01-19-2023, 12:23 PM
(01-19-2023, 12:08 PM)Crazyjdawg Wrote: The beauty of Lou's defense is that they run everything. Honestly, I'm not sure what percentage we play of man vs zone, but I get the sense from watching the games that we're a majority zone team that goes to man situationally (and even then, it's just guessing, as quarters coverage can look a lot like 2 man coverage if the outside receivers are running deep routes). We run a fair amount of simulated pressures where we drop the defensive ends into coverage as well. In games that we play more man coverage, it's because we're blitzing. We played a decent amount of man coverage against Baltimore because we were sending 5+ pass rushers half the time and we didn't really respect the Ravens' receivers to get open vs man coverage. Other games, we don't blitz at all (like against Mahomes).
I have a feeling Allen will be getting closer to the Mahomes treatment than the Huntley treatment.
I'd expect Diggs to be bracketed all game, or at least a majority of the game, and I don't think our guys are going to be biting on sluggos against Allen haha.
We also do some QB spying with Hubbard on occasion. If you remember, the sack and strip by Hubbard in the AFC Championship game was a snap where he was a spy. The reason Mahomes had so much time back there was because we only rushed 3 with Hubbard as the spy. Hubbard saw an opportunity to rush in for the sack after the Oline kind of dispersed out, and he took it. I'd expect a decent number of 3 man rush + Hubbard/Wilson spy plays on Allen as well.
Our defense generally is really good against the run. Our stats are a bit skewed because of Reader's injury for half the season (even still, we're 7th in the league in rush yards allowed per game), but when he's in the game we're one of the best run defenses in the NFL (which is one of the reasons last week's game was so frustrating haha). No doubt if you guys can establish your run game, that will be a HUGE plus in your favor for the game. Our defense has been so good at making teams one dimensional and then creating turnovers off of that 1 dimension, if you all manage to keep both the run game and pass game going, I think you likely win.
Thanks for all the insight. I just emailed Ken Dorsey. ?
Keeping it multiple on D. That’s the way to do it in todays nfl imo. You have to keep them guessing and create confusion. If you don’t, NFL offenses usually feast. I wish Frazier would do that more often, although he tends to show some different looks in games vs tougher opponents. Then he’ll sit back in ultra prevent with 13 seconds left. ?
I agree that our run game will be the key to our offense. If we can get it going and continuously move the chains with the short stuff it should open up our pass. James Cook was drafted for this purpose (running and underneath passing game) but has been kept under wraps for most of the season. Many think this will be the game he’s unleashed. I pray that’s the case.
Watching the game vs the ravens, I noticed Linderbaum having himself a day vs DJ. I expect DJ will be angry and take out his frustration on our poor OL. Morse is a helluva C but he‘s all finesse, opposite of Linderbaum. Dj should have himself a day.
