Defensive Analysis thread (Preseason Week 1)

Originally posted by Thizz415:
-Need better play from our pass rushers.
-Less cushion on WR's
-More aggressive
-Need Patrick Willis
-Less Roman and more Goldson and Smith.

That says it all in a nutshell.

Manny Lawson only has one pass rush move, we are in trouble if we are depending on him.

For those of you that claim the D looked so bad cause we were playing vanilla........ SAVE THAT s**t. It doesn't excuse the OLBs lack of pressure. Lawson was clearly ineffective against the pass. He was easily blocked right out of passing plays just like he's been since being drafted. Haralson DID PLAY (despite what some are claiming) and he looked very sluggish. The overall scheme could be a little at fault, but it wasn't like these guys weren't trying. Did you see Lawson before the snaps? He was chomping at the bit to get after the QB, but he just couldn't get it done.
The bottom line is our OLBs couldn't beat the man in front of them.

On the flip side, this was just one game. One preseason game at that.
It's still early, so Sing/Manusky have time to get this fixed before the season. But if they cannot find the answer, we'll have another disappointing season.

Dissapointed to not see a pass rush from the first teamers. Manny especially looked a bit slow. I can see why they like Brooks. The guy has nice explosion, but is still raw! He keeps bustin his butt, I would not be suprised if he beats Manny. Maybe Greg was being vanilla, but they had all day to throw. Also, whether its was first or second, out OLBs were not keeping outside leverage and they were running outside on us all day. OLBs need to be more disciplined than that.

Thank god for our DB play. Smith is a keeper. That INT was why we drafted him out of OK. Very athletic play. Goldson athleticism is evident. I just hope he can stay healthy for a full season. Bly was great pick up. I saw him in TC and the guy is a football player!!! Good for him vs. his former team!!!!

B-

Firstly, our pass-rush will never be any good till our 3 DL don't take 5 guys on consistently. We can't expect our LBs to beat OTs. We have to get them to go against TEs and FBs/RBs.

Secondly, we need better OLBs. They can't even collapse the pocket. I understand this is the first pre-season game, but we hardly one any 1-on-1 battles when it came to pass-rush. Brooks showed some power, but he is as raw as they come.

I feel bad for Lawson though. He is a 4-3 LB, who got drafted to a 3-4 team. He really needs to show something early this season. No more excuses.

Well, of course I want to see more from our pass rush, so I was a little disappointed in that first preseason outing of our team.

But I think we should not start to panic just yet, just because we could not get much pressure against the Broncos. Is it just me or don´t I remember the Broncos O-Line being really good last year in pass protection? I think they allowed one of the fewest sack totals in the entire NFL last season and Jay Cutler put up some big stats behind those guys for a reason (Hint: It´s not because they sucked )

Now consider that the line is pretty young (so there could even be room for improvement ), stayed intact during the offseason as far as I know, so there should be a lot of cohesiveness and did not get anything fancy from our defense, I am not surprised that they should (and did) fare very well against our pass rush.

That still means we need to see an improved pass rush in the following weeks, but for now, I will not fret too much over the pass rush; at least the turnovers were a good start

Our best pass rusher rushed the passer 3 times in the game.

Manny rushed the passer about 10 times.
4 times against Clady(0.5 sacks allowed last season),
once against the TE who he easily beat
once unblocked (wr screen)
4 times against the RT

By my count Manny only rushed on 4 pass plays that were not a quick pass from shotgun or a 3 step drop.

I think we can wait a tad longer before we make any season long proclimations about our OLBs and our pass rush.

Imagine what our secondary would have done last night if we would have got pressure on the QB!! We would have had 5 INT'S!! I think MS will fix the problem after he gets done foaming at the mouth. I look forward to seeing our starters come out apply needed pressure and make the QB throw the ball up and our DB'S snag Ints like a fat kid eating chocalate at a candy store... I remember a few years ago I would take a shot of Vodka everytime they got a INT needless to say I never even got a buzz!!!

Lets Go NINERS

I am really excited to see what will happen once the pass rush is conducted.

With the unfortunate injuries we suffered, we should use the opportunity to look at other LB options.

If Clayton and Keasey go to IR, that opens two roster spots for us to fill. One or both could be used to evaluate pass rush candidates.

Guys like Travis LaBoy or Kalimba Edwards would be nice situational pass rushers that will give you at least 3-4 sacks per season. They should not start, but they are significant upgrades to Brooks and Moore.

OLB: Lawson/LaBoy
ILB: Willis/Ulbrich
ILB: Spikes/McKillap
OLB: Haralson/Brooks

BOOM!

Originally posted by Thizz415:
-Need better play from our pass rushers.
-Less cushion on WR's
-More aggressive
-Need Patrick Willis
-Less Roman and more Goldson and Smith.

That was my main concern with the 1st string defense. They were just giving Denver's WR"s way too much respect.

Pass rush was looking real suspect. Yes Willis wasn't playing and yes they didn't blitz a lot. But that doesn't stop somebody beating there man one on one and creating a pass rush.

Laboy is out for the season with Injury, torn Biceps i think

I'd like to sign him anyway and IR him (if you can do that)
It would be nice to have him for next year

Originally posted by AKfanster:
For those of you that claim the D looked so bad cause we were playing vanilla........ SAVE THAT s**t. It doesn't excuse the OLBs lack of pressure. Lawson was clearly ineffective against the pass. He was easily blocked right out of passing plays just like he's been since being drafted. Haralson DID PLAY (despite what some are claiming) and he looked very sluggish. The overall scheme could be a little at fault, but it wasn't like these guys weren't trying. Did you see Lawson before the snaps? He was chomping at the bit to get after the QB, but he just couldn't get it done.
The bottom line is our OLBs couldn't beat the man in front of them.

On the flip side, this was just one game. One preseason game at that.
It's still early, so Sing/Manusky have time to get this fixed before the season. But if they cannot find the answer, we'll have another disappointing season.

Good point. Singletary was NOT happy and nor should he be - vanilla or not. I do agree the scheme was very Nolan-like and even more predictable with the OLB's up at the LOS the whole game - no movement, no switching, no pacing back and forth pre-snap looking to attack gaps, no OLB's really rushing inside, etc. Vanilla but something we have seen from our d-coordinators for ages now.

Either way, that does not excuse the fact that all of our front 7 got their nuts cracked in individual drills.

I hope the D was playing that soft by design in order to keep down any possible injuries. The pass rush was horrible and the point of attack was as well.

Originally posted by NCommand:

Originally posted by jreff22:
Way too much cushion for the CB's
Roman doesn't need to be here....R Smith you have my vote
Pass rush needs major improvement
Run D needs to clog faster and get to the ball
McKillop needs work but looks the part
Hudson should be on the final 53
Did we play it safe today.....I think so
We played good but improvement can be made with the current personnel

WE NEED TO STOP GIVING AWAY 3RD DOWNS!!

Yeah, this was our ode to Nolan...super vanilla defense, predictable, unimaginative, reactive, conservative and if not for the individual plays (INT's), we could have been down big time. The opposition racked up huge TOP and keeping drives alive. 3rd down defense was pathetic again and we continued to rely on the secondary to get any pressure on the QB (and we still couldn't). Again, short yardage defense is very weak.

Brooks looks explosive and for all the talk of him not having motivation, he hustled his ass off today and did a nice job of causing an INT, containing his edge and hustling down field to make tackles. He looks the part at OLB so far. Harris looked solid too.

Scott is Derek Smith 2.0. Enough said. That was Singletary's pick.

Lawson, once again, over ran a play that resulted in big yardage though he made a nice play recovering.

Defense overall looked very slow.

D-line was dominated including Smith and the rest of the starters. We severely lack a NT (again)...huge runs inside and off tackle.

And to add insult to injury, Nolan's defense looked aggressive. WTF? Haha.

Let's keep perspective - it's only pre-season but it sure does look identical to the defense we've run for years with the same exact problems d/t ignoring the NT, LDE & OLB positions (e.g. front 7).

I miss the hybrid LMAO

Great post. You nailed it!

I was at the game, and surprised and impressed with the work of Brooks. Brooks played well on ST--he can really move for a guy his size. And at OLB, he looked good, but inexperienced. He dropped back in coverage, held his position against bigger OL against the run, and tried to pressure the QB. Mostly, you could see alot of effort on his part. He needs to work on pass rush technique, but seems to have the tools and the motivation.

I was really impressed with Harris. Guy's not that big, but he's a stud. He flattened Sims on one pass that Sims just barely got off and held his own against bigger OL all night.

Same with McKillop. Guy can play. One run play where Brooks got sucked in by the OT, leaving the flank wide open, McKillop goes out and makes the tackle behind him. Great instincts, really good speed to get outside on that play. Seems like he was all over the field.

The other guy who impressed me was Mitchell. He's really huge and he's got a non stop motor. He gave Denver's OL fits. He seemed better than Sopoaga, who got pushed around at NT all night. Very disappointed in his play, although really, its the same old Sopoaga. He plays too upright sometimes and gets pushed around by a single OL.