A little bored today, so I re-watched quite a few games. I'm still not a big fan of the 3 man front, but I tried to throw out that bias and really see what Durkin was trying to do. A few things were fairly apparent using my 20/20 Maroon hindsight...
Line - Mark said it all year. Grown men against our young and inexperienced (albeit talented) D Line. I'm not a football coach, never have been, but even I could easily see the difference in strength, at least for this season. Though the natural abilities of our kids would show up periodically, play to play we were as likely as not to get overmatched. Our opponents, having seasons of weight room strength, coupled with more refined technique, used those traits to envelop, stalemate or generally push us around, mostly. The exception was Jackson. Teams just couldn't move him when he decided he didn't want to be moved.
Our opponents also utilized our youth against us, especially when the injuries began to pile up, particularly Diggs and Jackson. I honestly placed a lot more blame for the deficiencies in the run game on the linebackers (we'll get to them) than I probably should have. Way too often, the line ran or let themselves be pushed, out of plays. Whether it was not maintaining width/commitment on RPOs or jumping too quickly out of a gap, mistakes were made, and the backers paid the bills, a lot. I did see a lot more discipline as the season went on and our aggression was much more focused.
Linebackers - I'm not going to say our linebacker was good or even decent. It simply wasn't. I personally believe backer play is the most instinctive on the field. LBs are put in the decision grinder most every play. Wrong steps, and there were a lot of them, generally lead to bad results for the defense, unless covered up by the secondary or the line. But what if the line or secondary weren't holding up their end of the deal?! LBs are read, react and fill most of the time. For us last year, I think the results showed we were very poor in that regard. Overreaction, over pursuit and failure to get off blocks were a major problem. Still, I think there were decent Durkin calls where the LBs were called upon to fill gaps, not necessarily make the tackle, as their primary responsibility. However, when the line or the secondary freelanced off their own responsibilities, the LBs took the hit. It happened a lot in the games I watched.
The other big issue I saw with LBs had to do more with skillsets. Cooper is our best LB and best suited as a "Will." Frankly, going into last season I didn't see that as much on an issue because I thought White and Russell were more "Sams" anyway. Durkin appeared to want to funnel more plays toward 45, reasonable thought for his best player. The issue was that Cooper is better running sideline to sideline than having things run at him. That concern became even bigger when White, who in my view was just adequate, got hurt. It was then readily apparent that Russell was more similar than Cooper than thought and we had two LBs who sometimes struggled staying disciplined.
Secondary - The play of the secondary was probably the most frustrating for me to re-watch. While secondary play was better than LB, which I deemed as mostly subpar, (couple of good individual games notwithstanding) it was a bit disappointing to see how much the defensive backs contributed to us getting gashed at times. I can boil it down really to two issues. The first was poor tackling technique. Poor angles. No arms. Just too many missed tackles Even our best tackler, Johnson, wouldn't wrap up sometimes. The second was freelancing off the play call. Too many times, I could see where the call mandated the safety or corner come up and set the edge or "run the alley." It was obvious the LBs were stacking up the play by throwing themselves into blockers. The play works if the DBs don't chase or get hooked. Too often, they did.
Next season, we are going to be stronger and more disciplined, (and I hope a whole lot healthier!) especially on the line. While I am still concerned about the LBs the most, I think Durkin will be able to scheme around his talent more, though I wouldn't argue with some experienced transfers.
I also expect big improvement from Martrell Harris. I think last season left Richardson with a bad taste so I expect him to lead a strong secondary against the pass and run.
Gig'em!!!
Line - Mark said it all year. Grown men against our young and inexperienced (albeit talented) D Line. I'm not a football coach, never have been, but even I could easily see the difference in strength, at least for this season. Though the natural abilities of our kids would show up periodically, play to play we were as likely as not to get overmatched. Our opponents, having seasons of weight room strength, coupled with more refined technique, used those traits to envelop, stalemate or generally push us around, mostly. The exception was Jackson. Teams just couldn't move him when he decided he didn't want to be moved.
Our opponents also utilized our youth against us, especially when the injuries began to pile up, particularly Diggs and Jackson. I honestly placed a lot more blame for the deficiencies in the run game on the linebackers (we'll get to them) than I probably should have. Way too often, the line ran or let themselves be pushed, out of plays. Whether it was not maintaining width/commitment on RPOs or jumping too quickly out of a gap, mistakes were made, and the backers paid the bills, a lot. I did see a lot more discipline as the season went on and our aggression was much more focused.
Linebackers - I'm not going to say our linebacker was good or even decent. It simply wasn't. I personally believe backer play is the most instinctive on the field. LBs are put in the decision grinder most every play. Wrong steps, and there were a lot of them, generally lead to bad results for the defense, unless covered up by the secondary or the line. But what if the line or secondary weren't holding up their end of the deal?! LBs are read, react and fill most of the time. For us last year, I think the results showed we were very poor in that regard. Overreaction, over pursuit and failure to get off blocks were a major problem. Still, I think there were decent Durkin calls where the LBs were called upon to fill gaps, not necessarily make the tackle, as their primary responsibility. However, when the line or the secondary freelanced off their own responsibilities, the LBs took the hit. It happened a lot in the games I watched.
The other big issue I saw with LBs had to do more with skillsets. Cooper is our best LB and best suited as a "Will." Frankly, going into last season I didn't see that as much on an issue because I thought White and Russell were more "Sams" anyway. Durkin appeared to want to funnel more plays toward 45, reasonable thought for his best player. The issue was that Cooper is better running sideline to sideline than having things run at him. That concern became even bigger when White, who in my view was just adequate, got hurt. It was then readily apparent that Russell was more similar than Cooper than thought and we had two LBs who sometimes struggled staying disciplined.
Secondary - The play of the secondary was probably the most frustrating for me to re-watch. While secondary play was better than LB, which I deemed as mostly subpar, (couple of good individual games notwithstanding) it was a bit disappointing to see how much the defensive backs contributed to us getting gashed at times. I can boil it down really to two issues. The first was poor tackling technique. Poor angles. No arms. Just too many missed tackles Even our best tackler, Johnson, wouldn't wrap up sometimes. The second was freelancing off the play call. Too many times, I could see where the call mandated the safety or corner come up and set the edge or "run the alley." It was obvious the LBs were stacking up the play by throwing themselves into blockers. The play works if the DBs don't chase or get hooked. Too often, they did.
Next season, we are going to be stronger and more disciplined, (and I hope a whole lot healthier!) especially on the line. While I am still concerned about the LBs the most, I think Durkin will be able to scheme around his talent more, though I wouldn't argue with some experienced transfers.
I also expect big improvement from Martrell Harris. I think last season left Richardson with a bad taste so I expect him to lead a strong secondary against the pass and run.
Gig'em!!!
