Paulie G

[*Wyche'sWarrior*]

(10-26-2016, 02:39 PM)3wt Wrote: Same coach, same players with the exception of Nelson and Gilberry.  Gilberry did not play all that well last year (which may have been an injury).

The big difference is not the scheming, but the execution.  Our safeties have flat out sucked, our linebackers (with the exception of V. Rey) have also underperformed.   Maualuga and Burfict look fat and slow and (unlike last year) Burfict had to spend not only time off the field but out off the team as well.

There's only so much you can do when you are just being outplayed.  Even Geno is not finishing the way he did last year - though he is still playing at a high level.  If you blitz you're putting pressure on an under performing linebacking squad and our safeties.   Our tackling has been almost universally bad.

I don't lay most of this at the feet of Paulie.   I do wonder when I hear that teams like Seattle practice at pretty much game speed and we do not.  So much of tackling is timing.  If you're practicing at a different speed you have to adjust during games.

I just think there are a lot of factors causing the slide in our defense.   And keep in mind that we were a bend/ don't break defense last year and struggled last year against the run.  Most of the contributing factors relate mostly to the players executing - and maybe somewhat to the head coach's philosophy on how we practice.

For example, Paulie made adjustments at half time to deal with Hogan running amuck in our secondary.  The players had trouble right off the bat in the 2nd half with it.  There were designated spies and they got washed out of the play.  Not a coaching error, an execution issue.

I think Paulie is fine.

This is a much bigger problem than folks like to admit to.