What were the other 7 doing?

OK so I'm determined to find out why our pass rush was so poor. I watched the game, but didn't really pay a lot of attention on the defenders assignment details, and so was wondering if anyone who is more perceptive than I could inform me.

(This is on obvious passing downs, i.e. 3rd and longs)

It seemed to me that that Williams and Weaver were pushed inside, while Babin was in at DE. Was Peek also in at DE?

The DL seemd to rush the passer, with the OL often getting the better of them.

Now here's my problem. Frequently it looked like there were close to 6+ offensive players blocking our 4 rushers.

What were the rest of our players doing?

Were our safeties, LBs, and CBs all in coverage? Were we spying McNabb a lot? Were there really only 4 rushers?

Thanks

I didn't watch the entire game, but from what I did watch I don't think I saw us blitz once. We have a D line that hasn't played much together that went up against a really good established O line who gave their great QB all day to throw the ball. When you give a QB like McNabb time like that in the backfield he will light up any secondary all day long, as we saw first hand. I am not making any excuses though, our defensive unit as a whole played terrible from what I saw of the game and the running game wasn't any better. The bright spots of the game to me were AJ, Moulds, and Carr from what I watched, which to me is a total 180 from the preseason when our running game and defense was lighting it up while Carr and the passing game were stinking it up.

texan279 said:

I didn't watch the entire game, but from what I did watch I don't think I saw us blitz once. We have a D line that hasn't played much together that went up against a really good established O line who gave their great QB all day to throw the ball. When you give a QB like McNabb time like that in the backfield he will light up any secondary all day long, as we saw first hand. I am not making any excuses though, our defensive unit as a whole played terrible from what I saw of the game and the running game wasn't any better. The bright spots of the game to me were AJ, Moulds, and Carr from what I watched, which to me is a total 180 from the preseason when our running game and defense was lighting it up while Carr and the passing game were stinking it up.

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This being said(and i understand you did'nt watch the intire game) but I dont know why we would not Blitze it makes no sence. Guy and Gals on the MB is Coach Kubiak saving his (and Smiths) Def. for a Div. team? I'm sooooo confused no blitze, Mario no swim,rip, or spin moves, weaver no preasure, DB's biting on a play action on the 20 yard line with 3 and long? Just don't get it. Coach Smith in his perseason interviews stated he was going to have a aggressive Def. said that it would force Off'es to burn us on long plays. Are our player just not talented enough to do this or are we holding back? All I can say is I hope DeMeco was the only one that did'nt get the inter-office Memo to just play Vanilla this week and save it for Indy.

Tx'nFanLostInSkinCountry said:

All I can say is I hope DeMeco was the only one that did'nt get the inter-office Memo to just play Vanilla this week and save it for Indy.

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I sure as hell sope not. If so, then why come out to play at all. Treat it like a 5th exhibition game and play Sage and the other back-ups. That would be stupid.

wrestler4life said:

I sure as hell sope not. If so, then why come out to play at all. Treat it like a 5th exhibition game and play Sage and the other back-ups. That would be stupid.

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I agree with you completly but what happened to our def. This is a strengh for our team and they made some very BAD mistakes sunday. Not just a couple but a bunch, other posters have made the comments that thay looked like a College team, come on. I don't know thats why I said "I'm confussed"

I think Kubiak wants our front 4 to provide the pressure. The goal is to get sacks without blitzing, then when you DO blitz..you bring incredible pressure.

As it is, I think (meaning im not sure) that if we blitzed, we would just end up giving up big plays.

Just a theory.

Grid said:

I think Kubiak wants our front 4 to provide the pressure. The goal is to get sacks without blitzing, then when you DO blitz..you bring incredible pressure.

As it is, I think (meaning im not sure) that if we blitzed, we would just end up giving up big plays.

Just a theory.

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The problem was that the Eagles were keeping their TE and RB in to block a lot of the game. Its not impossible to apply pressure with 6 or 7 blockers, but it makes it difficult. 4 on 5 is easier, but 6+ bodies to get around is a lot.

When you have 6 blockers you need penetration, not bull rushing. When its 4 on 5, you can get away with pushing the pocket into the QB, or running around the outside blockers.

When its 4 on 6+, one of your DL needs to penetrate inside the line and get pressure from within. We have no penetrating DL it seemed like.

McNabb had his 15 seconds of fame.....everytime he dropped back to pass.


Great line!

In his post game comments, Kubiak says he does not want to blitz--didn't say why--but wants to pressure with just our front 4. Where were the other 7? That's a good question. We didn't stop their pass or their run and let them 'eat' up the clock in the 2nd half, with their last drive going 9+ minutes with the game ending (15% of the game and counting on that final drive).

We got worse on both sides of the ball in the 2nd half, while the Eagles got much better. Kubiak said he didn't expect that and was 'totally' surprised the Texans were so 'dominated.' I guess that was kind of obvious because we made no adjustments (at least none that worked) to get back into the game.

There are 9 other teams with new HC-many of them first timers-so it will be interesting to see how we 'stack' up each week (spare me the exuses).

Weaver had 1 sack, our total for the day. We did have some pressures in the first quater, but after the coaching staff decided to run, run, & run, and then punt, I am sure the defense was reminded of last year as well. Carr looked good -not great- and was in control in the no-huddle, but no-one respects our passing game because we still have never unleashed it to the point that the other team is afraid of it. I am sure that the Eagles looked at the first drive and knew we weren't going to do that again, we didn't and we lost. The worst part of our offense was our defense, and the worst part of our defense was our offense. I put this loss squarly on the coaches with their play calling.

I think Kubes wants each unit to work as a unit first before we can start blitzing. Like the blitz is a reward for doing the other things right.

We need to think rebuild.

If we can get our front four to begin to put the pressure, our blitz packages will be easier to understand and learn or acheive.

IMO though, there is no excuse for not stopping the run.

During the game, I kept thinking these players look lost. What are the coaches thinking? Especially on defense. I sure hope this is not a sign of things to come. Carr & Demeco looked good and Johnson fought through some tough yards to do pretty good. Moulds? Sweeet!

tsip said:

In his post game comments, Kubiak says he does not want to blitz--didn't say why--but wants to pressure with just our front 4. Where were the other 7? That's a good question. We didn't stop their pass or their run and let them 'eat' up the clock in the 2nd half, with their last drive going 9+ minutes with the game ending (15% of the game and counting on that final drive).

We got worse on both sides of the ball in the 2nd half, while the Eagles got much better. Kubiak said he didn't expect that and was 'totally' surprised the Texans were so 'dominated.' I guess that was kind of obvious because we made no adjustments (at least none that worked) to get back into the game.

There are 9 other teams with new HC-many of them first timers-so it will be interesting to see how we 'stack' up each week (spare me the exuses).

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Well if Kubiak said this it makes no sense to me. Teams will just leave a RB/FB and/or TE in to block and give QB's all day to pick our secondary apart, like McNabb did.