In 8 months time, can the get it and execute it and use their athleticism to maximize it? Van Gorder's shit they never seemed to figure out.
1. ND isn't an offense that's going to hang a bunch of points on teams to force them throw a lot. I see there's a lot of run blitzes here too but I'm not convinced this defense can stop a big fast RB consistently.
2. His defense has now been around and is being studied as we speak. I wouldn't be surprised if in a year's time it's obsolete.
I'm hoping that's not it, but sheesh this seems like a big change to the game of football. Those typically last a year or two (wildcat anyone?).
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Tenuta fell in love with the "jailbreak blitz every down" method, which would usually leave two or three receivers enjoying single coverage, and a lot of times, in 2009, all too often, we had a safety or a linebacker covering their top two receivers, which brought a new meaning to the word "mismatch." Self-inflicted mismatch was more like it...
Freeman's system doesn't seem nearly as reckless. While it may bring more pass rushers / blitzers against the offense than what Lea did, it's not anywhere nearly as risky as Tenuta's philosophy.
Tenuta was a one-gap, 5-rushers-minimium guy who was in love with Cover 0 and Cover 1.
This philosophy is none of those things.
how much his defense relies on the ability of the CBs to play tight and stay with their man. That was ND's weak spot on D this year. We lost our best cover man to the NFL, and out fastest to transfer. So, the concern is how well he and Mickens can get the CBs ready for the new scheme.
It sounds like he plays one safety in more of a rover position, so that's in line with ND's roster. But he also likes the three man front which ND will have to adjust to a bit.
Great article. The sentence above is a key point for those enamoured with stars.
Fire away with how they are in the AAC, and all the other reasons why this would not work at the big boy level. Sometimes, success comes from being willing to think outside of the box and not focus on the same metrics society tells you are required.
traditional zone defense. It takes away the Madden like ability to call specific plays on offense that you know are uncoverable on defense if you are able to hold the ball for a specific set of time and let the WR get so far into his route where the DBs / LBs transition.