Two Cover 2 Defenses Make The SB

[Night Train]

That's encouraging.

The Bills still need upgrades on D but at least we know the Cover 2 can get you to the promised land.

[Kerr]

Yeah the colts and bears have proven the scheme is still effective.

[jamze132]

The scheme itself is a good idea. I still can't for the life of me, figure out why we can't have fat bastards clogging up the middle.

[Kenny]

The scheme itself is a good idea. I still can't for the life of me, figure out why we can't have fat bastards clogging up the middle.

Penetration. From what I can tell, the cover2 scheme needs DTs that are able to penetrate. If look back at Tampa's defense when it was still good, you had Sapp. And if you look at Chicago's in the first half, it was all Tommie Harris (notice that when he went down, the Bear's defense was just 'normal'?)
You also need big athletic linebackers who can compensate for the smaller dt's.... I think if we replace Fletcher with someone bigger, we'll be fine.

Also losing Clements wont hurt too much, since the cover2 plays more zone rather than man-to-man. Problem is, McGee is waaaaay too small to be an effective cover2 corner (I just dont think he's strong enough to jam receivers at the line).

[OpIv37]

I'm still not sold on the scheme. The Bears have the PERFECT personnel for it, which is something we'll never have in Buffalo. And Indy relies mostly on O- their D had some HORRIBLE stretches this year, and Indy's O is something else we'll never have in Buffalo. Hell, even if we were able to trade for Indy's entire offense, it still wouldn't work well because of the weather late in the season.

Unless you have Chicago's personnel, it's a "bend but don't break" D designed to stop the pass. Well guess what? You win football games by running and stopping the run, and no one can pass in Buffalo after October anyway. I think it's another trend that Buffalo's jumping on right as other teams are exposing it.

[EDS]

That's encouraging.

The Bills still need upgrades on D but at least we know the Cover 2 can get you to the promised land.

I still question the effectiveness of the scheme. The Bears are successful due to the great talent they have on defense. The Bills are several players away from being at that level. The colts, on the other hand, are built around their offense. Their offense can routinely keep drives alive that allow their defense to get rest. Without that, the attacking style with small players does not work as well. Plus it helps if you put other teams in a position where they have to pass. Again, not sure the Bills offense can do that.

If the Bills are going to make this system work, they need a major upgrade at the Williams/Anderson DT spot.

[Philagape]

The Colts are in because of their offense.

The Bears are in because the NFC sucks.

[madness]

People who say that the Colt's are in it because of their offense have not been watching the Colts D throughout the playoffs.

[Philagape]

People who say that the Colt's are in it because of their offense have not been watching the Colts D throughout the playoffs.

Including yesterday?

And did their defense get them to the playoffs?

[EDS]

People who say that the Colt's are in it because of their offense have not been watching the Colts D throughout the playoffs.

They crank the heat up in the dome so that their liliputan defensive players have an advantage over the bigger defenses and offenses - i.e., they wear down less quickly. It is called home field advantage. Couple that with one of the league's best offensive units - a unit that can routinely put together extended drives and keep the chains moving - and you have a recipe for success. The colts have a good enough offense that they can force people into passing situations, which plays to the advantage of the cover two. The Bills offense is not there yet.

The Bills, however, do not play in a dome. Nor do they play in a warm whether environment. That means they need to succeed in the same manner as the Bears - superior defensive talent. Unfortunately, the Bills are not there yet.

[OpIv37]

People who say that the Colt's are in it because of their offense have not been watching the Colts D throughout the playoffs.

the Ravens' O SUCKS and the Colts D gave up 34 to the Pats. The Colts D has improved enough to keep them in games, but it's the offense that's winning the games.

[Ingtar33]

for the tampa 2 to work, you need to pressure the QB with the front four.

The Bears don't pressure the QB up the middle, and if their DEs don't reach the QB their D looks terrible against the pass (though with the heavy bodies in the middle they're not so bad vs the run)

The Colts get good pressure form the whole line, but, like the bills they have a bunch of light guys playing DT, and get moved around a lot.

[ParanoidAndroid]

The Bears DB's had 17 interceptions this year. The Bills DB's had 6. It is all due to constant disruption in the backfield by a dominant D-line.
Buffalo needs a better pass rusher opposite Schobel and a better 1-gap DT than Anderson and Williams if the Tampa-2 is going to work. The linebackers can be smaller on the outsides, but you must have a point of attack type MLB that can also cover. Those are hard to find; Brian Urlacher is a rare player in the NFL. Patrick Willis is that type of player. He's big 6'2" 240, can get bigger and not lose that speed. He will be a leader for the defense right away.
DE? Leonard Little UFA Rams
DT? Justin Harrell Rd. 2
CB? Tory James UFA Bengals

Now we have a defense.

[madness]

the Ravens' O SUCKS and the Colts D gave up 34 to the Pats. The Colts D has improved enough to keep them in games, but it's the offense that's winning the games.

Raven's O SUCKS? What year you pulling that one from? Not this year. They weren't the greatest but they practically did better then half the teams in the league.

Sure, if you look at the scoreboard they give up 34 to one of the league's top offenses. Is that the real story though? Patriots drove more than 70 yards twice and scored touchdowns on both but one was a stop on 3 and 1 and the ****ty Patriots fumbles into the endzone for a TD. The rest of their drives were less then 35 yards(4 drives over 21 yards and 5 drives under 15 yards) and they converted only 5 3rd downs the entire game. So we should blame the defense for the Colts ST breakdown, giving the Patriot's excellent field position? How about blaming them for Manning's pick returned for a TD?

[OpIv37]

Raven's O SUCKS? What year you pulling that one from? Not this year. They weren't the greatest but they practically did better then half the teams in the league.



I saw them in person twice (albeit once was preseason) and believe me- they sucked.

[Philagape]

The Ravens sucked enough that Billick had to take over the offense. They sucked enough that they were stopped by Indy's D, which sucked in the regular season.

[Saratoga Slim]

People who say that the Colt's are in it because of their offense have not been watching the Colts D throughout the playoffs.

I agree.

I think the Colts D is a pretty fair test case for what our D will look like if we don't add some serious talent at DT and size at MLB. The Colts D has shown in the playoffs that it can be stiffling even with smallish players, so long as those players are hustling their tails off, tackling well, and playing smart. But it seems like the Colts smallish personnel makes it a system that requires almost perfect execution to work, and where anything isn't clicking, there's the potential for disaster--as the Colts D exemplified throughout the second half of the regular season.

I'll feel pretty good about us running the cover two if we can satisfactorily upgrade the NT/MLB positions. If we don't, I think our D will look a lot more like the Colts' D than the Bears': capable of playing great ball, but also prone to collapses.

Wow, that's my 1000th post. I wish I had something memorable to say.

[jamze132]

I miss Ted Washington, Pat Williams, and Sam Adams.

Tim Anderson???