In no way did I state or imply that man coverage is bad.
Point taken. However, I never said you, I said I remember when... & if you look around this board, you can see people (again not necessarily you) parroting the "too much man" talking point.
It insures that every receiver on the field is accounted for, frees up people to blitz and limits the number of defenders standing by themselves in a giant patch of open field.
The down side is that man eventually breaks down somewhere if you don't get to the QB and there's not another guy waiting in the next zone to pick him up.
Exactly, eventually being the key word. However, our problem over the last few weeks is that eventually has been practically as soon as the ball is snapped. That shouldn't happen.
To be effective, man coverage needs to get after the QB consistently or it's only a matter of time before it gets picked apart.
Very good point. Again, the words "it's only a matter of time" & our defense over the last few weeks has been "all the time"
It's not that we are playing man that is the problem, or even that we're playing elite QBs. Our problem is that we're playing poor man coverage against elite QBs.
Even Henne was able to have a career day against us because their receivers were wide open from the snap. If not his first read then without exception his second read.
We've been blaming our pass rush (myself included) but the real problem is that we're playing like it's 2010 all over again. Not only are they wide open, but their getting yac like it's going out of style.
Now I still have faith that Jjo will get back to pro-bowl form, he'll let the QB & receiver think they're open then make up the space & take one to the house.
I've got faith that KJax can blanket a man for 3 seconds... he had some bone headed plays recently, but we've seen him play well at a high level for 60 minutes.
I've seen enough from Harris to make me believe he can also cover for 3 seconds.
Another problem is that our excellent safeties aren't playing excellent. Even in passing situations, Glover is cheating up to the line, Demps is standing flat footed 8 yards from the LOS, & I can't even see Manning in any of our plays. They need to use their heads & get deep. Keep the play in front of them, especially against the elite QBs that can drop the ball in a bucket from 50 yards out.
Again, I think it's fixable. So I'm looking forward to our secondary getting better over the next 5 weeks.