IrishAg said:
Pahdz said:
Never in a million years did I think CJ Stroud would be the lone bright spot on this team this year.
It's like the entire league did their homework on Demeco's defense this offseason, and our staff and players just read their own headlines and figured they'd rest on their laurels.
Pretty much, our defense has been simplistic and the "we're better than you" style for the past two years with barely any changes. That says a lot that our staff did nothing to keep evolving the scheme so no one could scheme to it (Which always happens in the NFL). Just shows how in over his head DeMeco is.
I have to disagree a little here, I get where you're coming from but I don't think the scheme is the problem, nor do I think you change your scheme when as of the offseason it had been wildly successful. I love this scheme when executed, but it does put a lot on certain players and it does take a certain level of talent at key positions. It also relies on the back end making the right decisions every play.
I'm by no means an expert and this is all just my opinion based on what I've seen, but I'm gonna try and break down the issues as best I can on that side of the ball. It may be a little long so sorry in advance.
The texans run a cover 4 man hybrid that sort of looks a little like match quarters on the surface but it's much more developed for all areas of the field rather than the "safe" leaning scheme quarters is. It looks great when executed because in theory it combines the advantages of a deep shell with a man to man coverage scheme without many of the vulnerabilities of either. And the coverage rules for the individual players, when followed, will put them in position to answer for almost anything an offense attacks it with. It's flexible and it's difficult to attack (obviously this is all in theory when it's done right).
The downside? It requires elite pass rushers on the line and elite outside corners (this is why the Texans invested so much at both positions), as it puts enormous responsibility on them along with the mlb. If the cbs don't execute, things can fall apart easily for everyone else. Which brings us to Lassiter. He's struggling in a big way this year and I can't figure out why. My first thought was that he has less than elite top end speed, but from what I can tell that's not really being exploited, at least not to the extent I'd blame it for his issues thus far. He's just not diagnosing well, and generally making lots of mistakes that have been back breakers on so many drives.
A big change from last year is that for some reason, players are inexplicably making bad decisions way too often and it's causing coverage busts left and right. We saw how disastrous this can be with CJGJ. The defense is one that works on conditions sort of- if this wr goes here, this corner picks him up in man, and this other player drops into a shell- that sort of thing. So reading things correctly is key and our guys have been struggling with it. A lot of it has been depth guys, so maybe it's gonna require putting more on the starters going forward. No point in keeping them fresh for playoffs they don't make.
The front 4 has to generate a pass rush in this defense… Because of the way the back end works, the cost of blitzing is high compared to a lot of other schemes, think Tony Dungy's modified cover 2. You mostly need to disrupt with just 4, and there's been stretches where WAJ and Hunter haven't been disruptive like you'd expect from them. that's a bit nitpicky though, and It's the DTs that really worry me. The interior DL play has been piss poor, Clowney has basically been the best interior player so far and it's not even his position. Last season left me feeling like we got lucky that some mostly average interior players played out of their minds and itbsort of feels like we're just watching them fall back down to earth. I'd like to see Mcdonald get more chances because it's been ugly thus far. He is supposed to be a run stopper and they need that in the worst way.
The last big issue I've seen is one I'm just gonna call miscellaneous personnel problems. Blankenship has not looked comfortable and has been a major liability early on. We've also seen terrible play out of the backup LBs all year and Aziz may be losing a step or it may be he's just being asked to do so much it's catching up to him. Pitre hasn't been the playmaker he needs to be. Stingley looks a step slow. Bullock's been weak against the run. The cb depth is non existent. A lot of players need to step their game up in a big way.
Anyway so if you're one of probably like 3 people that read this far, sorry it was so long. I did try to warn you. Anyway the point is Demeco has issues as a coach for sure, but I put these issues more on the players than the scheme. There's a lot of guys playing below their capabilities and that will make any scheme look bad. All I know is between this and the Aggies, I've been really wondering why I follow this awful sport at all.
