Rams CBs and the cushion issue

I buy that they trade short yards for no big gains, with the premise that (1) they tighten up in the redzone, and (2) they are forcing teams to make long drives with no mistakes.

When Wms defenses are top 10 in yards they are also top 10 in points allowed. To me that justifies the blizing. That is, when it works, it works.

Zooey wrote:

But why not play tight? If the blitz is coming, there isn’t as much time for a receiver to make separation.

Because if you;re blitzing there’s nothing behind the CB coverage. Either way, no matter which scenario you name, and no matter how it’s done—including what you describe there—if they play off, the completions are short and therefore there must be many of them to get down the field. It’s playing the odds by keeping the score down. You tighten up in the redzone if they get there, while making them take long drives to get there, which increases the chances of a mistake.

Zooey wrote:

zn wrote:

Zooey wrote:

But why not play tight? If the blitz is coming, there isn’t as much time for a receiver to make separation.

Because if you;re blitzing there’s nothing behind the CB coverage. Either way, no matter which scenario you name, and no matter how it’s done—including what you describe there—if they play off, the completions are short and therefore there must be many of them to get down the field. It’s playing the odds by keeping the score down. You tighten up in the redzone if they get there, while making them take long drives to get there, which increases the chances of a mistake.

You don’t know the first thing about football, do you?

That’s what SAFETIES are for.

Besides. It’s not a “play on the line” or “Play back 15 yards” dichotomy. They could play off, say, 5 yards. No way a WR gets behind a CB on a blitz in that situation.

You know we’re talking about the game with the oblong ball, right?

Okay, board war it is then. Just don’t get personal, the way people of your type usually do. Anyway. If the corners play tight and the safeties are always deep help then either safeties don;t blitz or when they do they leave a wide open hole.

But see to me, the Rams strategy works, so I am not concerned. The times last year when the secondary got chewed up, it was always on busted coverages. The strategy itself doesn’t bother me. Why not? Cause, I am of the “there’s lots of ways to do it and they can all work” school of deep thinking, so I generally just accept it and look for the strengths. And press-man coverage has disadvantages, including the fact that to do it effectively, the CB has to turn his back on the qb.

How about Sunday? Seattle had the ball for 79 plays on 11 drives and scored 17 points on offense, including just one TD. (They had 3 FGs, 1 TD, and 1 2 point conversion.) Last year they were 9th in the league in scoring so they were held below their avg. So I would say that on the slim basis of one game, so far, whatever it is they are doing, it works fine.

from off the net

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-X-

Playing off and giving your corners the ability to read the 3-step drop allows them to be able to break on the ball instead of making them stay in phase with the WR and mirror his moves. You want them to be able to read the QB, and not the WR. It’s also predicated on the front 4 generating enough pressure to allow the corners to make plays. I wouldn’t complain as much about the coverage in as much as I’d be wondering why we can’t generate enough pressure with our front 4. We also do alternate who plays man in zone coverage. Usually it’s Jenkins on their #1, but sometimes it’s the other side as well, or both. It’s constantly changing to give different looks, and I don’t really have a problem with the cushions they give. I’d rather get nickel and dimed all day and get tight in the red zone than take the chance that one slip-up, bad read, or miscommunication during a CB-S pass-off will result in a 14 second drive culminating in a score.

If you play press man, take the inside shoulder and run the WR up the sidelines, what happens when it’s a run? You’re already in full sprint mode away from the play. Conversely, if it’s a run play and you’re in off coverage, the WR has to run block, can’t get hands on you right away, and you can crash top down towards the RB. I mean, there are inherent weaknesses in all coverage shells, and that’s why offensive coordinators try to exploit those weaknesses with what typically works at the time. In the meantime, defensive coordinators are constantly making in-game adjustments to what they think the OC is gonna do and vice-versa. It’s a chess match. Williams shows blitz just as much as he actually does blitz too. That forces a quick decision by the QB who didn’t really have to make one.

The way Williams’ defense is set up, he relies on 4-man pressure to allow his back 7 to play zone coverage and clog the throwing lanes while giving his corners the latitude to play the QB and the ball. Those cushions you see are designed, in some cases, to account for dropping linemen after showing blitz during pre-snap. Takes away slants. Sometimes that works, and sometimes it doesn’t. If coordinators could predict (cough, NE, cough) what an offense is going to do with 100% accuracy, there would be pure dominance out of any defensive unit. As of now, our pass defense really isn’t a huge issue. Now when the run defense sputters, that’s gonna effect everything. ESPECIALLY pass defense. Because now you have to commit to stopping one thing which produces vulnerabilities in the other.

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Some follow-up to a post already posted, above.

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CoachO

* If you look closely at the actual yardage you will find they are not 12 yards off the ball. Regardless. If you use the example of 3rd and 8, the CBs will close ground so you can’t assume that in the 2 seconds the QB has to get the ball out that the distance is still somehow 8-10 yards between the receiver and the CB.

* This defense is designed to force the check downs and throws in front of the defense. Williams screams about flying to the football and tackling. Everything is to be funneled underneath and then come up and tackle. When you look closely at the types of completions, there just aren’t many in that intermediate (15-20 yard) throws. That’s not to say there aren’t plays that result in those gains. But again, it mostly the byproduct of missed tackles.

* Not every play call is designed to end up in a sack. And when opposing offenses scheme to get the ball out quickly, as most do against the Rams, the pass rush, no matter how good the front four are, is not “getting home”. In fact, sometimes the plan is to force a bad read or better yet a bad throw resulting in a turnover. It’s not always about getting sacks.