Originally posted by WINiner:
Well PED's and an effort to cheat. He knows his teams don't stack up if following the rules. Both college and the NFL had taught him this.
I agree. If they didnt have that PEDed up pass rush, that single high safety defense collapses when teams have the time to defeat it. It's not that much different from a big picture perspective than the 46 defense. When the bears lost Hampton, I don't recall the bears ever playing that defense as a base defense after that. If you have time, WR'S like Stevie and anquan can shake free of man coverage and hurt that defense. If you force Sherman to back off, I think his production will dramatically drop off.
The key to killing that defense is getting good inside trap blocking to spring the RB into the 2nd level. The defense is mostly at the LOS. Get by that and you have Probable TD. That's why they have to replace Red Bryant. If they can't - like the bears couldn't replace hampton. That defense becomes ordinary and Sherman will be forced to back off, making him ripe to be burned by the WR on post and go routes.