverage of the field for his blitzes and he blitzed like crazy.

I’m not arguing that a blitzing defense is a bad thing. I’ve never said that and never intended it. I would never begin to say that a particular NFL system can’t be executed well, or that we need to have 1 system over another. It’s fine for you to say you don’t like that kind of thing if you want to. I don’t really see how those comments, however, respond to what I have been saying.

I have made very specific arguments, and I am NOT interested in meta-discussions about different perspectives or many different discussions over the years or arguments I haven’t made. I don’t care about all of that.

When I complain about Williams’ blitzing it is NOT just about blitzing as such. It’s about specific things. It’s about our superb D Front which is negated when a QB can unload a ball easily in 1.5 seconds because the WRs are left wide open. Ag puts it this way:

what about not blitzing and trying to cover for the first 2 seconds? Let 4 players rush and try to force the QB to throw the ball quickly. I think we have the players to do that.

We do have the players for that. If they get a chance. But we have a DC who could not figure out how to get Quinn and the others a bit of time to get to the QB for a freaking 1/4 of the season. That is criminal negligence in strategic terms. It is about a DC who could not recognize and get value from his best asset apparently until the HC told him to change course. You don’t negate that very specific criticism by ignoring it and saying that any system can work.

And, you know, I would argue that the problem IS NOT that Williams is risky. I don’t think I’ve ever said he was. I would argue that he played scared last season. He blitzed aggressively. But, he played his DBs so far back that the chance of getting burned deep was (or should have been) reduced. Typically, a blitzing defense takes chances by playing aggressive, man coverage behind the blitz. Williams did NOT do that. He played loose deep and aggressively up front.

To me, that’s an incoherent “system” at odds with itself. Conceding the quick throw while blitzing is a self-defeating tactic, a pair of mutually contradictory deployments. It’s what I mean by being unsound.

And, paradoxically, I think it does lead to the big play at times. Especially when you have an itchy CB like JJ. JJ’s instincts are to come up and challenge the short throw. He struggles to have the discipline to sit back and contain. So he bites up and gets burned deep. And he’s our most gifted DB. Notice that Gaines, who has less physical talent, played smarter and with more discipline and made fewer mistakes. As a rookie.

Now, about JJ, you qualified his problems: “unless he learns.” Well, OK. Sure. He might learn. The point is that he was being deployed last year AGAINST his strengths and instincts. I think that over the years we have called for DCs and OCs to recognize and use their players’ strengths. Williams at least SHARES the responsibility for an itchy player’s big mistakes when deploying him against his instincts. Again, a specific criticism. Not a system criticism.

And, once again, I resist the idea of focusing on big mistakes and on its corollary, the notion that our problem last year was taking risks. I don’t think that was the problem.

For every one big play we gave up, there were 5-6 1st downs conceded with soft or unsound deployment. We “couldn’t get off the field.” That’s a specific problem quite different from big plays. And in my mind it’s far more damaging. Let a QB get comfortable pitching and catching and you concede the game’s momentum. In those games where we gave up leads, we did it not just with a few big plays, but with cheap, soft concessions of yardage and 1st downs.

I’ve already talked about one big reason–the soft deployments of the DBs. But there’s another.

I cringe thinking about the numerous concessions of runs that hurt us. A few were big plays. Others were just, say, 14 yards and new downs. Sometimes the problem lay in guys getting blocked. That’s a problem in itself. Can our front 7 learn to fight the running game more consistently?

But a lot of it goes back to deployments. And again the comparison with the AZ guy is telling. Unlike AZ, we were frequently caught in some exotic rotation which left big seams, 2 guys covering half the field, etc. When you actually look at some of those plays, it is obvious why the runs worked. Our guys were unsoundly deployed. In order to show some creative blitz pattern. Which Couldn’t work with the DBs playing off. Or would give up the run with ease.

We conceded so many 1st downs, so many yards early in the season, then somewhat less, then again at the end. It’s one thing getting beat. It’s another when the door just opens and an opponent is invited to romp. That’s why they say, “that was too easy.”

Of course, one can simply say, “all of that is down to guys making mistakes.” OK. As for me, the notion that a defense as talented as ours was allowed to make SO MANY MISTAKES throughout pre-season games and far enough into the season to leave us in a deep, deep hole … and that it was just about mostly veteran players making mistakes in a new system … well, to me that’s simply letting the coaching staff off the hook.

Now, of course, ZN, you see these things differently. That’s of course fine. But I’m frankly not interested in meta-commentary that dismisses the specific, clear arguments, I’ve tried to make.

All of this started when WV said “hey, the big plays will be down and that’ll make a difference” and I simply offered a few reasons to question that assumption. WV will continue to see what he sees and to testify to it. I will do the same.