2021 Defensive Thread

[Shanedorf]

Barry Will Let Playmakers Make Plays on Defense

https://cheeseheadtv.com/blog/barry-wil ... um=twitter

"One of those playmakers, safety Adrian Amos, may find new opportunities to make plays in the box this season. Early observations from training camp would certainly seem to indicate that Amos is getting extended playing time in the box, much closer to the line of scrimmage. That leaves third-year pro Darnell Savage and a third safety (still to be determined) in two-high "

...What’s more, the Staley defense is also known for playing with a Tite front, designed to force runs to the perimeter rather than right up the middle. This Tite front benefits the inside linebackers, Barry’s bread and butter in his defense. In a traditional four-man front, a B-gap is left exposed, putting the onus on the inside linebacker to either play close to the line in an effort to stop the run, leaving himself vulnerable to a pass behind him, or play back to defend the pass, leaving an open running lane right up the B-gap.

In a Tite front, the nose tackle (looking at you, T.J. Slaton) and defensive ends absorb both the A and B gaps, forcing any runs to the C gap outside of the tackles. This is where the speedier defenders like a safety creeping closer to the line can make a break on the ball carrier and negate a big play. "

[Shanedorf]

from SI

The Trend

“All right, here’s the issue with defenses in the league: Between quarterback runs and play-action passes, they’re getting shredded. You’ve even had teams that can’t run the ball still have a lot of success with play-action passes.
To combat it, some defenses have brought an extra guy in the box and gone with smaller linebackers who can run.

But I think it’s going to go the other way now. You’re going to see more big people up front—300-plus pounders—to stop the run. It will be as if teams will say,
‘Prove to us that you can run against our front four before we bring down an extra guy.’ Tampa did it last year.
Look at what the Chiefs are doing now. They got Jaran Reed this offseason and they’re going to play him and [Derrick] Nnadi at defensive tackle. Both of them are 325, 330ish. And Chris Jones at 315 is going to play defensive end. This is why Baltimore and Pittsburgh are always good. Same approach. And those bigs up front will allow flexibility in the back seven to stop whatever it is the defense has to stop. Quarterback runs. Speed sweeps. Play-action passes. It’s going to allow more versatility in defensive game plans.

Big teams will have more versatility and the small, fast defenses won’t have the same luxury."

[Refugee]

So far, about what I expected given Barry’s history. Plenty of games left but one issue with getting a young HC, their connections only run so deep.  LaFluer has done well recruiting OC and Oline coaches. His decision on Barry is still open to evaluation but if he’s not the guy, coach needs to move on quickly. Lot of blame to go around today but the D giving up running yards, 4th and long etc. will not get the job done. 

[Isherwood]

On 9/11/2021 at 4:23 PM, Shanedorf said:

from SI

The Trend

“All right, here’s the issue with defenses in the league: Between quarterback runs and play-action passes, they’re getting shredded. You’ve even had teams that can’t run the ball still have a lot of success with play-action passes.
To combat it, some defenses have brought an extra guy in the box and gone with smaller linebackers who can run.

But I think it’s going to go the other way now. You’re going to see more big people up front—300-plus pounders—to stop the run. It will be as if teams will say,
‘Prove to us that you can run against our front four before we bring down an extra guy.’ Tampa did it last year.
Look at what the Chiefs are doing now. They got Jaran Reed this offseason and they’re going to play him and [Derrick] Nnadi at defensive tackle. Both of them are 325, 330ish. And Chris Jones at 315 is going to play defensive end. This is why Baltimore and Pittsburgh are always good. Same approach. And those bigs up front will allow flexibility in the back seven to stop whatever it is the defense has to stop. Quarterback runs. Speed sweeps. Play-action passes. It’s going to allow more versatility in defensive game plans.

Big teams will have more versatility and the small, fast defenses won’t have the same luxury."

The Vikings fancy new run stopping D line they bought in FA got absolutely gashed. 

[Isherwood]

On 9/4/2021 at 8:25 AM, Isherwood said:

Since this is the "2021 Defensive Thread", this is where I plant my flag and say that unfortunately I think we're going to end up disappointing on this side of the ball yet again. I like the young pieces we have and I think we have a bright future, but year 1 of Joe Barry is going to be rough. I hope I'm way off on this one. 

Besides a bad track record in two previous DC jobs, his vibe was all ****ed from the beginning. The stories of him tackling air and falling down in practice like a goofus. He spent the first press conference explaining what a nickel defense is to the beat writers as if they’d never heard it before. Just trash vibes. I’m through with nice guy defenses that are reactionary and not aggressive. 

[HeresAGuy]

Its the players, its all but impossible to hold a defensive coordinator up to responsibility.  He's been given garbage except for Jaire, Gary, and Kenny Clark.  Maybe Stokes comes good........maybe.  But, there isnt a defensive coordinator on the planet who could remedy the disaster that is our defense.  We need to draft better on defense.  We have a defensive front that is probably in the bottom three of the entire NFL, and certainly the softest and most finesse.  It has been borderline bad the past five years, and we are seeing the results of it now.  Theyre a bunch of overrated JAGs.  There isnt a runningback in the NFL that doesnt get at least a softie when they see that theyre running up against the Packers defense each week.  Every fantasy owner on the planet gets excited when they see their runningback play against the Packers.  Its bad.

Edited September 13, 2021 by HeresAGuy

[Brit Pack]

1 hour ago, HeresAGuy said:

He's been given garbage except for Jaire, Gary, and Kenny Clark

So the Smith's are no good, neither is Amos and Savage?

We played a team which started Ringo on DL and had no corners really during stretches of that game. And they made us look wank.

We have as much talent as pretty much any other team does, we just have no identity on defence.....

Where I agree with you is we have failed to invest in DL and ILB. We are pretty soft in the middle. Campbell looked very poor today.

[cannondale]

3 straight drives to open the game they gave up points.

Back to back 15 play scoring drives that ate up 18:00 

Didn't force a punt until the 6:00 left in the 3rd quarter.

[MacReady]

This is all on LaFleur honestly.

He picked Joe.

Not even joking, if there isn't a significant improvement on defense, LaFleur should be given an incredibly short leash in 2022.

If Love bombs and the defense bombs in 2022, then it's time to burn it all down.

It's becoming more and more clear to me that it's not a talent, not a scheme but a culture problem with our defense.

I couldn't stomach most of that game yesterday, but there were maybe three players on that defense who looked like they wanted to be there, and none of them were our alleged defensive leaders.

[MacReady]

Amos needs to go after this year, and so do both Smiths.

The only thing I can think of that could save this season is bringing in not one, but two veteran defenders who have a little bit of an edge.

The entire attitude of this defense is soft, and it has been soft since the day Charles Woodson left.

Other than Jaire and maybe Stokes/Gary, we've got a handful of cats pretending to be dogs.

[Isherwood]

I can’t believe how quickly I’ve turned on Z Smith. Writing stuff on your t-shirt isn’t cute anymore when you can’t get home on a pass rush and spend an off-season mad about the very nice contract you signed 2 years ago. Fake bravado with that one 

[AlexGreen#20]

22 minutes ago, Isherwood said:

I can’t believe how quickly I’ve turned on Z Smith. Writing stuff on your t-shirt isn’t cute anymore when you can’t get home on a pass rush and spend an off-season mad about the very nice contract you signed 2 years ago. Fake bravado with that one 

Dude's hurt

[{Family Ghost}]

Holy **** the overreaction is unbearable.  Give it another week or two and see where we are at.  Training camp was ran like a country club and the team got smacked around in week one.  Solid chance the Packers rebound in time for game two.

[MacReady]

28 minutes ago, {Family Ghost} said:

Holy **** the overreaction is unbearable.  Give it another week or two and see where we are at.  Training camp was ran like a country club and the team got smacked around in week one.  Solid chance the Packers rebound in time for game two.

This does not follow.

The Packers gave up the most points.
The Packers scored the least points.

If it was a training camp issue, that was a decision that absolutely deserves the criticism because literally no other team came close to performing as poorly as the Packers did.

The only team that came close to giving up the same amount of points was the Jaguars, and that team has given up 25 or more points in more consecutive games than any other team in the history of the NFL (literally, not hyperbole).

This is not an overreaction.

This team has acted like it's perfectly capable of winning a Super Bowl with zero moves that, you know, move the needle for two years in a row.

This is not overreaction, and Packer fans have every single right to be as disgusted - and more so - as they've shown in this thread.

[Rodjahs12]

I wish Rodgers liked a good DL as much as he does Cobb maybe he could have strong armed the team into adding someone who can actually help with the little bit of money we had left over as opposed to a guy everyone knew wasn’t going to matter.

Edited September 13, 2021 by Rodjahs12