Blitzing is not the key. Staying/filling the lanes and containing the RB when he tries to bounce outside the tackles is key. Sort of a "stay home" don't over pursue defense.
Not trolling and am happy to leave but thought you might be interested in some of the detail of the Saints playing against the Dolphins Wildcat. The Saints did stop the Wildcat and did so primarily by crashing DBs on the corners but not as a blitz per se --- the DBs crashed the outside blockers but retained outside contain responsibilities. This allowed the DEs to go pretty much straight upfield and maintain their gap responsibilities with the DTs taking their gaps and eating the internal blockers and, the main thing here, keeping Vilma and the SS position clean to come up and make the tackle. This approach puts you at risk of giving up the 1-3 passes that they might attempt out of the Wildcat, but you take that chance particularly with the hands-of-stone receivers that the Fins have. The results? - Overall, on 14 Wildcat plays, the Dolphins garnered only 31 yards (2.2 ypc). And I think the Saints are the first team this year to stop the Dolphin's Wildcat on 3rd down with less than two yards to go. - The Saints had 138 rushing yards compared to the Dolphins 137 (particularly impressive if you take out Ricky Williams' 68 yard TD run - which was not out of the Wildcat - and on which Vilma was in position to make the tackle but was clearly held on the play). The Saints averaged 5.1 yards per attempt on 27 carries. The Dolphins averaged 4.6 yards per attempt on 30 carries. Saint's time of possession was 33:02 and the Dolphins time of possession was 26:58. - New Orleans did not punt in the second half and scored 24 points on its final four possessions, with drives of 82 (TD), 79 (TD), 60 (TD) and 64 (FG) yards in the second half. The defense held the Dolphins without a first down on six of their first seven series of the half. Even when down 10 pts twice in the second half, we ran the ball MORE, and eventually ate their lunch down the middle of the field, particularly with Shockey. In short, the highlights focus on Ricky's long run and the Saints' defensive touchdowns but the reality is that the Saints went into Miami and kicked the shit out of the Dolphins at their own game -- at least in the second half -- to the tune of 36 to 10, with a missed FG, extra point and 2 pt conversion. Much of the Saints' woes in the first half might be traced to Payton's total lack of run balance in play-calling in the first half. When he got back to the run in the second half, the field opened up completely. Anyway, I'm happy to leave you to your discussion if you're not interested in this stuff -- but if you stick to the run and play disciplined defense and dare the Dolphins to pass, you'll kick their ass this time around.
Saints made adjustments, the Phins did not. The Saints have two very good Safties, mostly Sharper. He was key in neutralizing the Wildcat. Henne wasn't rattled, it was his WRs who just dropped passes. On the INT returned by Sharper, the ball bounced off Ginn's hands, off his knee, and into Sharper's hands. Henne stayed calm and made some good throws against a lot of Saints pressure.
Funny, as much as I saw the refs helping the Saints to win the game (mainly Sharper's fumble and Colston stopped at the one yard line), I saw no hold. Ricky just hit the hole too fast for the D to react.
I'm not here complaining about the referees -- I'll leave that to the folks on the FinHeaven forum. I'm just passing info on to some of the Jets fans in case they're interested. As for the Vilma hold, go back and watch the game -- I have watched it several times and it is a clear hold on the one guy with primary responsibility to make the tackle in the scheme played on that down. Of course the safety took a bad angle also. I understand it will be replayed on NFL Network tomorrow at 8 -- you can watch for yourself.
I've seen the game once since Sunday. Didn't see any hold that I haven't seen in the NFL already. RW was pretty much by him. Refs sucked for both sides that game.
nice write up. i'd like to see the Jets do the same, but with Jenkins out it'll be interesting. your DL is better. its going to be on the LBs to not let R&R get to the 2nd level. What I can see the Jets doing is taking the Nickel CB Strickland and run blitz from the edge. He's a damn good tackler for a CB. So is Revis. I wouldn't mind keeping Rhodes back for those option passes with Leonhard, or having 3 safeties out there to man up against both RBs when the Wildcat is being used.
Another obvious and simple point is NO runs the 4-3 as their base set. Is it better suited to stop Miami? I don't know, but it is a difference. The other point the NO fan made that compares poorly to the Jets right now is that Shockey picked up over 100 yds and averaged over 25 a catch. Is Keller going to do that? 4 is not many catches, but nice production. I also see that Allen is out for the game.
I agree with Saints 68. Where the Jets got exploited last game was on the edge with Ricky Williams. Williams was just running up and down the line of scrimmage and when he turned the corner...the Jets weren't there...they were blitzing Chad Henne. I think guys like Westerman and Murrell need to be involved to track down these end rushes and Ryan is going to have dial back the blitzes. On the other hand, it looks like we may have to play more 4-3 to replace Jenkins and keep Ronnie Brown from blowing through the middle of our line.... I don't know... I think this is going to be a tougher game than the next one in New England. We just don't match up well with THESE dolphins... Sanchez needs to be mistake free, and the Jets need to run, run, run.
Its not often we have a visitor that leaves us with such quality insight as you have Saint. Thanks and hopefully, Ryan and Pettine watched the tape and absorbed as much as you have. Feel free to stop by anytime.. :beer:
Well, your avatar made my morning so let's call it even......plus your visiting fans for our game in the Dome a few weeks ago were great. Evidently, they spent quite a bit of money on libations over the weekend -- I'm sure they're not alcoholics but just wanted to help our local economy recover from Katrina......
Obviously you didnt watch the game then. Going back to the first half w/ about 8 minutes left, we started forcing 3 & outs. MIA was getting zero yards rushing the ball. The stat was IIRC, 15 WC plays for 29 yards. There yards came off a sweep play where the refs missed an obvious hold on Vilma. They had to try to start passing since our CBs were selling out to the run. Our DEs & DTs did a great job holding their blocks aloowing our LBs, Vilma, to roam. It also helps we could man up w/ our CBs allowing our FS to come up in run support.
I keep remember Vilma making tackles 5-8yds down the field. He had one decent year and was pretty awful otherwise on the Jets. Same with Farrior.
That avatar made me lose my train of thought, I agree with what your saying about the dolphins having to try and pass, it was clearly a smart decision at the time, but they failed, shit happens. :finssuck::finssuck::finssuck::finssuck:
You mean he had one monster year and pretty good one when the team was terrible the year after, then came Mangini and the 3-4.
