Regarding the 3-4 defense

[Tatonka]

i know that more than a couple people have mentioned the LB coach of the Pittsburg Steelers as a possible replacement for JG. I touched on this subject on another thread.. but i though it deserved its own post..

how do you guys see this?

now, i am going to go on a couple of assumptions here... both or neither of which could be correct.
1. Jerry Gray is as good as gone.
2. Greg Williams would be willing to part with his 46 defense if TD told him to.

Now.. my opinion is this..

say we go to a 3-4. what personel changes would need to be made?

D line - Pat becomes a NT.. he is a slasher anyway, and i think he could do it.. i believe he played it well under Wade. Schobel stays at one DE, and we keep Ahonatu around for another year. we have Jones getting into the mix next year. We could go after a FA DE (douglas, KGB, Holiday)... dont write of Denny just yet either, he's a rookie for pete sakes.

LBS - I think that we all agree Robinson is as good as gone. Fletcher stays. I believe the 3-4 suits Newman MUCH better, and could take advantage of his pass rushing skills, much like porter/gildon. Spoon will be coming back from IR, and showed alot of potential. hate to see him waste on the bench behind Fletcher. we hit the FA market for a OLB (Spikes) and possible ILB (claiborne or brooking). i am also under the impression that this is a good year for LBs in the draft for depth.

DBs - Wini and Clements are set in stone. Coy stays as well. PP becomes a back up. possibily draft here? are there any good free agent FS available?

just thoughts here guys...

how is it that Tampa always has such a good defense? are ALL of there players really that good? i dont think so.. they have 6 very very good players.. well in my opinion we have 6 very good players on defense too.. we just need a better scheme.. any other ideas on what we should do about the defense..

i am interested to hear wys opinion on this...

did i just say that?

[RedEyE]

Great points Tatonka. Personally, I think that the current players could have handled the 3-4 D better then 46 this season. The 3-4 takes pressure off the corners and gives free reign to the LB corp allowing for more ways to apply pressure on QB. Blitzing is no longer a german pastry in Buffalo. Not to mention that the 3-4 is best suited against running offenses (hello C-Mart, hello Ricky, G-bye A. Smith).







Bring in Mike Archer!!!!!

[DraftBoy]

I see Marvin Lewis as a definite possibility to be the HC in 2003, anyways on to the 3-4 i like the formation but I would rather play a 5-2 but I havent ever seen that in the pros. Anyways in the 3-4 my starting lineup would be:
DE-Jones
DT-Williams
DE-Schoebel
OLB-Newman
MLB-Fletcher
MLB Spoon/FA
OLB-Bailey*/FA/DP
CB-Clements
CB-Winfield
FS-FA/DP
SS-Wire

I like that if we land bailey and a solid FS, ill look around and try and find a good 4th or 5th round FS.

[WG]

Gilbride, Gilbride, Gilbride!

Let's get someone in here who knows what a RB is!

[Hannibal]

There would be many advantages to a 3-4. It's easier to find a good LBs than DTs. It would also make our defense faster and more unpredicatable. Since not many teams play a 3-4, it could mess up the other teams OL's blocking assignments because it is something they don't see a lot of.

[venis2k1]

I say we let wys be head coach...after all he is always right.

[Tatonka]

wys.. this was a coversation about the defense.. relivant imput forthcoming?

[WG]

I'm not gonna blame the D when there's no talent on that side of the ball. Gray is doing nothing with nothing!

Gilbride is doint nothing with quite a bit. We gave up 27 today, 17 of which was off of TOs!!! Hellloooo!

D doesn't make TOs! O does!

I'll take our defensive effort today every game this season.

It's the O that sucked. I wish everyone would quit trying to tag the D. If we had not traded for Drew, and picked up a DL instead, then perhaps it would make sense to blame the D. But it's not their fault.

Gray's been given crap to work with. He's got one bonafide NFL-caliber starting DL-man, a complete dud of a LB in Robinson would screwed the pooch again today several times, and he's got a secondary that is average.

How again is it the Ds fault?

Meanwhile, the O, again, can't score and helps the other team out, and they get a pass?

I don't think so...

[PA Season Ticket Holder]

We could give up 35 points in a game with 3 TO's ran back for TD's and the same people would be blaming the defense

[RedEyE]

Originally posted by Wys Guy
I'm not gonna blame the D when there's no talent on that side of the ball. Gray is doing nothing with nothing!

Gilbride is doint nothing with quite a bit. We gave up 27 today, 17 of which was off of TOs!!! Hellloooo!

D doesn't make TOs! O does!

I'll take our defensive effort today every game this season.

It's the O that sucked. I wish everyone would quit trying to tag the D. If we had not traded for Drew, and picked up a DL instead, then perhaps it would make sense to blame the D. But it's not their fault.

Gray's been given crap to work with. He's got one bonafide NFL-caliber starting DL-man, a complete dud of a LB in Robinson would screwed the pooch again today several times, and he's got a secondary that is average.

How again is it the Ds fault?

Meanwhile, the O, again, can't score and helps the other team out, and they get a pass?

I don't think so...

Originally posted by PA Season Ticket Holder
We could give up 35 points in a game with 3 TO's ran back for TD's and the same people would be blaming the defense

I think most of us are refering to the season as a whole. Not today's game. Today was Drew.

[PA Season Ticket Holder]

No, there's some people lurking around here today that's blaming the defense.

The Patriots had 17 points handed to them on a silver platter but somehow it's the D's fault. Wake up cause they didn't even come close to losing it for us. If anything they kept us in the game in the 2nd half and gave us another chane to come back...That is till another TURNOVER

[venis2k1]

PA, are you saying that the "D" isn't this teams weak point?

[PA Season Ticket Holder]

I'm not saying that I think they're good. I'd just rather see the blame on a game to game basis pointed in the right direction.

Our defense didn't play bad today. They had a slow start on the first 2 drives but after that they shut the Patriots down. If Drew doesn't throw 4 INT's then we win this game possibly going away..

[RedEyE]

Re: Regarding the 3-4 defense

Originally posted by Tatonka
i know that more than a couple people have mentioned the LB coach of the Pittsburg Steelers as a possible replacement for JG. I touched on this subject on another thread.. but i though it deserved its own post..

how do you guys see this?

now, i am going to go on a couple of assumptions here... both or neither of which could be correct.
1. Jerry Gray is as good as gone.
2. Greg Williams would be willing to part with his 46 defense if TD told him to.

Now.. my opinion is this..

say we go to a 3-4. what personel changes would need to be made?

D line - Pat becomes a NT.. he is a slasher anyway, and i think he could do it.. i believe he played it well under Wade. Schobel stays at one DE, and we keep Ahonatu around for another year. we have Jones getting into the mix next year. We could go after a FA DE (douglas, KGB, Holiday)... dont write of Denny just yet either, he's a rookie for pete sakes.

LBS - I think that we all agree Robinson is as good as gone. Fletcher stays. I believe the 3-4 suits Newman MUCH better, and could take advantage of his pass rushing skills, much like porter/gildon. Spoon will be coming back from IR, and showed alot of potential. hate to see him waste on the bench behind Fletcher. we hit the FA market for a OLB (Spikes) and possible ILB (claiborne or brooking). i am also under the impression that this is a good year for LBs in the draft for depth.

DBs - Wini and Clements are set in stone. Coy stays as well. PP becomes a back up. possibily draft here? are there any good free agent FS available?

just thoughts here guys...

how is it that Tampa always has such a good defense? are ALL of there players really that good? i dont think so.. they have 6 very very good players.. well in my opinion we have 6 very good players on defense too.. we just need a better scheme.. any other ideas on what we should do about the defense..

i am interested to hear wys opinion on this...

did i just say that?

I think that reeling in Mike Archer would not be that difficult as long as he is willing to leave Pittsburgh. The ultimate plus is that he was hired by TD in '96. I'm sure they could working something out. Force GW into it ~ TDs biggest arguement could be something like this "You had two years to do it your way, and things got worse. Gray's gone. Archers in. Work with it or your gone too."

[Rebecky]

If we bring in a new DC and turn the D completely over to him, and Gilbride is running the offense, what exactly would GW be paid to do? Stay away from the team?

I've read that when Dungy took over at TB, lacking talented experienced players, he instituted a very basic D-scheme that became his trademark 4-3 gap cover-2. The announcers at the Indy/TN game today noted that he was doing the same thing at Indy, teaching the DL to concentrate on gap coverage.

Now, I'm no football guru, and I don't really understand why gap coverage is easier for an inexperienced defensive line to master; perhaps someone could explain it.

In the 3-4, what are the DL and linebacker responsibilities?

If I remember correctly, in Dungy's 4-3, the 3 linebackers spread the field and cover the seams, the MLB being your key player, the secondary uses 2 safeties splitting the field deep, combined with aggressive man-on-man cb coverage.

I think this is interesting because it's the scheme that Dungy's assistant coach, Lovie Smith, successfully took to St. Louis, where Fletcher became a standout at the key MLB position.