What would you do to fix each of these mid-season? I'm looking for tangible suggestions in personnel, play selection, etc. 1) Taking too many sacks and QB hits. 2) LBs cannot cover elusive backs out of the backfield, nor receiving TEs I'm wondering, before I criticize the coaching staff, what realistic solutions actually exist before the offseason. Note: "Just do better at _____" is not an answer. Well, it's the answer we've used for four weeks, and things are getting worse, not better. Looking for fresh ideas people!
1) call more Max protect plays...and mix up our formations more. 2) There really is not much we can do about that without exposing other areas on our team.
I'd be tempted to put in Watkins at RG and see what happens. At linebacker? I don't think there is an instant fix outside of better execution... be thankful we aren't facing Darren Sproles every week I guess.
I don't know that there is anything that can be done save for trades or FA pickups at this point, and I'd be weary to do a trade and hesitant to pick a FA up because who out there is better than who we have now? This is for both positions. For the sacks and QB hits the ball needs to come out quicker and Tannehill needs to be more decisive and have that internal clock running a little faster IMO. Excuse me while I go get my armchair quarterback beer from the fridge. Okay. Now, for the linebackers covering backs I do believe that's just a natural mismatch for position. The contain has to do a better job but seriously passing out to the flats is the biggest issue so far from what I've seen. The TE's we just need to match up our most athletic guy with them and hope to high hell that they do the best they can. If not... well.. I usually like to end my nights on positive thoughts.. and I'll just say that we will have to make them one dimensional somehow. edit: forgot about Watkins. Put him in.
1) Doesn't this risk going into a shell with too few receiving options (Henningball), making our two receivers and one RB easy for 6 guys to cover? I worry the options here are a) let the offense move the ball as Tannehill gets hit ferociously and often or b) max protect him and stall the offense putting the D on the field for 90% of the game. 2) I would think Coyle could schematically do something here by making more use of Wake and Jordan and even OV as guys who can cover the flats on plays. It means a lot of creativity with his fronts, and probably exposes us to off-tackle and B gap/C gap runs. Pick your poison, I guess. Against smaller scat backs, I'd do it and trust my space eaters to hold the middle (two gap them) with Ellerbe mopping up in behind. The real problem is if we take this approach versus a team with an elusive back like Sproles AND an athletic Tight End who can hit that short seam area to pressure the LB out of position. Honestly this problem is a LB corps issue and either the DL or a Safety will have to help... maybe we rotate Jones down more often and risk our one on one coverage on the outside not getting burned on deep passes.. trust the pass rush to get there.
I wonder if Watkins is just learning the playbook and that's why he hasn't started. I fully expect to see Watkins start after the bye. Yeah if a back is not as elusive as Sproles, I think we are fine. But if he is, we must adjust. Which other teams on our schedule have backs who are good in space on screens and passes?
I'm glad I don;t have to solve these problems. Problem is... that I like the scheme. I think we just need to add talent on the offensive line. Free Agents and Draft Picks.
CK had a stat thread showing Tannehill IS getting the ball out quickly, relative to everyone in the league. So I don;t think we can ask more of him there... heck, it's already hindering how much we can use Wallace on the deep ball because we have no time to let him get deep! The LB problem actually seems to be a harder fix in some ways... though I think you can scheme around it... IF you are a good enough D-corord. I think Coyle is above average, but not a genius. Doubt he solves this entirely. I think Watkins is sort of our last best hope this protection improves significantly this year.. otherwise we wait until the offseason. I pray Tannehill doesn;t develop terrible habits though. A year of getting pounded at 2.4 seconds will definitely create some happy feet which may persist once he DOES have good protection.
I agree, but the trick in the NFL is adding water to the bucket faster than it drains out the holes in the bottom. Can we accumulate more talent than we lose? A lot of guys to make decisions on at the end of this season.
I don't see that happening at all. The Ravens can't attack the entire field the way Nawlins or Atlanta can, they'll struggle to get Rice or anyone else in space.
Basically Bpk, it is counter intuitive. To help the D..stop turning the ball over so often. When this happens the opponents are playing with house money and can do what they want w/no downside. Our D is good when the offense is turning it over and not scoring the D has to do much more. Think of the Saints D when they knew we had to pass, it works both ways. I have seen entirely enough of two things: -the vague look of confusion, shock, and horror on John Jerry's face when yet another merely avg DT or DE blows by him, bite the bullet and replace him with Nate Garner, who is not exactly John Hannah like, however he is game ready. John Jerry should find his calling and singlehandidly keep a small, family owned, Chinese Buffet open with daily visits. -Nolan Carroll's really good imitation of Jason Allen, without causing the turnovers that JA at least used to create, begone foul dwimmerlaik!
I'd bring Jones down in the box and have him cover the back and bring in Wilson to play Jones' spot. Just play a big nickel and go from there.
Danny Watkins doesn't have a great football IQ, it's pegged him since he was drafted in the first round for my hometown team. The thinking is that the new scenery can sort of jump start his career but being 26 when he was drafted he may not have much time left. He is not a lineman that's going to go in the film room and correct bad technique and mistakes. He has trouble with zone pass blocking schemes, and his strength was run blocking and that's where he excels though he has been pegged for poor cut blocking numerous times on running plays. His strength is his biggest asset as opposed to his athleticism, which might be why his straight ahead man to man blocking on run plays is when he shines, will the Fins sacrifice suspect pass blocking for the solid run blocking? I do think their run blocking can use a boost, Lamar Miller can be a Dangerous runner when he gets in the open field but he does need some holes to traverse. Hey at this point it can't hurt to put him in there, can it? Just temper your expectations with him.
1) I'd do what every team has done to us to slow down our rush, since the Patriots lucked into Brady....screens. Get more screens out to Wallace and/or Thigpen/Miller. IMHO, effective screens have been the key to Brady's success. Nothing makes a defense slow the eff down like like little dump offs that get 20+ yards (see:last night). Get Egnew and Clay out in front of Thigpen/Miller/Wallace and let them do what they do. Stop getting cute. For the long term, draft a Sproles/Tavon Austin clone and a couple of guards. 2) Drop a LB for a DB and make the RB his man. Stop getting cute. Draft a LB that can cover.
Nah... I watch a lot of the Ravens because Rice is my boy in my money fantasy league. The playcalling and Joe Flacco have been extremely frustrating so I doubt he goes off on us... not to mention both he and Pierce are banged up.
1. we go empty backfield a lot. Often in shotgun. More then is needed IMO. I get scared every time i see it. Max protect sucks but we need to do it more often. It's not philbins cup of tea as a high octane offensive guy but we need Tannehill upright. I don't want to run it anywhere near what henning used to do, but we gotta keep tanny upward. 2. I got nothing. On both of the TD's to Jimmy Graham last night, the guys covering him knew it was going to him and it didn't matter at all. Very hard to watch. the double move on reshad jones by sproles was brutal too. All jones fault.
That may have already happened with Jelani Jenkins. He got quite a bit of run time in the 2nd half last night, and was considerably better than Philip Wheeler was...which isn't saying very much. But I think long-term, that can be a niche that Jenkins carves out for himself.
This. I suggested this yesterday. Wilson is a safety not a corner. A few years ago the Giants won a Super Bowl using a 3rd safety as a cover LB. It can work. On a different note the Tannehill issue I would roll him out and use more play-action. To do that though you need to run Miller and/or Thomas and need them both to be effective.
I noticed it as well, and Trusnik was on the field quite a bit I thought. Really liked the Jenkins pick.
Need more cow bell, as in read option, read option play action, roll out left, roll out right..have we even run the draw play this year, mis direction, traps, play the freakin game like the great offenses do, misdirection seems like it's not what Sherman is about..he's 3 and 1 thus far but to beat the ravens before the bye your gonna have to call a great game, and to me that means keeping them off balance with what direction the play is going to. We ran one read option play on Sunday moving our average up to about 12 yards a carry on 11 carries by Tannehill.
We ran more than one on Monday, but Tannehill only kept it once as I recall. He handed it to the back off the read option too.
In the second half, how many total offensive plays did the Saints run. I'm guessing maybe 20 in the 4th qtr to close it out It would seem one is not following the context argument one made with R4, Jenkins was out in nickel packages which is what was alluded to.
The Saints ran 71 total plays. I guess if you want to know how many in the 2nd half or 4th quarter, you can count them off the play by play chart on nfl.com.
1) Run the ball more. Keep the down and distance reasonable to stay out of obvious passing situations that require long-developing routes. And I'm with FinD: let these RBs chip and leak out for dump-offs more often, the way Rice kills teams every week. There's a pace and feel to this kind of game that he's mastered - hopefully DT can get it down, maybe Miller. This also makes teams think twice about blitzing, imo, risking being down bodies downfield to contain these good pass-catching space RBs. 2) Blitz more. Sproles will have a hard time running patterns if we bring heat at him and Brees. He'd have to step in to at least chip. Same goes for mismatch TEs - make them block. Get physical with these guys within 5 yards, too.
The thing with our pass pro is that we are losing one on one match ups, particularly on the right side of the line. John Jerry and Tyson Clabo are simply getting beat one on one. There isn't a lot that max protection can do to help players win their one on one match ups. Heck, Ryan was pressured on 15 drop backs against the Saints. The Saints only blitzed him 3 times the entire game, so our 5 up front was getting beat by their 3 and 4 man rushes. Note that Ryan was not sacked a single time when New Orleans blitzed, and he was 3 for 3 for 78 yards and a 118.8 QBR against the blitz. The Saints and Falcons neutralized Miami's pass rush with the quick pass. Rather than throwing multiple blockers at the situation, I think Miami simply needs to work hard on their short passing game and getting the backs more involved in the passing game. The personnel issues will have to be tackled in the offseason.
May not be an in season fix for these issues. We came into this season a flawed team. They knew it, we knew it. Can't fix every hole in one off season. Staff will probably have to coach these guys up the best they can and keep sending them out there.
How do you not trade for Brandon Albert and go into the season with $20 million in cap room and an offensive line like ours?
TBF, we did go after Lance Louis and Tyson Clabo. Clabo has been really bad so far and Louis just never fully recovered. Jerry used to be serviceable and would be good enough if more than 2/5 of our linement were actually playing football.
You're right. But we've been aware of this problem since training camp. Why settle for the low priced options when we could have afforded people who were a lot closer to a sure thing than Clabo and Louis? The problem with lowballing and insisting on a bargain is that you go home empty-handed when the other guy says no. http://beforeitsnews.com/sports/201...to-add-veteran-offensive-lineman-2522224.html
Im not being facetious, when did he do this? I honestly don't remember Jason Allen ever doing anything good for us. Do you have any examples? edit: With the exception of special team's play.
1. move the pocket and let Tanny run more........but mainly, move the pocket. 2. Dont know. BUT, answer me this, plz.....why can't a safety or LB drill the RB at the LOS and knock the timing off of the screen play? GET PHYSICAL with the guy. Don't you have the right to hit the RB before 5 yards? He can't catch it if he is on his back.
The thing I want fixed, even though ryan is not getting a proper timeframe to set and release, is the awareness of the rush, the ability to quickly maneuver the pocket, and the ability to multitask everything while being conscious of ball security by the QB.
All the good suggestions are taken, lol. I would favor moving the pocket and going more horizontal in the passing game. We kinda do a lot of everything on offense, but not too many things very well. There really is no identity. It's not really west coast, or a zone scheme or a hurry up. It's a little of everything. At least to my eyes
I really think the solutions have been mentioned in a few diff posts. 1) screens. Become good at running screens. Right now we are not a good screen team. Mix in quick slants and other quick passes, then when you have the defense confused at what you run, then you can start mixing in some deeper throws. However, I really think you need to make an effort at the beginning of the game to get Wallace involved. I know Philbin probably hates that idea, but a few quick throws just to get him into the game and in the minds of the Defense. 2) Get some hits on the RB and TE coming out. At least a little bit just to effect his timing a bit. Sometimes I wonder if it would be better to let the DE hit the TE on his way to the QB. Slows down the rush, but can really play with the timing on the pass play.
