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Gunther Cunningham runs a man-to-man defense, but with the inability to get pressure from the front-four, he has been forced into playing a lot of Cover-3 and Cover-4 defenses. Both have the corners playing off with saftey's playing deep. It is a bend and don't break style.
A lot of people on this board have meantioned that Gun doesn't use his corners correctly. Gun is only doing what he is able to do, as if he played a Cover-1 (man-to-man), teams would hang 50+ points on us because we can't get to the quaterback. The Gunther defense we know and love has not been implemented due to inability to get a steady pass rush. When KC is forced to blitz to gain pressure, teams pick it up, and gain chunks of yardage underneath our 'cloud defense'.
This Cover 2 talk that is referenced in this piece is the same defense that GREG ROBINSON tried for several years. The Tampa Two is a variant of the Cover Two in which the corners play up and stop the run, the saftey's take halves the field with the middle linebacker dropping deep underneath the safties.
If you cannot run the Cover 2, you will be toast just as KC was for the past few years. At least in Gunther's style of defense it doesn't give 'the over the top' pass.
Bottom line is--our defense is fine, it just needs better play out of the front four. No matter if we play a Cover-2, or the style Gunther has brought. The Rams also play a version of the cover two.
Good defenses have outstanding defensive line play. You do not need all-world Pro Bowlers, but you do need guys who can get the job done. Eric Hicks is a leader and plays his butt off but does not make big plays. Our defensive tackles are horrible with Dalton providing a bright spot here and there. Jared Allen is a nice player, but is horrible in the run game. Watch the tape--he is giving up the same plays he gave up in preseason (ala the long Vikings run) as he is now (Tiki off-tackle).
This defense is not far from being good. It is a few defensive lineman away from really opening up the rest of the players to do what they do best.
Hope this helps-
Zach
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