Vic Fangio might have ruined offense for the foreseeable future.

He knew the only way to have a chance against us was to play deep cover 2 and force us to run the damn ball and take 10+ play drives. Everybody copied it in 2021 when Mahomes went through his first major slump.

Another thing is LB’s have become so much better in coverage bc it became a full on passing league about 10 years ago. Nick Bolton’s were left behind and Willie Gay’s/Leo Chenal’s/Deue Tranquill’s took over to where if they weren’t great at coverage at least they had the athleticism to be in their zone on time.

OL and QB has gone downhill big time. Lot of people think it’s bc of the spread offense. Quick passes and YAC with fewer long plays to read defenses. Same with OL. Quick passes means they don’t have to pass block as often.

NFLPA pushing to cut down practice time was a big reason as well.

Another weekend of shit offense (minus the Saints). In a league with rules favoring the offense, the defense is owning the majority of offenses.

This is an excellent high level summation.

You can't even run defenses out of that look either. They're just stubbornly saying "no, we will not let you have the big play" even at the cost of 100+ yard games from the running back.

They coach the players to strip the ball. Some teams do it better than others (Cincy). Force the offense to go slowly down the field, strip the ball when you get a chance.

I'm not confident it's going to change soon. From an efficiency standpoint it makes sense to force teams to work for their points. The only worry is wearing out your defense.

I remember in the heyday of RBs, like the Priest Holmes, LT, Shaun Alexander, Adrian Peterson Era, the allure of those backs was how they could rip off the *huge* runs, like 50+ yards and/or take it to the house on one play.

Obviously the rules seem to favor passing more so the transition towards a pass-heavy offense has made more sense, but when the Fangio Cover 2's biggest weakness is just running it down their throats, it makes me wonder why those breakaway runs don't happen anymore.

-Lack of Generation RB's in the NFL at the moment?
-Blocking assignments needing to be absolutely perfect for a breakaway run to occur?
-Maybe the fact that Safeties are pulled further back in Cover 2 means they have an easier time containing a great run to 15-20 yards rather than a house call?

Just making observations. I find it interesting that such a simple concept with an obvious weakness hasn't been exploited yet.

Like I said earlier, with athletes becoming bigger and faster and able to cover more territory more quickly than ever before, the size of the field has essentially shrunk.

There’s just less room for players to get into space than ever before.

See idk if I entirely agree with this.

Those guys had crazy good breakaway speed and ability to cut in the open field. If you gave them 5-8 yards of free space before the tackle, they'd eventually make guys miss and rip one off for a long TD. I just don't think the talent is there at RB in this generation.

Really good breakdown of what defenses are doing now to keep offenses struggling and force check downs.

I think 13 personnel is the answer with more running and destroying teams in the middle of the field with 3 TE’s.

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The league has made it really difficult to cut block at the line, and it's harder for OL to get tot he second level to break off those runs. Plus, the pass happy college ranks don't develop oline and certainly not running backs.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Pundits will tell you it&#39;s &#39;shell&#39; coverage, but it&#39;s more nuanced than that... <a href="https://t.co/wJLoQ2hHED">https://t.co/wJLoQ2hHED</a></p>&mdash; Cody Alexander (@The_Coach_A) <a href="https://twitter.com/The_Coach_A/status/1835654203844247619?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Passing touchdowns through two weeks:<br><br>2019: 105<br>2020: 110<br>2021: 110<br>2022: 105<br>2023: 86<br>2024: 66*<br><br>*Pending MNF</p>&mdash; Steve Palazzolo (@StevePalazzolo_) <a href="https://twitter.com/StevePalazzolo_/status/1835707541914845645?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2024</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Jim Harbaugh is gonna be successful bc he’s stepped back into a league that changed drastically since he left. Now it’s a passing league full of light LB’s and DB’s. LB’s are basically heavier safeties at this point.

These cover 2 defenses are begging you to run the ball and Jim Harbaugh’s entire identity is to destroy teams running the ball.

395 rushing yards in 2 games for the Chargers.

They played the Panthers in one of those games, cmon!