I saw it mentioned on Twitter somewhere that Kovacs travelled with the team to New Orleans, which is unusual for a practice squad player. A promotion could well be on the cards, although it seems to make more sense that McCray has been released because our rookie DB's are getting healthy rather than us adding Kovacs from the PS to take us back to 11 DB's. Edit - found it Armando Salguero @ArmandoSalguero14h The Dolphins traveled practice squad player S Jordan Kovacs to the game this wk. Not typical. Possible precursor to promo to reg. roster
I was responding to the claim that Rex Ryan was only better than Kevin Coyle in reputation only. Comparing the two this year, that is completely false as the only aspect of Miami's defense that is better than New Orleans' is run-defense, and ultimately, it's not that much better. Sorry if that was unclear in my initial response; I thought I was pretty straightforward though. But yes, I do think Rob Ryan probably could have slowed down the Saints offense (which is not the best in the league right now, that's Denver) better than Coyle did.
We have to remember that it is not as easy to change starters anymore since there is limited practice RULES in place. I expect you are right on your statement because of short week AND new rules. I somewhat suspect we will go with what we already have starting the rest of the year though.
I wasn't comparing the two just this year. Considering Rob Ryan's track record in 9 years as a DC, if his name were Rob Anythingbutryan, he'd probably still not be working as a DC in this league. In Coyle's first complete season as a DC, his unit finished 7th. That is a pretty good start. Rob is a name who has seldom if ever performed on a par with his brother or father.
In points allowed as they had the #1 red zone defense, but consider... Miami's defense finished 21st last year in total defense, 27th in passing defense, and 13th in rushing defense. I don't think you can simply bank on red zone defense to bail you out - which so far in 2013, it hasn't. I don't see what comparing Rob Ryan's hole career has to do with Kevin Coyle, as this is only Coyle's second year as a DC. In an apples to apples comparison over those two years, Rob Ryan's defenses have been better. Coyle's unit, a quarter of the way through this season, statistically, is actually worse than last year's defense. With the way I feel he's misusing certain players; chiefly Olivier Vernon, Dion Jordan, Koa Misi, and Philip Wheeler...and maybe you can put Jared Odrick up there as well, I don't think Miami is maximizing the talent they have on that side of the ball, and it starts with Coyle not putting guys in the right spots, a problem he admitted after Monday nights loss. Hopefully this is something that's rectified this week against the Ravens to some degree. With a short week, I don't know if we'll see drastic changes with the scheme, but over the bye week, I really hope Miami self-scouts what they've been doing poorly on that side of the ball. Let's face it, even in the Colt and Falcon wins, the defense did not play well. I fear that New Orleans exposed holes that were already present, but to the point where offenses not as potent as the Saints can exploit those same holes. I was a big Kevin Coyle fan going into this season, but some of the changes he's made schematically - I don't think new personnel matters as much as I think the talent level from last year to this year is the same, if not better - have hurt Miami. Even comparing Coyle's scheme to his mentor, Mike Zimmer, Miami's moved too far toward a true 4-3 defense with too many 3-4 type personnel still on the roster. I'd like to do a study and create a Club Thread about this over the bye week if I can, as I think some of these problems are easily correctable...but they haven't been as of yet.
R4, Saints also have played a softer schedule, and until MNF we had not allowed a 4th Qtr Td against much higher quality opponents.
As I said, I'd like to wait until the bye week. I want to see how the defense plays against Baltimore. IMO, this is a "must win" game, and I believe Miami should win this game and be able to keep the Ravens offense at bay. Cleveland did it. I don't see why Miami shouldn't be able to. But, there are holes in the defense and I'm interested to see if Baltimore exploits them. Ray Rice as a receiver is a matchup that I don't like this week for Miami. I also don't like Miami's offensive line going up against the Ravens front 7. Haloti Ngata, Elvis Dumervil, Terrell Suggs, and Courtney Upshaw is not a good matchup. I thought Miami did an effective job mitigating pressure in the first half against New Orleans, then fell apart. This is not a front 7 you can fall apart against and expect to win against. I also want to watch Arthur Jones. He's a guy I'd have my eye on in free agency this offseason as well; could be a nice person to pair with Marvin Austin as a replacement for Randy Starks...but that's crossing a lot of rivers right now.
