How do you stop our offense?

[DogofWar1]

The teams that had the most success stopping us prior to bye week were the teams that could get pressure with 4, and leave a lot of guys in coverage. That's what scared me about the Giants before we played them.

Then post bye week we seemed to come out sharper, executing more, and with Garcon our receiving corp seemingly went from a C- (dropping balls a lot) to a solid B or B+ group.

I think teams are best off trying to get pressure with 4, dropping 6 into coverage (with 2 safeties), and keeping long guy home for Morris. Hold the edge with the DEs and tell them to never go after the RB, just RGIII, and you hope your coverage holds up long enough they can't pass.

If you make running AlMo the most attractive option for the offense, then you can plan around stopping him. Problem is, with 6 in coverage, you can get AlMo 1-on-1 with a linebacker, and he usually wins that matchup for a chunk of extra yards. If you have a Willis, or Bowman, or Fletcher (of maybe a couple years ago), or a Lewis (also of a couple years ago) to be able to bring down Morris 1-on-1, then it could work, but if you have a Blackburn, then that plan doesn't really help much.

Now, if a team has a world class safety, you could try leaving one deep, getting pressure with 4, and having a ILB and S specifically work to stop the run, but there aren't too many of those floating around.

And again, of course, this is all based on actually getting pressure with 4 players, a tall order, AND they have to not bite on the fake handoff like JPP did a couple times.

Or, if the NFL gets bored trying to innovate to stop him, they could always do this:

[Saqs]

All of these articles expressing how important it is to hit RG3 are seriously barking up the wrong tree IMO as it assumes we run option a ton which we don't. And outside of blitzing, which RG3 has shown he will torch, I don't see how any defender can be close enough at the mesh point of the zone read to make a hit count. The Ravens have expressed repeatedly how they plan to "hit him, hit him, hit him". I'm really eager to see how they plan to go about executing that plan.

[Burgold]

Best way to stop this offense is to concede.

[Mr. Sinister]

All of these articles expressing how important it is to hit RG3 are seriously barking up the wrong tree IMO as it assumes we run option a ton which we don't. And outside of blitzing, which RG3 has shown he will torch, I don't see how any defender can be close enough at the mesh point of the zone read to make a hit count. The Ravens have expressed repeatedly how they plan to "hit him, hit him, hit him". I'm really eager to see how they plan to go about executing that plan.

The funniest part about all of that is that looking at their stats, you'd think that they haven't been able to "Hit, hit, hit" anything all season.

[FSUSkins24]

With a stick. While he slept. But on a horse, with a lance? That man is unbeatable...

Bonus points for that movie reference.

Knight's tale?

[skinny21]

Knight's tale?

My first guess as well, then I thought of that Tracy Morgan? one, which I didn't see.

I keep expecting to see DEs (especially uber athletic one like JPP) take a step one way and then go the other. Stop the misdirection with their own misdirection. You risk getting burned and/or getting caught in no-man's land, but you also possibly make Griffin question what he's seeing.

[CommDownMan]

Long drives on offense. Keep RGIII off the field, worked for the Giants first half last game. This year teams need slow methodical drives and hope for the best (drops, stops...whatever).

Hopefully next year there is no answer.

[NoVaSkins21]

I don't want to jinx the Skins, but I agree with those who have said that long drives against the defense are one thing. Plus, stuffing Alfred Morris is another because both he and RG3 feed off each other. The most important thing is execution because the opposing defense's best friend is when the offense can't move the ball and it just makes their job easier. Hopefully, the offense doesn't encounter any of those problems tomorrow. :fingersx:

[MustangSteve]

This is a topic that's been kicked around in a couple of other threads, but I felt like it really needed its own both to prompt good discussion and to keep from side tracking other threads. The question is simple. You're an opposing D coordinator. How do you stop our offense? If you're a division rival, what personnel do you NEED to stop it?

Remember this one thing, if NY would have connected on those wide open bombs, nobody would be asking how to stop our offense because they would of scored 14 more points and won that game, nobody was catching Cruz if that pass was on.

I have a feeling we better score in the 30s tomorrow and hog the ball and time of possession. A win tomorrow will be huge! Especially if all our foes lose.

[Newera]

Our offense gets defenses so off balance they never know what is coming. To make matters worse, Morris runs so hard, it contrasts Griffs speed. It 's the cumlative impact of our offense that gets to defenses. We get in defensively players head by making them think. Which slows their aggressiveness.

[Bangee7]

I'm guessing the OP is a Ravens fan.

To stop the 'skins, I would hit RG3 all day as well. The Years pass by, but the Al Davis' old mantra..."The other team's QB must go down and he must go down HARD" seems as relevant today as ever.

To stop the OP's Ravens, I think it has to start with keying on Rice. Contain him and hope for some miscues in the passing game like Balt had against Pitts on Sun night. The Ravens will have open receivers, every team has this year against the 'Skins.

Both teams have struggled on 3rd down....I think whoever does that better in this game ends up the winner.

Hail!

[Saqs]

The Ravens did a pretty good job in the second half. They basically sent a LB at Morris and assigned the end to RG3 from what I saw.

[RVAbrendan]

The Ravens did a pretty good job in the second half. They basically sent a LB at Morris and assigned the end to RG3 from what I saw.

I think if we had more 3-WR sets (rather than 2), Griff would have been able to get rid of the ball, if even a checkdown, more often than just scrambling or taking a sack. The Raven's D-line played exceptionally well yesterday and Griffin didn't have a whole lot of time...but give him 1 more option and I think less yardage would have been left on the field.

[CTskins]

A high school coach once told me that if run properly, the triple option is almost impossible to stop on a regular basis, given a typical defense, Which is why so many high school and college teams used to run it in the 70's and 80's.

On a separate, but related note, I watched the Old Dominion/Georgia Southern game on Saturday. The option is really fun to watch too. :munchout:

[clskinsfan]

To the OP, the read inside the tackle on the stretch play would kill that strategy.

If I'm going to try and stop this attack, I'm taking away Morris, and crashing my DE on every play. If RG3 wants to run, that many times in a game I'll tell my defense to tee off on him.

This. Stop Morris first. And make RG3 pay on every play. By running the option RG3 is a legit running back on every option snap. As such he can be hit. If its my defense. I am hitting RG3 on every option play and I am hitting him hard. (The QB must go down and he must go down hard)