WP: NFL defenses forced to explore their options entering 2013 season

[Califan007 The Constipated]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/nfl-defenses-forced-to-explore-their-options-entering-2013-season/2013/07/23/9abde590-b100-11e2-9fb1-62de9581c946_story.html

 

 

College-style option offenses became all the rage in the NFL last season. The Washington Redskins devised what Coach Mike Shanahan called their “East Coast offense” for quarterback Robert Griffin III and won the NFC East, while Griffin was named the offensive rookie of the year. The San Francisco 49ers reached the Super Bowl after turning to second-year pro Colin Kaepernick at quarterback and employing similar tactics.
                        

So the primary task for defensive coordinators league-wide this offseason has been clear: find new ways to deal with the option-game offensive systems. That homework assignment will be due soon, with NFL training camps opening.

 

Former NFL coach Dan Reeves said he suspects some teams spent the offseason studying the Ravens, who used the experience from their regular season game against Griffin and the Redskins to help them beat Kaepernick and the 49ers in the Super Bowl, for clues about how to deal with the option offenses.

 

“They’re all copycats,” Reeves said. “They’ll see what someone else did and try to do that. I think it helped the Ravens that they had played against it earlier with that Washington game.”

 

The key for defenses going forward, Reeves said, will be to make such an offense one-dimensional, dictating either that the quarterback always keep the ball on option plays or always get rid of it to his running back. Defenses also must learn to play in a more disciplined, organized manner, according to Reeves, with defenders remaining in their assigned spots and lanes rather than trying to chase the ball too zealously.
                        

“You’ve got to have it coordinated, that’s how I’d put it, or it kills you,” Reeves said. “It’s like Coach [Tom] Landry years ago with his ‘flex’ defense. Everyone had a gap. You have to be coordinated like that and you can’t start following the football around.”

 

Others talk about NFL secondaries needing to play zone rather than man-to-man coverages so defensive backs aren’t chasing receivers and are able to provide help against running quarterbacks. They talk about teams needing cornerbacks who are good tacklers because they must help on the outside against teams that use option plays.

 

“In terms of how teams are going to deal with it, I think you’ll see a bunch of different reactions,” said Hasselbeck, now an NFL analyst for ESPN. “People will try different things with their alignments and their approaches, different secondary reactions and things like that. Everyone is going to say, ‘Hit the quarterback. Hit the quarterback.’ But when you look at it, you have to realize it’s not that easy. If it was that easy, everyone would do it. And those quarterbacks are aware that people are going to try to hit them.”

[Riggo-toni]

Nice to see Hasselbeck finally exposing the obvious after everyone else has been trying to ignore the basic realities.

[Darth Tater]

The read option is easy to stop but you don't stop it with your defense.  You can neutralize it with your defense by not allowing the big play from the RO but your offense is what is going to stop it.

[Oldfan]

Nice to see Hasselbeck finally exposing the obvious after everyone else has been trying to ignore the basic realities.

 

I found his comment nauseating. Strawman arguments are common and annoying in this forum. I don't want to hear them from experts in the media. 

 

Hitting the QB is only part of an intelligent plan to defend the read-option and no one who understands the game says it's easy. Let's hear his expert argument against an intelligent defense.

[authentic]

The read option is easy to stop but you don't stop it with your defense.  You can neutralize it with your defense by not allowing the big play from the RO but your offense is what is going to stop it.

Just for clarity, is your point that its easy to stop or easy to neutralize?

[RG3Hunna]

Nice to see Hasselbeck finally exposing the obvious after everyone else has been trying to ignore the basic realities.

 

I found his comment nauseating. Strawman arguments are common and annoying in this forum. I don't want to hear them from experts in the media. 

 

Hitting the QB is only part of an intelligent plan to defend the read-option and no one who understands the game says it's easy. Let's hear his expert argument against an intelligent defense.

what is nauseating about hasselbeck saying Hitting the QB running the read option isn't as easy as people make it seem? You agreed it wasn't easy so what exactly are you huffing and puffing about? Hasselbeck is essentially saying the SAME thing you're saying. lol

[Oldfan]

Hunna, what is nauseating about hasselbeck saying Hitting the QB running the read option isn't as easy as people make it seem?

 

You paraphrased what he wrote to create a strawman to cover up Hallselbeck's strawman. 

 

Wikipedia: A straw man or straw person, also known in the UK as an Aunt Sally,^[1][2] is a type of argument and is an informal fallacybased on misrepresentation of an opponent's position.^[3] To "attack a straw man" is to create the illusion of having refuted a proposition by replacing it with a superficially similar yet unequivalent proposition (the "straw man"), and to refute it, without ever having actually refuted the original position.^[3][4] This technique has been used throughout history in polemical debate, particularly in arguments about highly charged, emotional issues.

[Darth Tater]

The read option is easy to stop but you don't stop it with your defense.  You can neutralize it with your defense by not allowing the big play from the RO but your offense is what is going to stop it.

Just for clarity, is your point that its easy to stop or easy to neutralize?

Should have used the word simple, not easy.  In any case, you can really only neutralize it when you are talking straight Xs and Os, not stop it (unless you've got a few freak joes).  It is your offense that stops my RO attack.