Dolphins played "vanilla" against the jills: http://espn.go.com/blog/afceast/post/_/id/17953/sort/oldest/karlos-dansby-hits-ground-bills-running
I dont understand why. Isnt the regular season the time to show our best defensive schemes or are we saving them for tough teams so we dont blow our load one game. Regardless we won. Im happy.
Well, that was the criticism of Nolan's defense in Denver last season. It was believed that he showed everything by week 6 and the rest of the league figured it out. So we'll see what happens.
Man that is great to hear. I hope we save a lil something for Fat Ryan. I want to see that fat @$$ crying on the sidelines.
you don't understand why we didnt empty out the playbook against the bills? I don't really mean that in a condescending way because the bills sure gave us a game, but if we're going to show any team our entire defensive playbook, it's going to be the pats or jets.
Assuming its the truth, they probably came out early just looking to see what the Bills might be capable of. When the shut them down early, they realized they didnt need any flashy moves or schemes. Why throw that stuff out there if you don't need it? Tell me again how prolific the Bills offense was today? Yeah, we needed help didn't we? Err, no.
I was about to congratulate you for the sarcastic title. Seriously though, I noticed that many of the 'blitzes' weren't more guys as much as they were 'different' guys. One time we saw Randy Starks drop into coverage (the Dansby sack). Another we saw Wake flex out on the receiver and the Clemons rush. It may have been 'vanilla', but they gave a lot of different looks pre-snap, and guys weren't stationary. All very much like the Jets and some others. Playing physical, winning the individual battles and creating favorable matchups via scheme. More fun in store.
Vanilla Defense is very accurate. I watch the game with a few guys & we're all into the X/O's ... can give 80% accuracy as only saw the game once & too many tight shots where I can't see what everyone is doing. Vanilla Defense was about the same as last year. The big difference & great success was individual performances, which always makes a difference in any sport. Our guys played very good with several Outstanding performances i.e. Dansby, Bell, Davis. We played mostly Zone Coverage, just like last year. When we blitz, there is Man Coverage or mostly Man. (extra guys needed for Zone or blitzing). That's why they played almost exclusively Man in preseason ... to get everyone practiced up for blitzes & to see who could handle man ... Smith couldn't. So Davis & J Allen were in Man on the blitzes with a single Safety playing centerfield. When a Safety blitzed, an LB dropped into coverage. A fair amount of blitzing early & they got there fast & were effective, taking the pressure off the Man Coverage. Once we got the lead, no need to play risky blitzes (and show our other blitzes to future opponents). Jills were ineffective anyway, so we just sat in Zone & stopped them anyway as they imploded. Our Pass Rush was 1/2 Decent, but NOT Great. We got a Great Push & our guys knocked them way back (half of a good Pass Rush) ... but then they couldn't Shed the Blocker & make the play (That's an inexperienced youngun' problem). Wake sheds best, Misi was shedding a bit. The only BIG Mistake the D made, was this ... Culver was the Goat on Roscoe's easy blown coverage TD. Zone Defense ... Sapp covers Rosco shallow, releases & correctly returns to his zone to cover it. Culver's job to pick him up, BUT ... Culver made a 2-step-forward-bite on play action & Roscoe ran right past him. Tip: Without knowing football (you can pretty much figure FUBARs out) watch the body language ... Sapp screamed at Culver ... then Culver was intercepted by the coaches when he left the field. The ole D shocked hades out of me .... DO taz me bro' ... every week!! lol Amazing what a few great individual efforts will do for a team ... guys did great. Conversely ... don't get all crazy on Henning play-calling or need of another WR ... Nyet ... young Henne is learning & played with his usual pant-load, had a 70.8 QB rating. Many passing plays called, but he keeps checking down to 1-5yd passes ... slow decisions & can't deliver, until he learns. Keep the Faith!! He's young & that's an exploding battlefield out there!!
Oh, lost my mind thinking zone/man ... didn't give a shout out to Clemmons!! Jesus, Joeseph, & Mary ... Clemmon's first start & he played REALLY Great, like he was a good experienced player. He made a couple of those blitzes & laid the lumber on the QB, had tackles for losses, clobbered some receivers .... Dansby & Clemmons should get game balls!!
i liked how clemmons played too, but i have to keep reminding myself that these are the bills. i want to see how he handles the harder teams.
Clemons had a GREAT game, guess the regime got it right with him if he keeps playing hard and fast like that! Jason Allen was really good, although he should've had that pick-6! The D was lights out...
Other than a series of no huddle, the jills were confined nicely by the D that was ran. What fancy do you want, especially when your starting ILB is out, (at that time) your starting DE is out (Odrick) and you've got a threat like Spiller that is capable of taking the ball the distance every time he touches it... It does show the fact that players have a different intensity in the regular season than they do in the PS....even rookies know the difference. For example, did Clemons suddenly surprise some of us (yeah, me included) with his play ?? He looked like he belonged out there... What I liked was the DL depth, even tho we lost Odrick late in the game, the DL continued it's stellar play... Soliai made some plays, McDaniels made some, Langford was a beast all day, Starks was his usual self....it was really pretty to watch...
I thought Nolan running a 4-3 Base D was brilliant and took advantage of the strength of the Defenses' roster. DC Pasqualoni would have run a 3-4 no matter what, Nolan just worked with what worked the best.
You don't empty out the playbook unless its a Dallas vs Redskins game. Redskins don't care about SBs as long as they beat Dallas. True story. We don't want to be like that. Beat as many teams as you can by winning your one on one matchups.
Remember three words: Patriots-Wildcat-breakout Better to keep your best stuff in store for your divisional opponents (See wk 3 and 4 this season)
Clearly even with said vanilla defense the Dolphins didn't need to show their entire bag of tricks against the Bills
I was hoping we'd see something like this. Just enough to make the Bills shaky and concerned, but keeping enough for this painful stretch of high performance teams we're about to deal with.
Even it was 'just' the Bills, we need to remember this was his first game as a starter, in a brand new defense. Last year he was a rookie who made serious mistakes and none of us trusted him. That's a mighty big jump. Good job.