This defense is a major concern...

[Daddy-O]

(10-02-2018, 07:44 PM)BengalsRocker Wrote: I truly believe that WJ III is directly affected by Austin's scheme.

Totally agree.  He is an athletic press cover corner that is now relegated to playing off the ball.  Absolutely insane cover schemes, especially near the goal line.

In 4 games WJ3 has gone from one of the best rated cover guys in the NFL to one of the worst.  He didn't get bad overnight, he's totally impacted by poor coaching schemes.

[Tlawsonmariat82]

(10-03-2018, 06:08 AM)sonofstat Wrote: My problem with Austin is I can't work out what he wants to be, or focus on.

Turnovers was the one thing pre season and after only one game .v. Colts perhaps we thought that was enough and would carry on...now i'm not sure.

I remember Guenther always saying he was not bothered about giving up yards and it was scoring defense that mattered to him.  

Thus we never tended to be blitz heavy and were fundamentally sound , everyone knew the scheme (both a carryover from the initial work zimmer did) and the ethos seemed to be we are gonna try and make them go the whole way up the field.  But that approach was backed up by a good red zone defense and when the pass rush was going well we got off the field on 3rd down more often then not.

It may not have been the most dynamic and exciting approach but at least you could see if influencing the scheme and playcalls and by in large Guenther (and Zimmer) had consistently good defenses.

With Austin I have no clue.....its neither one thing or the other....e.g. he's not aggressive, blitz heavy and therefore creating masses of turnovers but sometimes giving up big plays and yards.   But on the other hand he's neither giving up yards, but fundamentally we are sound and not giving up points.

I'm hopeful for this week as I do not rate Miami and Burfict will help but again thats not directly linked to the job Austin is doing

Very solid points honestly, you're 110% right,let's hang our hat on something, either be sound bend but don't break defense that limits big plays,or a aggressive rex Ryan type defense that wants to come after you and force you into turnovers,right now we're neither and it's head scratching tbh...

[BengalsRocker]

(10-03-2018, 08:04 AM)Sled21 Wrote: What's our record again????

So are we really going down this road?

Just because they have a winning record doesn't mean there isn't a problem.

Being in the bottom of third down conversions allowed and having a putrid run defense is a problem.

You just can ignore it and hope it goes away. 

[sandwedge]

(10-03-2018, 10:45 AM)BengalsRocker Wrote: So are we really going down this road?

Just because they have a winning record doesn't mean there isn't a problem.

Being in the bottom of third down conversions allowed and having a putrid run defense is a problem.

You just can ignore it and hope it goes away. 

Very true! There could be a time this season when we suffer another injury on offense and it isn't scoring as much. We are going to need to rely on this D. I think the Eifert injury is going to hurt us more than we know. He totally made defenses scheme to stop him. Kroft is good but not close to being in the Eifert relm.

[WeezyBengal]

Everyone here is blaming Austin (and rightfully so) but why does Marvin not get any of the blame? Marvin is the captain of the ship. If he sees that the defense is struggling then as a leader, he needs to communicate to his employees that something needs to change.

[Tlawsonmariat82]

(10-03-2018, 12:06 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Everyone here is blaming Austin (and rightfully so) but why does Marvin not get any of the blame? Marvin is the captain of the ship. If he sees that the defense is struggling then as a leader, he needs to communicate to his employees that something needs to change.

Behind the scenes I'm sure trying to help Austin fine tune some stuff as much as his time will allow him to, but after the leslie Frazier debacle marvin made it a learning experience where he promised never to meddle with the coordinators anymore..He said he felt as a head coach his time should've went into more team oriented aspects of the job like game planning and practice schedule ect...

[sandwedge]

(10-03-2018, 12:06 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Everyone here is blaming Austin (and rightfully so) but why does Marvin not get any of the blame? Marvin is the captain of the ship. If he sees that the defense is struggling then as a leader, he needs to communicate to his employees that something needs to change.

I don't think Merv is the D guru a lot of people think he is. His players he had at Baltimore would have made any coach look like a guru. In his entire time here all the defenses have looked the same, soft. Only 1 had the sack to play something different, he left and we went back to being afraid of covering anyone.

[WeezyBengal]

(10-03-2018, 12:18 PM)sandwedge Wrote: I don't think Merv is the D guru a lot of people think he is. His players he had at Baltimore would have made any coach look like a guru. In his entire time here all the defenses have looked the same, soft. Only 1 had the sack to play something different, he left and we went back to being afraid of covering anyone.

Couldn't disagree with you more. 

[Truck_1_0_1_]

(10-03-2018, 12:18 PM)sandwedge Wrote: I don't think Merv is the D guru a lot of people think he is. His players he had at Baltimore would have made any coach look like a guru. In his entire time here all the defenses have looked the same, soft. Only 1 had the sack to play something different, he left and we went back to being afraid of covering anyone.

????

Zimmer's Ds were soft? Huh?

[sandwedge]

(10-03-2018, 12:54 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: ????

Zimmer's Ds were soft? Huh?

Totally opposite of what I said. Zim was the only one that played his style and not Marvin's. 

[sandwedge]

(10-03-2018, 12:46 PM)WeezyBengal Wrote: Couldn't disagree with you more. 

How so?

[Essex Johnson]

(10-03-2018, 12:54 PM)Truck_1_0_1_ Wrote: ????

Zimmer's Ds were soft? Huh?

Well maybe Minn is soft this year.. 21 in points allowed 22 in yards allowed

[Yojimbo]

How are we 14th in the league in QBs pressure rate, with this line?

https://buffalonews.com/2018/10/03/bills-struggle-pressuring-rodgers-still-in-top-10-in-defensive-pressure-rate/

[Yojimbo]

(10-03-2018, 12:18 PM)sandwedge Wrote: I don't think Merv is the D guru a lot of people think he is. His players he had at Baltimore would have made any coach look like a guru. In his entire time here all the defenses have looked the same, soft. Only 1 had the sack to play something different, he left and we went back to being afraid of covering anyone.

He had a couple of good years with the Redskins too, before he came here.

[kevin]

Just about every NFL team and fans are concerned about their defenses including Ravens and Steelers. The rule changes are forcing defenses to play touch fooball. I have heard announcers in games say The NFL doesn't like it and the NFL has told the officials they are mistaking the rule changes. If the announcers are correct, the fans will soon see less of every sack of a quarterback being called roughing the passer. The NFL says the officials are calling many of these wrong and have told officials they have the new rules wrong, per game announcers. I hope they are right because the game is all offense and no defense. Hopefully the game announcers were right, that the NFL is correcting this, and we will stop seeing every quarterback sack being called roughing the passer. Right now they are over officiating and every NFL defense looks weak because of it. Burfict fans better hope the NFL pulls back on these officials or he will be suspended as fast as he comes back. Right now, defenses can't hardly touch offenses. Offenses are setting new record numbers each week. Hopefully the announcers are right that the NFL has already told the officials they have the new rules wrong, and the NFL never intended touch footy ball. We might see defenses able to start tackling people again the rest of this season. I would hope so.

[magikod]

Our defensive line needs to step up.

We haven't done shit, since that Baltimore game.

[Bengalfan4life27c]

(10-03-2018, 02:31 PM)magikod Wrote: Our defensive line needs to step up.

We haven't done shit, since that Baltimore game.

that was our only home game. arguably worst offense we faced. colts are debatable. but Luck is better than Flacco. If Dolphins light us up this week I will officially be concerned

[fredtoast]

(10-03-2018, 09:47 AM)Daddy-O Wrote: Totally agree.  He is an athletic press cover corner that is now relegated to playing off the ball.  Absolutely insane cover schemes, especially near the goal line.

In 4 games WJ3 has gone from one of the best rated cover guys in the NFL to one of the worst.  He didn't get bad overnight, he's totally impacted by poor coaching schemes.

I am lost here.

How does making him play off the ball make him play poorly?  If he has the skills to be a good press corner then it would not effect him at all to play off the ball.

[McC]

If what you're doing isn't working, maybe think about changing it. I would really like to see a lot more trying something different. How much worse could it be?

[Daddy-O]

Here's a model concept: Study what the #1 defense in the league is doing and mirror it.

You might say, "well our personnel is different". True, but when you're giving up the yardage we are my response back would be "our personnel does not fit the schemes we're employing". I mean, when you're ranked 29th in the league it can't get much worse. On the flipside, there is plenty of room for improvement.