(Update, this was written and posted in text on FB last night (1/30/24) just hours before what we all NOW have learned that Mike MacDonald has been hired as our next Head Coach)
Our defense, hopefully better explained from last year (2023) as well as our tackling “problems” better explained, maybe.
Being football bored out of my gourd I thought I’d do some light reading this evening on defenses and some things jumped out at me with regards to the defense we ran (or tried to run) last season…I know this would be relatively meaningless given our coaching changes this next season but if you love the game of football and study it at the strategic level like this, then it’s fun to banter about, I think. So….knowledgeable opinions and ideas are always invited, but please keep the meathead troll bait off of my dam thread. So we were running a 3-4 the last couple of years and trying to master a 3 safety look in the secondary with both JA and JL coming in, along with deep third FS, Diggs…..LBs played a lot in coverage or were expected to. Before our injuries hit us (especially with Uchena and then Adams last the season, we were actually a damn good defense and could stop the hell out of the run, especially when JA was came back from those first two games out…the Giants game might have been the running example of what this team COULD have been like if not for all the damn injuries, which then really exposed a lack of top depth, which THEN exposed our youth, especially at the CBs, who made so many ridiculous mistakes over the season it’s hard for me to even get into. But in Tampa 2, like all of PC’s defenses (regardless of DC) the CBs are expected to do a lot of tackling AND, most importantly, keep contain on the outside edges (between the hashes and sidelines), and the Safeties were more of just heavy HITTERS, than just tacklers…so, while it LOOKED like we just had a terrible time TACKLING, it really was that the Safeties were being expected to HIT and hit hard, rather than be a true form breakdown, square up, wrap, etc. and bring to the ground tackle. You might then ask WHY are the Safeties supposed to HIT HARD rather than properly tackle, and the reason for that is because, again, all modern variations of a West Coast Offenses are CLOCKS, which are timed by the FOOTWORK of ALL players in the offense, including the Olinemen, the WRs, TEs, RBs, and, most importantly, the drop back steps of the QB at snap. SO….the REASON why you NEED CBs do TACKLE and the SAFTIES to HIT, is because the CBs CONTAIN the play, which means to draw the motion of the offense to the INSIDE of the field to get HELP from the other defenders, BUT the Safeties, are expected to HIT, because it’s designed to DESTROY or offset the CLOCK of the offense and basically stop it in its tracks. So…as an overall strategy, again, if you can throw off the timing of the offense (and don’t get me started again on DK’s ridiculous sloppiness) then you gain a serious advantage in the defense and, frankly, man, it’s REALLY devastating if you can get it from the beginning of the game and get a lead because then the opposing offense NEEDS to play catch-up the whole game, which only feeds right into your HITTING advantage in the secondary.
So here was the problem with this type of defense in 2023…
….the Refs were clearly not allowing that kind of Safety hitting and regularly called penalties, which let’s be honest, weren’t illegal hits, but were so impactful, AND clock destroying, that it LOOKED like it, I guess, it needed a flag called on them. And this alone, even putting all else aside, is the biggest reason why, on balance, we simply could not close out games. You were suddenly FORCED to instruct guys to STOP hitting guys, and instead to just tackle them??? Man, that is SO HARD to do to these guys who have sold out their whole lives to be HARD HITTERS!! …and trying to do it MID SEASON….no, that’s not even remotely possible…especially when our OFFENSE can’t sustain drives well (back to DK) and can’t control THEIR END the clock!!
Still with me?
So, last year, I know everyone wants to blame Hurtt, Pete Carroll, Jamal Adams or whoever else the media loves to make bundles of profits by promoting, the game of football is far more complex than that. Jamal Adams and Diggs, and now with Julian Love were brought in, this goes for all of them, because they’re VERY FOOTBALL SMART….so, they don’t have to be super athletic, nor be able to cover guys like Cooper Kupp or certainly not Deebo Samuel on open field passes, so much as they can HIT, and KNOCK OFF THE CLOCK of the players on offense…it will never work on EVERY PLAY, but over the course of the game, it’s absolutely destructive to offenses. This defense was clearly designed to beat WCOs and it worked. The real key though is that the Dline NEEDS to get pressure on the QB AND tackle runners out of the backfield, and we were damn good at that until Uchena got hurt…then Clark was a bust (oops) and while eventually L. Williams was just NUTS good for us eventually, he clearly took some time to settle into the team and the defense. So, again, because of injuries, inexperience, and let’s say, late bloomers, we really lost our QB pressure AND RB tackling ability with the injuries.
Given the modified 3 safety look AND our youth at the CBs (and Woolen’s weird regressions), poor Jamal Adams was just pushed to the brink to help cover for all that, which, again, really led to his body just given out on him in the end.
Last thing and it needs to be said…the Tampa 2 requires the LBs to cover lots in coverage….so, from my angle, with our 3 safety look, in an imaginary top form world, there were be slightly less pressure for an outside (right?) LB to do that…still, it seems like Wags would have been required to play deep(er), and, if you’re not willing to admit it, I am…he’s just gotten slower in coverage over the years, so that hurt us too….HOWEVER, I’m genuinely not sure if he, like Adams, simply suffered from the Youth on the CBs being so off this year, and at the end of the day, our CBs are BY BAR the deepest position group he had this year, given the fact that Mike Jackson was our starter last year, and this year he was a deep 2nd.
I don’t know, I’m a little spent with this right now but open for knowledgeable and interested inputs, but my personal angle is ALWAYS to help people understand the game of football far beyond anything the ridiculous media even on its most honest days could.