A little more convoluted so please stay with me...
1. In my opinion, for us, even fronts good, odd fronts not so much, unless... - Well, I guess I have go into a little about even and odd fronts so let me explain it this way. On each side of the center, O Lines have: G, T, then a TE, possibly even two. But for simplicity's sake and how I'm going to explain defensive line fronts, we're only going to use 1 TE and call it the strong side of the offensive formation. So, in a standard strong right 1 TE formation you would have to defend gaps: outside LT - LT/LG - C/LG - C/RG - RG/RT - RT/TE and outside TE.
Ladies & Gentlemen, that's 7 gaps to account for in a 3 or 4 man front. So, how is it done in the different kind of fronts? 3 man fronts call for the D Line to control or occupy the man or the space in front of them. This allows the players behind to flow and make tackles. The 3-4 at its peak was a really great run stopping defense in the pros and in college. Bama used it for years until they started to get exploited, having bigger LBs not as good in coverage. Nowadays, with nickel as a prime base defense, decisions have to be made as to what DCs want to give up with respect to the run or pass.
Though I prefer we stay more in a base 4 man front, which I'll get to in a minute, I do think we can get some mileage out of a 3 man if Durkin stands one of the kids up, essentially making it more a 3-3-5. Not my all time favorite, but decent for blitzing and as a changeup look to give to their OC something to think about.
4 man or even front. In its simplest terms, everyone has a gap. Whoa! Hold on. You said there were 7 and there are only 4 linemen and 2 LBs. So I did. Welp, depending on the call, one of the safeties or the nickel is going to have that outside gap. In rewatching a lot of games of last year, I saw effort was not the issue. If anything, over effort was. We simply had not developed the proper foxhole mentality yet of how and when to cover our sides or our 6s. Experience and a little bit of failure are the greatest teachers.
2. Need me some good Linebacker play. - I'm a firm believer that good LB play can blow up an OC's gameplan faster than my wife can blow up my checking account (not really, I'm one of the lucky ones...). But my point stands. I honestly don't know where we'll end up with this group. I'm on record as being hopeful that Durkin taking over directly will instill the confidence and play discipline needed for us to be better. I think if the kids can play more eyes up and patiently, letting the plays come to them (D Line will funnel), instead of over pursuing, I believe the results will really show out.
3. Turning to turnovers... - When we get turnovers, they are game changing. We just don't get enough of them. We are just too big and too fast not to create more takeaways. So, do we blitz more? Disguise more? Both? We are still a young team, even with the starters coming back. If we are to steal some tough games on the road and at home, turnover margin will be big. Gotta have' em!
All for now, Ags, Gig'em!
1. In my opinion, for us, even fronts good, odd fronts not so much, unless... - Well, I guess I have go into a little about even and odd fronts so let me explain it this way. On each side of the center, O Lines have: G, T, then a TE, possibly even two. But for simplicity's sake and how I'm going to explain defensive line fronts, we're only going to use 1 TE and call it the strong side of the offensive formation. So, in a standard strong right 1 TE formation you would have to defend gaps: outside LT - LT/LG - C/LG - C/RG - RG/RT - RT/TE and outside TE.
Ladies & Gentlemen, that's 7 gaps to account for in a 3 or 4 man front. So, how is it done in the different kind of fronts? 3 man fronts call for the D Line to control or occupy the man or the space in front of them. This allows the players behind to flow and make tackles. The 3-4 at its peak was a really great run stopping defense in the pros and in college. Bama used it for years until they started to get exploited, having bigger LBs not as good in coverage. Nowadays, with nickel as a prime base defense, decisions have to be made as to what DCs want to give up with respect to the run or pass.
Though I prefer we stay more in a base 4 man front, which I'll get to in a minute, I do think we can get some mileage out of a 3 man if Durkin stands one of the kids up, essentially making it more a 3-3-5. Not my all time favorite, but decent for blitzing and as a changeup look to give to their OC something to think about.
4 man or even front. In its simplest terms, everyone has a gap. Whoa! Hold on. You said there were 7 and there are only 4 linemen and 2 LBs. So I did. Welp, depending on the call, one of the safeties or the nickel is going to have that outside gap. In rewatching a lot of games of last year, I saw effort was not the issue. If anything, over effort was. We simply had not developed the proper foxhole mentality yet of how and when to cover our sides or our 6s. Experience and a little bit of failure are the greatest teachers.
2. Need me some good Linebacker play. - I'm a firm believer that good LB play can blow up an OC's gameplan faster than my wife can blow up my checking account (not really, I'm one of the lucky ones...). But my point stands. I honestly don't know where we'll end up with this group. I'm on record as being hopeful that Durkin taking over directly will instill the confidence and play discipline needed for us to be better. I think if the kids can play more eyes up and patiently, letting the plays come to them (D Line will funnel), instead of over pursuing, I believe the results will really show out.
3. Turning to turnovers... - When we get turnovers, they are game changing. We just don't get enough of them. We are just too big and too fast not to create more takeaways. So, do we blitz more? Disguise more? Both? We are still a young team, even with the starters coming back. If we are to steal some tough games on the road and at home, turnover margin will be big. Gotta have' em!
All for now, Ags, Gig'em!
