All things defense

[evmiii]

I keep hearing Ron say the guys aren’t playing the schemes they are being taught.  They fire the DL coach.  Nothing seem to change on the field.  Are we taking advantage of the skills the guys have?  Are we trying to fit square pegs in a round hole?  What’s different from 2 years ago?  The guys have shown they can play, why can’t they play in this scheme?  Is Del Rio the problem?  I’m a bit confused.

[oraphus]

26 minutes ago, evmiii said:

I keep hearing Ron say the guys aren’t playing the schemes they are being taught.  They fire the DL coach.  Nothing seem to change on the field.  Are we taking advantage of the skills the guys have?  Are we trying to fit square pegs in a round hole?  What’s different from 2 years ago?  The guys have shown they can play, why can’t they play in this scheme?  Is Del Rio the problem?  I’m a bit confused.

Thats exactly it.. if after 2 years you cant get the players to subscribe to your scheme and play with in it.... then, maybe,.. just maybe your scheme sucks... or is not a fit for these players. Good coaches adjust the scheme to fit their players.. the idiots we have here just keep trying to push players in to their idea of a d scheme.. and fail, repeatedly. And if you tell me.. "well the scheme is good, its just the players are not able to play with in it" well... since you drafted most of these players then its again a fail.. then draft players that can play within your scheme, or at least make changes in the off season. We basically have the exact same underperforming D from last year. 

[KDawg]

3 hours ago, 50yrSKINSfan said:

We did bottom out when 2 good QBs were available but the brilliant people in charge chose to take a overrated pass rusher instead. Now one of those QBs is lighting it up on the west coast. Then you wonder why we stink year after year, lol.

We would have picked Tu’a. Now, I am not as down on him as others, but he was coming off a catastrophic hip injury so… that’s a hard sell. The pick was always Young, and had to be, unless Cincy took Young at 1. But they didn’t mess it up so…

[NoVaSkins21]

If Sweat or Allen can't get home which isn't likely on every defensive play, it's going to be rough since the JDR's scheme sucks.  Here's hoping I'm wrong, but it's looking like another long year on defense.

[TheShredder]

2 hours ago, evmiii said:

I keep hearing Ron say the guys aren’t playing the schemes they are being taught.  They fire the DL coach.  Nothing seem to change on the field.  Are we taking advantage of the skills the guys have?  Are we trying to fit square pegs in a round hole?  What’s different from 2 years ago?  The guys have shown they can play, why can’t they play in this scheme?  Is Del Rio the problem?  I’m a bit confused.

JDR is clearly the problem. Maybe players don't connect with him. He plays guys out of position regularly and is obviously telling them to do it as they say vs putting players in position to make plays with their strengths. Should have been fired at the end of last year for his poor performance.

The other part is RR as he's responsible. Very quick to hire anyone he knows and too slow to change when it's clearly not working out.

[IrepDC]

I think a new DC would be the smart move to make. I would try new coordinators on offense and defense before I fired Rivera. I like the structure from HC to GM currently, and would like to give that group time to leave their stamp on this team.

 

The coordinators are fair game though. With Rivera's coaching style, his coordinators have a lot of impact on the schemes we run on game day. He is a overall team management guy and that's fine. I am not as reactionary as most. I can see the current build for where it is. They are still a few pieces away, but I like Rivera's roster build so far.

 

The defense still has very obvious and exploitable weaknesses at the 2nd level. Jamin is going to be a slow develop, so he will be better this year, but he won't hit his ceiling this year. Holcomb, I like his old school style, but he has to learn his keys pre snap as a MLB. He should be getting mentored right now, but instead he's the veteran in our LB room. The defense will be up and down this year from what I can tell. 

 

 

[wit33]

Defense is hard. 
 

Stay the course. 

[TheShredder]

54 minutes ago, wit33 said:

Defense is hard. 
 

Stay the course. 

Defense plays soft. That scheme gives up 5 yds before the ball is snapped. Nothing close to hard, except hard to swallow.

[KDawg]

3 hours ago, wit33 said:

Defense is hard. 
 

Stay the course. 

What does this even mean?

[redskinss]

3 hours ago, TheShredder said:

Defense plays soft. That scheme gives up 5 yds before the ball is snapped. Nothing close to hard, except hard to swallow.

I think he meant hard as in difficult not density.

[Leonard Washington]

8 hours ago, NoVaSkins21 said:

If Sweat or Allen can't get home which isn't likely on every defensive play, it's going to be rough since the JDR's scheme sucks.  Here's hoping I'm wrong, but it's looking like another long year on defense.

It sounds unfair but Sweat, Allen, and Payne have to improve and get home regularly.  They get pressure but if the QB takes 1-2 steps, they got themselves another 2-3 seconds in the pocket.  Rarely there is another guy in position to clean up.

[Zim489]

8 hours ago, IrepDC said:

Like the structure from HC to GM

🤨

[samy316]

Are there odds in Vegas for which coach gets fired first this season?  I feel like JDR’s odds had to have shot up to near the top of the leader board after this weekend.  I’ll be shocked if JDR makes it past Week 6, if the defense looks like it looks now.

Edited August 22, 2022 by samy316

[ntotoro]

5 hours ago, wit33 said:

Defense is hard. 
 

Stay the course. 

 

This Defense has been flaccid for a while now.

[Est.1974]

We will pay the price for not upgrading in the offseason. For all the importance Rivera puts on year 3 of his tenure he is taking a chance on both some unproven and in places average talent. 

[Warhead36]

This fan base places too much blame on coaching. Remember Joe Barry? He's the Packers D Coord now and their D was one of the best in the league last year and is expected to be very good again this year. 

 

Sometimes your players just aren't that good.

[samy316]

47 minutes ago, Est.1974 said:

We will pay the price for not upgrading in the offseason. For all the importance Rivera puts on year 3 of his tenure he is taking a chance on both some unproven and in places average talent. 

 

I agree 100%.  I don't know what the hell Ron was thinking, not upgrading the defense at all during the offseason.  Not doing a damn thing to upgrade our LB corp & our secondary will come back to bite us in the ass for sure this season.  We're nowhere near talented enough to sit on our hands and trust the same player & coaching personnel that gave us a losing record and a below average defense last year.  Where's the urgency with Rivera & the FO?  It's like they wait for something bad to happen, or it's crystal clear that something is obviously not working before they decide to act.

 

We had cap room to make some moves this offseason, but Ron & company decided to do nothing.  Look, I think Ron will be hear for his full 5 year deal, but it's becoming more clear by the day that he's a mediocre coach that's let the game pass him by.  This team is definitely behind the eight-ball here when it comes to coaching.

 

This is why we're screwed as a franchise.  We have an outdated & mediocre coaching staff, but there's no real possibility of upgrading to a new, innovative coaching staff anytime soon, because of our standing as a franchise.  Any other franchise would can Ron & the FO if they fail to make the playoffs this year.  3 years is more than enough time to get to the playoffs, and expect to be a competitive franchise.  But with this organization, no younger, innovative coach worth their weight would come here, because of the owner, and the reputation of this franchise.  We're stuck with Ron and his below average defensive coaching staff, whether we like it or not.

Edited August 22, 2022 by samy316

[Est.1974]

1 hour ago, Warhead36 said:

This fan base places too much blame on coaching. Remember Joe Barry? He's the Packers D Coord now and their D was one of the best in the league last year and is expected to be very good again this year. 

 

Sometimes your players just aren't that good.

Maybe we should look to blame both aspects of the above.

 

Hopefully we get proven wrong in the coming months.

[FootballZombie]

1 hour ago, Warhead36 said:

This fan base places too much blame on coaching. Remember Joe Barry? He's the Packers D Coord now and their D was one of the best in the league last year and is expected to be very good again this year. 

 

Sometimes your players just aren't that good.

 

But the coach is the GM, and we are moving into year 3.

 

Either we failed to bring in talent that was good enough or failed to put a scheme in place that leads to success. This aint a first year tenure, we picked our groceries. If the talent was not present, there was ample time/resources to rectify the problem.

[HigSkin]

 

 

Defense was really trying

While some Commanders minimized the first-team defense’s struggles as the normal growing pains of the preseason, the results — which included allowing two touchdowns — were concerning given the effort.

Defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio game-planned for Mahomes, and Washington played all of its starters except for Chase Young (ACL). On a third and six on Kansas City’s second drive Mahomes said the Commanders sent a “fire-zone blitz where they dropped the big guys and brought the little guys, which you don’t see a lot in the preseason, so it got me.”

But Mahomes still got off a pass short left to wide receiver Justin Watson, who ran for 14 yards.

After the second touchdown, middle linebacker Cole Holcomb went to the sideline, smacked his helmet on the ground and screamed in frustration. Later, when asked how to stop last year’s mistakes from bleeding into this season, he said: “I don’t know. Go back, study the film and learn from the mistakes. That’s all we can do.”

“We have to put it all together,” Holcomb added. “You can’t have a rush without coverage, and you can’t cover without a rush. We have to learn how to play off each other.”

[Warhead36]

Holcomb isn't a MLB. He's an okay SLB, nothing special but respectable starter. As a MLB he's a liability.

 

Not addressing the MLB position could potentially be the death knell of this defense...again.

[KDawg]

1 minute ago, Warhead36 said:

Holcomb isn't a MLB. He's an okay SLB, nothing special but respectable starter. As a MLB he's a liability.

 

Not addressing the MLB position could potentially be the death knell of this defense...again.

 

So, when you say MLB, what exactly do you mean?

 

Because we don't play with a MLB. We have a guy calling signals... But 4-2 defense's usually have two guys who are more outside backers playing LB. 

 

Do you mean MLB as in the leader of the defense type?

[Warhead36]

7 minutes ago, KDawg said:

 

So, when you say MLB, what exactly do you mean?

 

Because we don't play with a MLB. We have a guy calling signals... But 4-2 defense's usually have two guys who are more outside backers playing LB. 

 

Do you mean MLB as in the leader of the defense type?

A leader of the defense type yes. We play the 4-2 so often because we have to due to personnel deficiencies, but even then you want real LBs out there. Davis is a work in progress. Holcomb's weaknesses get exposed too frequently when he's placed in any sort of defensive leadership position.

 

Teams are gonna force us into 3 LB sets and then things could get really bad.

[KDawg]

Just now, Warhead36 said:

A leader of the defense type yes. We play the 4-2 so often because we have to due to personnel deficiencies, but even then you want real LBs out there. Davis is a work in progress. Holcomb's weaknesses get exposed too frequently when he's placed in any sort of defensive leadership position.

 

Teams are gonna force us into 3 LB sets and then things could get really bad.

 

No, we play the 4-2 so often because of the prevelance of spread offenses in the NFL. The Bills play in on 90% of snaps, for instance.

 

Playing 3 backers on a regular basis in the NFL in modern football is asking to get throttled routinely by receivers.

 

The traditional 3 backer sets are usually based on opposing personnel packages.

 

Having said that, yes. We are in trouble in traditional 4-3 alignment sets for the amount of time we'll be in them. 

[RandyHolt]

I keep hearing LB is the core issue.  With only 2 on the field - shouldn't our ****ty LB corPSE collective weaknesses be minimized?

 

I am happy to see I am not the only one displeased with our D and specifically JDR... we can't blame "Jackson was injured so..." blah blah because every other team has injuries as well. Sure personnel is a factor but it's never perfect... aka Dream Team = Dismal team. Coaching has to find a way to get the pieces of the puzzle together. I have no faith in JDR since he couldn't generate a pass rush last year. Or more likely, wouldn't. He was happy to slow down the game and ice our offense. It's troubling if our players hate his scheme and can't or won't do it. Is it easier to ****can all the players or your best friend? So maybe RR will do neither.

Edited August 22, 2022 by RandyHolt