The Morning After: A Rational Look At Yesterday, Eugene Wilson, & Frank Bush

I think I might just cry.

Because I can see ROY FRICKIN WILLIAMS taking advantage of those soft zones. ROY FRICKING WILLIAMS. But it’s not just him. Santana Moss did it too. And when that soft zone was covered, A TE would burn us deep.

Every year we have this issue. As bad and as young as our corners are, how do you expect them to grow when there’s no safety help up top. Our CB’s can’t be blamed for everything. When the ball is thrown in their zone, they usually make the tackle (minus that one mismatch of 5’9 McCain vs a 6’3 receiver). It’s obvious that Bush chooses to play zone so we can keep the receivers in front for short gains. But this logic doesn’t make sense when we’re going against a good o-line that can give the QB enough time to make the deep throw.

Im tired of seeing this highly talented team start a shit FS every season. Barber, The two gritty white guys that I don’t wanna bother remembering their name, Cant Cover Brown, Matt fucking Stevens. Enough is enough. Our weakness has been exposed for the past three weeks and other teams are just going to keep exploiting them. Im not too sure about spending a first rd pick on a safety but im done with drafting project safeties. We need a starting caliber FS by next season or we’re just going to keep running through the same problems.

Eugene Wilson, I shall hereforth call you Shiz: Stone-Handed Zombie.

Schaub is on “pace” for 58 sacks this year….

One other issue that they MUST deal with is what to do about KJ or “Lil’ Toastie” as I like to call him. He had his part in making Roy Frikkin’ Williams look like an all-pro yesterday.

/foul mood continues

nolan does need to start he did great in preseason and with cushing coming back in two weeks the cover 2 will important guys

or a bit of both?

toast isn’t getting a deep enough drop on his zone. if he extends it out another 2 or 3 yards, from the QB’s POV the reciever doesn’t look open.

He’s got speed, experience, a cheap contract, & younger depth behind him. Since Atogwe isn’t likely, why not go for this option?

It’s been beaten just as badly, if not worse. They could adjust to a different zone, cover 3 maybe, but that will leave the middle fairly open. Several times on the cover 2 the corners just flat out didn’t execute. They tried to play a press technique, and the corners couldn’t even get their hands on the WR, much less an effective jam. Every scheme has weaknesses…right now we’re not even stopping the routes that should play right into the schemes strength.

I don’t disagree with anything you say here, It’s just getting harder and harder to blame Frank Bush when 4 of 5 DBs(including McCain) have just been plain bad…and I’m giving Quin the benefit of the doubt on that. The LB’s aren’t very good in coverage either. Wash, Dallas, and Indy all used a lot of quick throws so that the pass rush had no chance to get to the QB in many cases, so I don’t even know how much good blitzing would do. The fact that teams are throwing so many quick passes against us and we still can’t defend them is scary to me. The longer a DB has to stay in coverage the greater the chance of someone getting open. Guys wide open almost immediately after the snap is not something you can scheme away easily.

Does that mean Frank is doing a great job? Of course not. whether it be teaching the DB’s better technique, finding the scheme that works best with our personnel, or doing a better job of preparing them for what to expect from the opposition The defensive staff needs to do a better job. That being said, we are going to continue to have problems until the individual players begin to play better.

i gotta email my manager every monday with suggestions on how to improve the tailgating experience for everybody. so if you were out there yesterday, did you have any gripes? complaints? email me and let me know, and i’ll include all that information in my email that i gotta send to him. chrisdogan@hotmail.com

different alignments, zone blitzes, stand up ends…then Barwin went down and we have been much more vanilla since then. I saw at least one zone blitz yesterday, and Mario/Smith/Nading all stood up at different points. Still, it doesn’t seem like we have been doing as many different things, or at least doing them effectively, since Barwin went down.

We got absolutely destroyed on delayed hand-offs and draws. Every other variety of running we play well, but aggressiveness and overpursuit just killed us on draws. Embarrassing – you’d think Bush would’ve done something about it over the offseason. Excuse me, I thought for a second we had a competent coordinator.

so with that said you put him in over brice on nickel? Brice got speed we know but to get done like he did on that td was sad, did not even put a hand on him.

Your graphs showing the cover2 aren’t entirely accurate. Don’t get me wrong, you’re right in that the weakness of the zone is in the areas between zones, but the gaps aren’t near as large as depicted in the pics and CBs in the cover 2 don’t exclusively sit in their zone.

In the cover2, CBs will line up within 5 yards of the WR and when they come off the ball will try to force them inside off the snap through “jamming” or other means… Their first responsibility after that is containment, if there is a run or pass in the flat developing it’s their responsibility to force the play inside… After that they cover the void where-ever it may be. If a reciever passes through their zone and no one else is entering, they shadow said reciever untill he is picked up by the next zone.

Because of that, it’s not one route that “beats” the cover2 zone, but a combination of routes that forces recievers to be released before the second defender picks him up. Any zone coverage has that same weakness…

Besides that, our cornerbacks don’t have the speed and range to play the cover3 or man, which has been my biggest gripe with our corners… We have no scheme versatility at all and are almost forced into playing the cover2.

And is it commentary on Troy Nolan, or Gary Kubiak, that Nolan is not replacing him?

our remaining schedule after that still looks like it could be tough. I guess the Jags don’t look very good and the Chargers have been up and down, but the Jets Titans Colts and Eagles and Ravens still look pretty tough.

We can’t defend the pass because we can’t blitz and pressure the quarterback into making quick throws.

It’s a vicious cycle that doesn’t end until you stop trying to be everything (Cover2 ) and start focusing on what you CAN do.

Our front seven CAN bring pressure. Relying on the front four to do it game in and game out is suicide. How many 4 man front in the NFL dominate offensive lines on a regular basis? NOT MANY and NOT OURS.

We need to shift to a blitzing defense. Yes you will get burned sometimes, but you will also create opportunities through turnovers and three and outs.

Frank Bush needs to get aggressive or get out.

Our scheme is a joke. I KNOW that zones have flaws and that a good QB can find gaps in coverage and exploit them, but that is not what I am seeing. I see wide open reciever after wide open reciever. When a WR runs a short stop route we have him completely surrounded… with a 5-8 yd cushion. When we blitz we only send one or two guys and they just get picked up with ease. Basically we are playing scared. The DBs are scared of getting beat so they drop too deep in their zones, The cornes dont trust the safeties help (bc they shouldnt) so the flats are wide open, the LBs dont trust the secondary so they drop too deep leaving the short middle and the coach doesnt trust the secondary so he rarely send an all out blitz. We play scared and it is not gonna last. We make NOTHING happen on the defensive side of the ball, no INTS, no Sacks, hellw e barely even hurry most guys. Its very frustrating and as a offensive strong team the one thing that messes with us the most is BLITZES AND CONFUSION from the defense we face. Why cant we understand that and use it? No excuses for our secondary but if given enough time… every WR and TE can GET open.

I think Kubiak doesn’t realize Eugene Wilson exists.

Question: You’ve talked about the cornerbacks, but what about the safeties – especially Eugene?

Answer: Well, I think we get the typical lunch-pail effort from Bernard…….and Gary remains focused on Bernard the entire question.

and we all know this. Wilson is not the help Jackson needs. Nolan and Barber can’t do any worse IMO and the only reason Wilson remained the starter on Thursday was because of his forced fumble hit on Collie in the Colts game and the improved play late in the Redskins game. At this juncture, Bush has the plug on Wilson and try someone else. That 64 yarder Williams had yesterday was initially on Jackson, but that is only a 13 yard gain if Wilson was positioned correctly.

This pass defense is embarassing and the return of Brian Cushing isn’t going to make it improve dramtically. Bush makes a change or Rick Smith needs to make a change.

wilson drops a pick every game i must say nolan pretty much a ballhawk if you look at his highlights hoping kub makes a desicion. no need to panic tho i think where good lets see how much cushing helps in coverage when he comes back

if your watching this monday night game bear vs packers once cushing comes back thats just how he would look plus he can drop into coverage what yall think