I Liked The Call

On the Inside the Texans show on 13, Bob Allen questioned Casserly about the all out blitz that the Ravens were able to beat and get in position for the winning FG.
I guess Bob preferred the team to be in a prevent defense instead.

I turned off the game during the first quarter and raked up pine needles so I can't comment on the game itself, except to say what little I watched was boring. Two coaches trying not to lose, just keep it close.
In the film clip I saw on the Inside the Texans show it appeared to me that Glenn Earl was in position to stop the play early, but over ran the play and it went for long yardage.
( Blasphemy, ragging on a former Irish player ).
I don't know if it was Earls responsibility or if he just managed to get himself into position to make a play. I never claim to know the intricacies of the game.

I prefer the aggresive approach. I wish I had a dollar for everytime I heard someone say "all the prevent defense does is prevent you from winning". You know you have heard it too.

Just my

cac:

few years back Green Bay has Philly in 4th and 20 something in a playoff game ... McNabb completes a pass to Freddie Mitchell (I think) for a first down and goes on to win the game ...

the Green Bay def coordinator is widely criticized and fired for only rushing 3 and dropping 8 into coverage ...


different situation but not totally dissimilar ...

My only thing on that possession is that we dropped back into a soft zone for the first couple plays of that possession when they were backed up (within the 20 yard line or close to it?) and gave Boller time to find receivers a couple plays in a row, then when they're 10 yards from field goal range we run a heavy blitz when all he needs to do is have someone running a quick slant and pick up a first down and they have a FG. I'm not saying they shouldn't have pressured on that play, but if you're going to bring a lot of pressure I'd do it farther back down the field when they have the whole field they have to march down and the pressure is on them more to have to pick up 50-60 yards rather than just having to get 10-15. I don't remember exactly how they covered it, but I'd have our CBs on man coverage against their WR so we at least have someone with all of their fast wideouts and hopefully can come up with a pick if a bad throw is made, and then leave one LB in a short zone right in the middle to watch for those quick slants and hopefully pick one off, leave one or maybe both safeties deep as a precaution, then rush everyone else. We would have still had a 5-6 man rush in that position, which had done decently for us throughout the game, then have their WRs locked down and a guy deep and a guy over the middle ball hawking.

this is my exact take on the play. I think that is an excellent evaluation of the call and possible call that could be made. i would likely even send the SS just leave the FS back to prevent the deep pass and then drop the LB for slants and deep ins like you said. The problem with the call were the calls before it and then the timeout had Billick already thinking a blitz was coming. I mean that is why he came out in shotgun max protect.

It was good call and people around here have been complaining since the beginning of the season that we don't blitz enough. Our guys just didn't get to the QB fast enough and our secondary showed once again that they are inferior in talent and cant tackle nor pick up the reads.

MorKnolle said:

My only thing on that possession is that we dropped back into a soft zone for the first couple plays of that possession when they were backed up (within the 20 yard line or close to it?) and gave Boller time to find receivers a couple plays in a row, then when they're 10 yards from field goal range we run a heavy blitz when all he needs to do is have someone running a quick slant and pick up a first down and they have a FG. I'm not saying they shouldn't have pressured on that play, but if you're going to bring a lot of pressure I'd do it farther back down the field when they have the whole field they have to march down and the pressure is on them more to have to pick up 50-60 yards rather than just having to get 10-15.

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I disagree. All the Ravens need to do was complete a short pass and they are in FG range. If you sit back in a prevent defense mode, they get in FG range without any effort. If you blitz, however, you can disrupt the flow. You can sack him or perhaps force a bad throw. I liked the call.

If you blitz when they are pinned back at their own 20, then you run the risk of giving them a breakaway play when there isn't much time left. Instead, let them eat up precise clock time trying to get the ball down the field.

TheOgre said:

I disagree. All the Ravens need to do was complete a short pass and they are in FG range. If you sit back in a prevent defense mode, they get in FG range without any effort. If you blitz, however, you can disrupt the flow. You can sack him or perhaps force a bad throw. I liked the call.

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as I previously said:

MorKnolle said:

I don't remember exactly how they covered it, but I'd have our CBs on man coverage against their WR so we at least have someone with all of their fast wideouts and hopefully can come up with a pick if a bad throw is made, and then leave one LB in a short zone right in the middle to watch for those quick slants and hopefully pick one off, leave one or maybe both safeties deep as a precaution, then rush everyone else. We would have still had a 5-6 man rush in that position, which had done decently for us throughout the game, then have their WRs locked down and a guy deep and a guy over the middle ball hawking. Look what's happened the last two weeks when we've sat back in soft zones at the end of a game, a rookie 7th round pick from Harvard and a QB that has underachieved his whole career and is just coming back from an injury march their teams for game winning scores on us. When we ran smart blitzes we got sacks or disrupted their throws, but when we sat back and gave them time they picked us apart. We did the same thing last year against Brett Favre too when Green Bay came back on us and won the game.

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I am never really an advocate of sitting back in a soft zone (other than a prevent like on 4th down last week against St. Louis) but running an 8 man blitz in that position is not a good call IMO.

TheOgre said:

If you blitz when they are pinned back at their own 20, then you run the risk of giving them a breakaway play when there isn't much time left. Instead, let them eat up precise clock time trying to get the ball down the field.

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I wouldn't run an 8-man blitz there either and completely leave your DBs hanging, but we sat back and gave Boller all the time he needed to find men open to march down field. No DBs can cover receivers for that long, especially in a zone when someone will find a hole. My point was, don't sit back and give him all day to find people to march down field and get in a position to score. Get in his face and force some bad throws and pressure him all the way up the field. One minute is more than enough time to march down the field if you let the QB sit back and pick out a receiver.

Interesting that everyone is discussing the defensive play calling. I wonder why no one has really broached the discussion of why with the game on the line, DD did not carry the ball the first two plays of the last series. I would understand he needed a breather after the punt return but that begs 2 questions:

1) There was the 2 minute warning so he had substantial breather

2) Why the hell would you have your biggest gainer returning punts to begin with. (We have noone other than Mathis?)

compy75 said:

Interesting that everyone is discussing the defensive play calling. I wonder why no one has really broached the discussion of why with the game on the line, DD did not carry the ball the first two plays of the last series. I would understand he needed a breather after the punt return but that begs 2 questions:

1) There was the 2 minute warning so he had substantial breather

2) Why the hell would you have your biggest gainer returning punts to begin with. (We have noone other than Mathis?)

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I remember thinking the same thing.

compy75 said:

I would understand he needed a breather after the punt return but that begs 2 questions:

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Right after the punt return I thought the same thing, but Wells was on the punt return team too. Now his job was somewhat easier than DD's, but you'd think he might be a little winded too. I thought it was interesting they held DD out for two plays given the circumstances.