Why do we suck so bad vs screen passes

I thought we did alright vs. the screen tonight, we did give up a couple that went for first downs, but like has been posted, the Saints are great with the screen pass. The screen pass wasn't what beat us here tonight though.

Ya, that is the Saint's go to play, too. They got us a couple of times. But I think that that plays gets everyone.

We have an aggressive defensive scheme. Screens exploit that. If you watch the Patriots, their DE's play two gap and hold position to read the play before committing, so they can put themselves in position to disrupt the play. We play a one gap style, which calls for the linemen to shoot one gap and read the play on the fly.

Also, our coverage scheme is two deep with soft zone on the edges. The LB's are responsible for the mid range throws. OLB's blitz a lot, so that takes them out of the play. This leaves a large bubble of open space and allows o-linemen to set up blocks for the screen without much, if any, disruption.

Originally posted by znk916:
Can someone knowledgeable explain or take a guess as to why? We have some of the best and fastest linebackers, and yet we've been getting killed on screens since the beginning of last year. Too aggressive or what?

Scheme or personnel?

I mentioned during the pre season while studying the games we had a problem reacting to screens. Our guys would all get a great pass rush (possibly by design) and then the QB would just barely (by about a step) get the ball away and all of a sudden you give up a first down on 3rd and 10-15 because of it. Justin Smith did a nice job reading it one time tonight (Manny had a nice play on one as well). I'd have to go back and look but besides a few times we didn't recognize it well. Last year J Smith had a pic against the Lions he read one so well. I don't know if the coaches are mentioning it but they should be. Players have to figure it out or we will work so hard to get 3rd and long and then give up first downs to teams all year long.

Those bug me a lot... you know what I mean? You play good for 2 downs and just when you close in on a sack they dump it off and nobody is around and earn a easy first down. At least we are getting better at running them on offense though.

[ Edited by Gore_21 on Sep 20, 2010 at 23:00:44 ]

Originally posted by Hopper:
Manusky plays a lot of quarters 4 and cover 3. Leaves only two guys in the middle of field.

Yup, and that's the trade off.

-9fA

Originally posted by 9erfanAUS:

Originally posted by Hopper:
Manusky plays a lot of quarters 4 and cover 3. Leaves only two guys in the middle of field.

Yup, and that's the trade off.

-9fA

True but our DL has to do a better job of recognizing it. Get their hands up or retreat to make it more difficult to complete.

Somethings gotta give on D, bruh. We protect deep, intermediate, and stop the run right?

It's really a sign of respect. The O knows you're able to get tons of pressure so they take advantage of the only thing they can. If we can get them to only execute on 25% of their game plan then wow we own. The key is for us to disguise how we send our pressure better. I think we did a good job of it tonight, but i think we did a better job of that vs. Indy last season. It's week 2, vs the best O in the NFL. Plus not every team has a reggie bush. We more than held our ground.

It's just the scheme, as everyone else said. But actually, I'm impressed with how well we did today. The screen was the ONLY thing they had up until the last drive.

pick your poison.....get beat deep which we didnt, untill the last drive....or get beat on screens...

We should go back to Nolan's Vanilla.

Every team coming to play us knows we have this problem and they catch us with the same schemes. With that many lbs on the field there should be one designated to the rb. We did that but I'm sorry P Willie was getting burned and he needs to brush up on that with some more one on ones with Frank.

Keep in mind that the Saints run it really well because they have two strong and athletic guards who get down the field and block on those. And they have receivers who stretch the field, so defenses have to respect the long-ball.

Screens evolved as an "out" for an aggressive pass-rush because you dump the ball behind the incoming defenders. I'll take a consistent pass-rush that give up a few first downs on screen passes every once in a while, and so will most teams, which is why the screen is an option. The screen didn't beat us, and we were playing the team that executes it the best.

Originally posted by 49rz4Life:
Every team coming to play us knows we have this problem and they catch us with the same schemes. With that many lbs on the field there should be one designated to the rb. We did that but I'm sorry P Willie was getting burned and he needs to brush up on that with some more one on ones with Frank.

He got "burnt" once....... Against Reggie Bush! Give the guy a break. He is the D, He plays ALL F**KING HEART every down. Bush would do the same thing on the TD play 1 on 1 vs any defensive player in the league.

The Saints do really good job with their screens. Screens are an integral part of their game plan. They have so many weapons, they spread the field, create a lot of coverage mismatches isolating a LB on a RB and most of all they execute them really well.

I have noticed that our Defense is really bad at any in game adjustments. When something works for the opponent, it works in all 4 quarters.

That is one of my least favorite attributes of a Defense, and why I will NEVER call this 49er Defense a top Defense.