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The Injuries, the Defense and the Offense (and the Special Teams)

@Simba have you heard anything about what they think of the defensive staff? I know we all pile on Orrs trash ass scheme but what about the positional coaches?
 
Jones yesterday wouldn't be the best example. He was on the field on 2 of the 3 sacks against Jackson and he rushed on both occasions. In fact, statistically, he dropped back into coverage 0 times. 7 times combined over the last 5 years, with 1 career catch allowed for -2 yards.

I get what you mean in general. That's not to say that it would be shocking for a player that isn't normally in coverage. If there's an overload blitz on the opposite side, or at least if the defender is feigning a rush. We did do that with Macdonald, to your point. I still remember being bewildered at giving up a critical 1st down against Pittsburgh wherein Clowney dropped to the sticks on a 3rd and 9 into the trips side, and we gave up the conversion. Weird then and weird now. But we did at least send 5, and we overloaded the opposite side, so somebody had to drop.

But this is from yesterday:

View attachment 7415

He's the WILL linebacker here, with a standard 4-man rush. And the closest intended defender against the X-receiver, with Nate Wiggins fanning out to cover the RB on the flat route. We dropped Odafe Oweh yesterday into the hook/curl to the trips side in a Tampa 2 yesterday with a 4-man rush. Which gave up a catch directly into his area, something I can't blame him for. We did at least manage to overload the Lions left side last week when we dropped Green into the middle of the field against Sam LaPorta, but we also again only sent 4 rushers and they were all picked up.

And these are exploited instantly. They're not even secondary reads where you're hoping they're not seen during the progression. The LaPorta throw was an instant read. Same with the one above to JuJu Smith-Schuster. So far, our edge rushers have given up 6 catches on 6 targets for 55 yards. We gave up 103 with Macdonald in 19 games, and that was at least to add wrinkles to an existing pass rush. Now, we're just doing them because it's a different look. Which would at least be somewhat understandable if we schemed them properly. But on most of them (if not all), we've sent an extra linebacker and dropped and edge player, so the blocking assignment is easier for the offensive line and the read is quicker for the quarterback. It's innovation over insulation. It's far from the chief concern with Zach Orr, but it does feel like a microcosm of the inexplicable calls we've seen.

Yeah this whole concept has made no sense to me. I understand we can’t get a consistent rush but taking a guy who does that for a living and swapping him with a guy that doesn’t provides no benefit. And it’s pretty blatant too. Not even like there’s some disguise out of it. The tape tells you exactly what’s gonna happen if your brain can’t see it.
 
@Simba have you heard anything about what they think of the defensive staff? I know we all pile on Orrs trash ass scheme but what about the positional coaches?
They love the positional coaches they’ve gotten, and the players do too which has not always been the case. I imagine anyone getting let go there is more of a sacrificial lamb type of deal.
 
They love the positional coaches they’ve gotten, and the players do too which has not always been the case. I imagine anyone getting let go there is more of a sacrificial lamb type of deal.
Welp... Orr dont have to leave but switch titles cause he's not ready for this
 
And on the Lamar front, he's part of the problem this year too. It seems to be an extension of having little trust in his OL, but he's making decisions that look like 2020 and 2021 him, which is conveniently the last time we had an OL this shitty.

We all know by know once Lamar lose trust in his OLine… he starts tilting and making bad decisions
 
Marlon Humphrey set to miss a few weeks. Unfortunate news. Hopefully he comes back with a vengeance.
 
Yeah this whole concept has made no sense to me. I understand we can’t get a consistent rush but taking a guy who does that for a living and swapping him with a guy that doesn’t provides no benefit. And it’s pretty blatant too. Not even like there’s some disguise out of it. The tape tells you exactly what’s gonna happen if your brain can’t see it.

Exactly. On film, it looks like the opposing QBs are salivating at these easy pitch-and-catch opportunities. Green is currently on pace to drop back this year more than he has in his entire college career. At this point, I'd rather try to get Green going as a pass rusher first and then add things on as he can handle. This stuff doesn't help his confidence, and if we don't have a Kyle Nan Noy, we have to plan around the loss.
 
Short-handed on pure pass-rushing DTs, we played Aeneas Peebles 9 snaps. Most were at the Nose.

Our run-stopping resident John Jenkins, who thrived at NT last week, was our main RDT this week. It led to 1 pressure in 23 attempts, and LG Kingsley Suamataia's best career pass blocking grade by a country mile.

We are not a serious team.
 
And on the Lamar front, he's part of the problem this year too. It seems to be an extension of having little trust in his OL, but he's making decisions that look like 2020 and 2021 him, which is conveniently the last time we had an OL this shitty.

i dont think it's 2020/2021 levels of bad

and i think looking back at the game and some of the throwaways... i wonder if the leg injury came much earlier in the game (or if he even came into the week with it) because he just didn't look as comfortable or explosive on the move as he normally does which also caused some issues e.g. on the INT

but he's still reading the defence and the blitz better than 2020/2021 but you can see he doesn't trust his pocket is going to hold up and the feet get a little happy back there
 
Short-handed on pure pass-rushing DTs, we played Aeneas Peebles 9 snaps. Most were at the Nose.

Our run-stopping resident John Jenkins, who thrived at NT last week, was our main RDT this week. It led to 1 pressure in 23 attempts, and LG Kingsley Suamataia's best career pass blocking grade by a country mile.

We are not a serious team.
Do they decide on snap counts and positions by throwing fucking darts before the game?
 
i dont think it's 2020/2021 levels of bad

and i think looking back at the game and some of the throwaways... i wonder if the leg injury came much earlier in the game (or if he even came into the week with it) because he just didn't look as comfortable or explosive on the move as he normally does which also caused some issues e.g. on the INT

but he's still reading the defence and the blitz better than 2020/2021 but you can see he doesn't trust his pocket is going to hold up and the feet get a little happy back there
Yeah that may have been a tad reactive, but the point stands to some extent. He doesn't look like himself, certainly doesn't look like he trusts the guys in front of him, and the process still feels too sped up. He's better than that era but certainly doesn't look like the last 2 years either.
 
I can agree with that. The OL is shaky but Lamar is still seeing ghosts. That's on him.

idk that they're ghosts when they pressured him on 51.9% of his dropback
linderbaum gave up 4 pressures just by himself and then lamar had another 9 pressures come off the left-hand side from various culprits...

not really seeing ghosts when they're actually there and trying to sack you

i agree he's not looking comfortable in the pocket - but it's not like it's unfounded
 
All pretty weird to me.. started out well with henry but then we stopped using him very early.. we extended bateman but dont even target him as much! Lamar seems like he dont wanna run and wants to prove a point by passing even with open lanes.. i think its all been a mental thing with him tbh
 
Yeah that may have been a tad reactive, but the point stands to some extent. He doesn't look like himself, certainly doesn't look like he trusts the guys in front of him, and the process still feels too sped up. He's better than that era but certainly doesn't look like the last 2 years either.

i think he definitely looks more like 2023/2024 lamar than any other version
he just has an inconsistent and untrustworthy OL and an absent running game to work with
 
My guy said he'd never say no to something earlier, but it sounds like some coaches have until the bye to get things worked out or they're likely to make a move. Applies mostly to Orr.
The real question is... does EDC have a job for life or has there been discussions about how the team has been built, compared to teams like the Eagles who built their team from the trenches out. Seeing that basically be ignored while other teams do it, and with great success when we play them has to be a concern.
 
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