Originally Posted by OnTheWarpath15:
Look, I'll give you Cleveland.
But Baltimore was working with their 4th/5th/6th RB's and a patchwork OL.
Well, yeah, but Baltimore has an extra running back on every play.
I'm not all too worried. We'll have some wrinkle in place if we play them again, and we were heading toward a win until that fluke fumble. Spagnuolo seems to learn from his mistakes.
In terms of what the problem was, it seemed for the most part that it was just an inability to beat their quarterrunningback to the corner. Next time we'll have linebackers or strong safeties out wide and we'll stop that high school offense. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Detoxing:
Traditionally, it takes time for defenses to catch up to offenses. Early part of the season almost always favors the offense.
Pretty sure you’ve got this backward
It’s offense that traditionally takes more time to get in sync [Reply]
250 yards (give or take a few) on the ground is a pretty good sign your run defense is abysmal, I don't care who you're playing against. I don't know if it's the scheme or the players but something is seriously wrong. :-) [Reply]
Turns out when you move your elite pass rushing DT to DE and ask him to spend the entire game playing contain, which is his major weakness, you're going to have a bad time. [Reply]
Originally Posted by ChiefBlueCFC:
When was the last time we were actually good against the run?
That’s the craziest thing of all, decade after decade and coach after coach we’ve NEVER been able to get it right… it’s like a freaking curse or something [Reply]
Originally Posted by Easy 6:
That’s the craziest thing of all, decade after decade and coach after coach we’ve NEVER been able to get it right… it’s like a freaking curse or something
21st against the run last year, 17th in YPC not bad at all.
In baseball there's a term called 'getting put in a rocking chair' that you see with fastball/changeup guys. They get you out in front of the changeup then behind the fastball then back in front of the changeup and after an AB or two of that it looks like you're just guessing wrong every time.
The reality is that whatever they throw is going to beat you at that point because you're trapped in the middle. You're too slow for the fastball, too fast for the changeup and you just hope they hang you a slider. You're not guessing wrong, nor is the pitcher making the 'right' call. You're just vapor-locked and will miss whatever he throws.
When that happens you have two options - get your ass kicked for the rest of the day and try again tomorrow in the hopes your timing has re-set, or just sit fastball. Stop even trying to adjust. Acknowledge that if the guy executes 3 straight changeups you're out. But if he throws you a fastball, at least make sure you're ready for that. Get yourself out of the damn rocking chair somehow.
We ran a triple option in HS and the cardinal rule in defending that was "get the ball into the hands of the less talented runner...". Lamar Jackson is the best runner on that team, so you need to get the ball out of his hands. Don't try to read and react - take the initiative and if Murray or Wallace beat you, so be it. At least your DL is getting out of its own head.
Jones was very obviously trapped in the middle last night and I think Spags could've helped him quite a bit through some more exotic blitz packages that are designed to bring pressure off the edge and force a decision. Or bring your safeties up the middle more often to force the pitch out wide. But I felt like the play-calling last night just stayed too passive. It allowed Jackson to make the decision and once they got into that rhythm, the Chiefs DL was 'in the rocking chair' and no matter what decision Jackson made, it was going to be the right one because the DL just wasn't ready for either the fastball or the changeup at that point.
They let the Ravens get into a rhythm, they got buried in their own heads and by the end of that game they weren't capable of stopping anything at all so it barely even mattered what decision Jackson made. [Reply]
