[cyborgtable]

Originally Posted by Driving Wheel

that's a classic 1-gap 3-4 - it's the Bum Phillips defense.

See, really there are 3 basic variants :

zone blitz - Dick LeBeau, Vic Fangio, Dom Capers, etc.

2-gap - Romeo, Mangini, Belichick

1-gap - Bum/Wade Phillips, Parcells (late career; used a 4-3 for a time in NE, as well, iirc)

We simply don't have the horses for the 2 gap - we don't have the D-line nor secondary depth. Or the LB depth.

Same goes for the Zone Blitz.

The best chance for this team to compete is to play more a more 'standard' 1-gap; less exotic bs, and let the young cats go play. They're blowing coverages and plain getting beat because they simply can't cover the zone. Period. Elam, Lewis, Brown, Daniels, Arenas...all liabilities in zone coverage. Best to turn the guys up front loose, because otherwise, opposing QBs can just pick those zones apart. Not to mention, our 3 best pass rushers (Hali, Houston, DJ) are constantly in zone coverage, along with one of our best run defenders (Berry, who is probably better suited for a pure SS role instead of the Polamalu-type tweener thing they've been trying to make him do this year.)

I can see that especially with a 4-3 over or under front having a linebacker sitting on the line of scrimmage acting essentially as another lineman. I started paying attention in the golden age of the Tampa-2 defense and so prefer that over others but only when played with the same aggressiveness that Monte used.

IMO to many teams took the play and not the understanding of why it worked. Being physical at the line of scrimmage with receivers to change the timing of the passing plays. It had its weaknesses but they blitzed more often than those who took the defense with them ala Herm