Originally posted by NCommand:
Not at all. This was the same exact blue print all teams smoked us with last year. Stack 8-9 players inside the DE's and run blitz en route to stopping Gore or sacking Alex. This resulted in constant 3rd and longs and allowed the rest of the defense to rush the passer and play very aggressive in the secondary.
On offense, teams would exploit the passing game (making our run defense numbers look good), double down on Smith and never worry about Lawson/Haralson. Key in on Clements and Lewis in particular and spread out the defense and exploit the lack of speed. The sacks numbers will be collective but very few will make a difference in a game (pre-A. Brooks). Manusky runs a very vanilla 3-4.
It took teams 2 or 3 games last year to create this easy game plan and every team used it last season. Everyone knows how stubborn Singletary is when it comes to his philosophy on offense...hell, he telegrapged it in the media and backed it up with Raye and with his personnel packages.
This is a VERY easy team to game plan for. Can you imagine how hard it would be for a real coaching staff to game plan for New Orleans? Now, picture game planning for us. Night and day. The bigger issue is that WE DON'T GAME PLAN. We just play our game. Period.
You really think that this year you see will a vanilla defense from Manusky? Did you see P.Willis blitz during the preseason.
About our offensive play calling last year, um rate our o-line, PLEASE.