How To Make the Defense Legit

[PAjwPhilly]

(05-15-2019, 12:06 PM)THE PISTONS Wrote: Yep. And the stats showed that bigtime. Out LB's gave up something like 1800 yards receiving. That was by far the most in the league!

Ouch. That is absolutely amazing (in a bad way). That blows me away. However, I recall so many plays where the LBs were late in their reads and flat-footed dropping into zones. It looked like high school film: slow, out of position, low football IQ on route recognition. 

And again it leads me to back to blitzing... Dline twists. At least attempt to push them, make a mistake, or interfere with their rhythm. We proved to everyone that we can't play passive-off-the-ball-vanilla zone and succeed. My old coach always used to say, "every game comes down to 3 key plays." And while you can always just do 3 highlights... momentum plays a role. I was completely demoralized last season whenever the defense was on the field. I imagine the entire D was demoralized as well. Driskel at the end was the only thing that made me smile, and that didn't last very long. 

I like the comment about looking at the front (DL and LB) as 1 unit. That is new to me, but makes complete sense.  And the injury bug last season really did hit our defense hard (is that on the strength/conditioning unit or medical unit?). After seeing all the injuries and just how many games were missed, it is hard not to acknowledge its impact. Hopefully we stay healthy this season.