Next Day Thread: Bea

[RVAskins]

18 hours ago, Voice_of_Reason said:

He can spell optimism?

 

I wouldn’t have guessed that.  

Someone gave him two minutes to look up the word.

[Rex Tomb]

2 hours ago, NickyJ said:

We are once again reminded that we haven't had a competent defensive defensive caller since Loudon Flechter retired a decade ago.

Coulda had Jack Campbell. 

[Wyvern]

I was never a Cody Barton fan, but I think that selected quartet of clips showing him failing, cannot be all blamed on him. Some of those were 'team failures.'

 

1.  In clip 1, I think Barton's assignment was to body check the TE, and clog up any end run that the Bears seemed setting up to go around their right side.  That makes some sense considering how the Bears looked to be running wide, but the RB decides to cutback more inside.  I noted there was a safety who cautiously moves up into where Barton had been, but doesn't seem to want to try to slip by a Bear's O-lineman to do so, which leaves Burton's original spot open.  In the end, the scrum on the Bears right end, did slow things up for Young to make the tackle, and just about where Barton could have made it, if he'd not gone after the TE.

 

2. In clip 2, Barton gets hit almost immediately by an free-moving guard, who moved through the gap between Allen engaging the center, and Young going outside the tackle.  Its an undisguised run, but  for some reason, Jamin Davis dawdles outside in space, then  belatedly drifts over to cover the runner's lane, but whiffs on the tackle. In the end Barton assists on the tackle while Davis is still loping over to get his touch on the pile.

 

3. In clip 3, Barton faces the combined weight and force of both an unblocked center plus the on-rushing  RB, and naturally is getting pushed back until Ste.Juste joins the melee. In the end, it took a lot of defenders to stop the forward movement.  Meanwhile, Davis misses his chance to tackle that runner through a gap behind the center, and again winds up loping over later just in time to hover over the tackle pile.

 

4.  Clip 4 is on Barton, but I've seen so many of these hard-to-defend plays involving a range of TE mesh/slant quick passes just in front of the linebacker.  Its a hard pass to defend, but I don't think the safety behind Barton reacted to what was happening either, which might have helped.  

 

Bottom line -- I don't know what Del Rio had schemed for these plays, especially on those goal-to-go situations when he replaces Davis with some DB-- but I dont think you can put all the blame on the middle linebacker, when Barton's supposed to be just one of a duo/trio of Del Rio's mixed linebacker/safety grouping. 

 

To be clear, I have not been happy with Barton's coverage skills, and I'm uncertain how,well he's handling the defensive scheme adjustments, or how well the safeties, "buffalo nickels",_quasi-linebackers, etc are handling their responsibilities. 

 

But if you just want to look at linebackers to blame, I recommend  you also take a hard look at Davis too.  Old "Yellow Shoes 52" is easy to follow on the replays; and you probably see the times he's whiffed on a lot of tackles, was slow to run into any scrum, and often the only one standing up over the pile. Davis is decent at rushing the passer, and possesses the talent to cover a lot of ground quickly, but he's not maximizing that talent on run plays.

.

[Conn]

I don’t think anyone who thinks Barton is playing poorly would say that Jamin is playing well (unfortunately). Interesting perspective on the breakdown though @Wyvern, I wish we knew what was being asked of the scheme on these plays 

[RVAskins]

Are our players as bad as they look, not all but most, or is the coaching so bad the players are lost out there?

[Riggo-toni]

On 10/13/2023 at 9:24 PM, RVAskins said:

Are our players as bad as they look, not all but most, or is the coaching so bad the players are lost out there?

Yes.