long read, but educational

[texasguy346]

Originally Posted by Vinny

We've blitzed the Sam more than the Will forever it seems...one reason we don't blitz Greenwood more is he just isn't very good at it. I'd like to see us get creative and put DeMeco at the will at times and mix it up...but that's not gonna happen around here much I don't think. Hell, Dunta and DeMeco are excellent blitzers but we don't use them much in this capacity. We could have Dunta over the slot and DeMeco on the edge on passing downs on occasion...but we stick to vanilla too often.

What bugs me about our defense is that it seems that it's fairly easy for the other team to figure out what we're doing. We've been beat a ton of times this year on screen passes. That shouldn't be happening on a regular basis with an NFL defense. I recall hearing about another team that got killed on screen plays the week before, and the next week in practice their coaches focused on that & fixed the problem. What a concept! If only our coaches would implement that kind of thing.

More to the point of your post I think the fear to experiment with the defense is a big flaw of this team. Anyone watching the Sunday night game a few weeks back with Buffalo & Dallas noticed the Bills defense doing its best to confuse the Dallas offense with a defensive formation they called the "Creep". As the name implies the defenders creep towards & away from the LOS. This leaves the offense trying to figure out who's coming & who's dropping into coverage. I'm not suggesting the Texans defense try to copy what the Bills did, but it would be nice to see them trying to confuse the other team's offense & not be so predictable. You can accomplish that by experimenting a bit, doing a better job disguising your fronts, bringing in players like Orr & Anderson on certain situations to bring pressure, etc. Creative thinking isn't something that's only useful for the offensive coordinator. The sooner Smith learns that the better the Texans defensive will be.

[beerlover]

now that the Texans defense has been exposed I expect them to play much better & do the unexpected....stop LT

[Runner]

Originally Posted by Vinny

We've blitzed the Sam more than the Will forever it seems...one reason we don't blitz Greenwood more is he just isn't very good at it.

Originally Posted by texasguy346

...You can accomplish that by experimenting a bit, doing a better job disguising your fronts, bringing in players like Orr & Anderson on certain situations to bring pressure, etc...

If Greenwood's lack of rushing skill is the problem, maybe starting Anderson would allow them to mix it up more, rather than bringing in Anderson more as a situational rusher. That would quickly become predictable. Even if Greenwood > Anderson, maybe Anderson + unpredicatbility > Greenwood.

[BattleRedToro]

I don't believe Greenwood has a lack of rushing skills. He started playing football as a DE in High School before being moved to WLB. I would assume he would have rushing skills and some familiarity with rushing, because of that.

[Runner]

NFL effective rushing skills.

[GP]

Once again, I ask: Was Richard Smith the only guy for the job?

You guys are doing you-know-what into the wind if you think that logic is going to somehow leak its way into Smith's head.

We're predictable. Period.

There's no variety. No risk-taking. No invention. No creativity.

It's like we're playing the MS-DOS of defenses against a current-day top-of-the-line Mac.

It's brutally ugly and hard to watch on Sundays.

But, the NFL is a good 'ole boy system: The same coaches rotate from team to team for 30 years.

Somewhere, there must be a better defensive coordinator just waiting to show what he can do in the NFL. Maybe he's out there somewhere, but oh well.

[texasguy346]

Originally Posted by Runner

If Greenwood's lack of rushing skill is the problem, maybe starting Anderson would allow them to mix it up more, rather than bringing in Anderson more as a situational rusher. That would quickly become predictable. Even if Greenwood > Anderson, maybe Anderson + unpredicatbility > Greenwood.

I'm a big fan of Anderson, but I must say Clark has earned the right to start over him on the strong side. Certainly seeing what Anderson can do at the WLB would seem to make sense if your defense is struggling to get pressure.