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Some of this is inherent to Staley’s defensive philosophy. He believes in devoting more schematic resources to the back end to prevent explosions and efficiency in the passing game. And the Chargers are 15th in pass defense DVOA this season. They only allowed 190 passing yards to Murray and the Cardinals offense. But the run defense cannot be this bad if the Chargers want to make the playoffs.
I asked Staley about this philosophy Monday, and I want to include the answer in full to provide context.
“You have to assess each matchup,” he said. “Philosophically, it’s going to be about the matchup and where you feel like the matchup is within the game. When you take a look at Arizona, they’re got like five first-round receivers on their team, so you got to look at the matchups both ways. You just know it takes a lot of 5-yard runs to equal a 40-yard pass, and you got to start with that premise. It will always be that way. Now, where I’ve been — where we’ve been No. 1 in the NFL and top-10 in the NFL — then, both places are working well at the same time. I think that when you suffer some attrition and obviously things change from a personnel perspective, you have to go into the game and play that game the way that you need to play it.
“We need to play better up front in the run game, and that’s all 11 guys. It’s not just the front. It’s all 11 guys. Because you can fit the run perfectly, eight-man fit, perfectly fit, and the ball gets to the corner and he’s got to make a tackle. What we got to try and do is create as many two-on-ones in the run game where there’s two guys on the ball, so it doesn’t come down to a secondary player because that minimizes gains, yards after contact, all of that good stuff. There are going to be some designs where DBs have to tackle, and they have to tackle. Yesterday, we held them to 190 throwing it with all of those receivers and that quarterback out there. Broadly, if you take a look at the NFL run defense, in terms of where everyone is ranked and what they give up, the disparity between run yards and passing yards is huge. If you’re the 24th-ranked run defense versus the 24th-ranked pass defense, go look at the difference.”
The Steelers are 24th in total passing defense. They have allowed 2,721 yards. The Falcons are 24th in total run defense. They have allowed 1,530 yards.
“That’s what it is in the NFL, and it’s the same way on offense,” Staley continued. “No one talks about run offense. If you’re top-five in the NFL in passing, but let’s say you’re bottom-five in running, you’re always going to gain a lot more yards than a team that runs for a lot and doesn’t throw for very many. That’s, from our standpoint, just globally, how we look at it.”
I asked Staley about this philosophy Monday, and I want to include the answer in full to provide context.
“You have to assess each matchup,” he said. “Philosophically, it’s going to be about the matchup and where you feel like the matchup is within the game. When you take a look at Arizona, they’re got like five first-round receivers on their team, so you got to look at the matchups both ways. You just know it takes a lot of 5-yard runs to equal a 40-yard pass, and you got to start with that premise. It will always be that way. Now, where I’ve been — where we’ve been No. 1 in the NFL and top-10 in the NFL — then, both places are working well at the same time. I think that when you suffer some attrition and obviously things change from a personnel perspective, you have to go into the game and play that game the way that you need to play it.
“We need to play better up front in the run game, and that’s all 11 guys. It’s not just the front. It’s all 11 guys. Because you can fit the run perfectly, eight-man fit, perfectly fit, and the ball gets to the corner and he’s got to make a tackle. What we got to try and do is create as many two-on-ones in the run game where there’s two guys on the ball, so it doesn’t come down to a secondary player because that minimizes gains, yards after contact, all of that good stuff. There are going to be some designs where DBs have to tackle, and they have to tackle. Yesterday, we held them to 190 throwing it with all of those receivers and that quarterback out there. Broadly, if you take a look at the NFL run defense, in terms of where everyone is ranked and what they give up, the disparity between run yards and passing yards is huge. If you’re the 24th-ranked run defense versus the 24th-ranked pass defense, go look at the difference.”
The Steelers are 24th in total passing defense. They have allowed 2,721 yards. The Falcons are 24th in total run defense. They have allowed 1,530 yards.
“That’s what it is in the NFL, and it’s the same way on offense,” Staley continued. “No one talks about run offense. If you’re top-five in the NFL in passing, but let’s say you’re bottom-five in running, you’re always going to gain a lot more yards than a team that runs for a lot and doesn’t throw for very many. That’s, from our standpoint, just globally, how we look at it.”
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