Things I think

[Steve]

1). Our short passing game is so much better when Gates is playing. We need another receiving option opposite Henry. It also opens up the running game by spreading the D along the formation.

Henry is doing great, but he is not a top TE yet. But he is beating single coverage when he gets it. We need to keep defenses honest, so they can't devote too much attention to him. Watt could be it. McGrath had 26 catches a couple years ago for KC. Just enough production to keep defenses honest, especially to give us a ball control passing game in the 2nd half to control the clock.

2). Simplify our D. Pagano likes a complicated scheme, but all it really does is confuse our players. And then he ends up just playing a couple of coverages over and over again. And mix in a few more double A gap blitzes and attack teams up the middle more. He stopped doing that against Denver and all he was doing was stunting guys inside, a couple extra rushers would have completely confused the Denver OL.

3). Bosa is our best stunting DL since Lee Williams. Mix him in with a 2 OLB rush line and let him go. I don't think he really knows what he is doing yet, which is scary because he is going to be just amazing as he does figure it out. Ingram and Bosa can both rush inside or out. Put them on the same side of the line and I don't think many teams can match up against us.

4). McCluster is not a very good 3rd down back, so try to get him the ball on earlier downs. We had a couple of nice quick strikes to him, one out of bunch, one just running behind the receivers running deep vs a blitz. But get him into the quick passing game, especially those quick safe throws in the 2nd half.

[Fleet]

Edited and posted on our FB page. Part of the new PB blog series with Coach Steve. So i expect to see more of these going forward.

[6025]

Nice feature!

[Mister Hoarse]

Edited and posted on our FB page. Part of the new PB blog series with Coach Steve. So i expect to see more of these going forward.

That is a great idea! Share Steve with the world. I don't do facebook, so thanks for posting it here.

[Lightningwill_420]

1). Our short passing game is so much better when Gates is playing. We need another receiving option opposite Henry. It also opens up the running game by spreading the D along the formation.

Henry is doing great, but he is not a top TE yet. But he is beating single coverage when he gets it. We need to keep defenses honest, so they can't devote too much attention to him. Watt could be it. McGrath had 26 catches a couple years ago for KC. Just enough production to keep defenses honest, especially to give us a ball control passing game in the 2nd half to control the clock.

2). Simplify our D. Pagano likes a complicated scheme, but all it really does is confuse our players. And then he ends up just playing a couple of coverages over and over again. And mix in a few more double A gap blitzes and attack teams up the middle more. He stopped doing that against Denver and all he was doing was stunting guys inside, a couple extra rushers would have completely confused the Denver OL.

3). Bosa is our best stunting DL since Lee Williams. Mix him in with a 2 OLB rush line and let him go. I don't think he really knows what he is doing yet, which is scary because he is going to be just amazing as he does figure it out. Ingram and Bosa can both rush inside or out. Put them on the same side of the line and I don't think many teams can match up against us.

4). McCluster is not a very good 3rd down back, so try to get him the ball on earlier downs. We had a couple of nice quick strikes to him, one out of bunch, one just running behind the receivers running deep vs a blitz. But get him into the quick passing game, especially those quick safe throws in the 2nd half.

Thanks, Steve.

[Lightningwill_420]

Edited and posted on our FB page. Part of the new PB blog series with Coach Steve. So i expect to see more of these going forward.

Thanks, Fleet.

[Geezbolt]

Love it! And totally agree about Pagano's defense being too complicated and confusing the players. I realize there's a happy medium there, but I sometimes think it takes away their aggressiveness because they are thinking when they should be reacting.

[Steve]

I don't know if anyone else caught it, but Bosa, Brown and the rest of our LB and DL did a really good job of confusing the Denver OL by stunting inside. For a while through the 2nd and into the 3rd quarter, they were just struggling to stop every stunt that had someone coming into the middle with any sort of delay. So Pagano and Smith were slanting and twisting guys in and out for a big chunk of the game. They only stopped when our guys started to run out of gas and were just not fast enough to finish the rush.

Normally, I am not that big a fan of running a lot of stunts. If you have a really good pass rusher it just slows them down. And if the guy isn't a great pass rusher, then you're going to have a hard time getting pressure out of the stunt.

I think it is a good option for us going forward because it is something Bosa does well, and he has very little wasted motion. He is not a super fast guy, but he uses the speed he has very well. It also works because of Brown. Brown is one of the 5 or so fastest LB in football, and he gets the sacks on the blitz even when he comes pretty late, because he can still finish the QB before he can get rid of it. The only thing I am disappointed with is that think we need to use Brown a bit more on the inside rush. I know he doesn't have the size, but I really think the various OL have had trouble picking him up on the delays, and then by the time they see him, it's too late. HE is good on the outside rushes, blitzes and overloads, but I know teams are looking for that (I would). I wouldn't stop the outside rushes, just mix in Brown inside some. Add his speed and closing burst to the DL that can finally stunt and set up twists/games, and we have the blitz package we have been missing since Ron Lynn was our DC (pre-Seau).

[Steve]

Love it! And totally agree about Pagano's defense being too complicated and confusing the players. I realize there's a happy medium there, but I sometimes think it takes away their aggressiveness because they are thinking when they should be reacting.

I think a lot of the assignment mistakes which have been such a big problem in the past were the result of it. There will always be some blown assignments, you can't stop them all. But I think if we can limit the blown assignments, which we have for the most part so far, then it keeps us in the games. The other thing that I agree with is that it allows everyone to play faster. Not only faster, but it allows young players to get up to speed and play sooner. It hasn't hurt Brown and Bosa on D, but I would like to see Perry be able to play, and he has been completely lost for the few plays he has been on the field (and in PS).

If we actually used a wide variety of calls, more blitzes.... then it would make sense to run a more complicated scheme. But when our D is really hitting on all cylinders, it seems like we are using mostly about a dozen or so fronts, and not really running a ton of blitzes, we have a lot of extra stuff to practice that we either don't practice and then use in a game (bad idea) or spend practice time on and don't use (also a bad use of time in our limited practice time).

[Mister Hoarse]

I'm pretty impressed with how Bosa has been used so far despite missing so much time.
I really thought he would be more limited at this point. They are already moving him around to get match ups. 54 snaps too. This is only gonna improve, even though teams will have more film on him going forward.

[Lightningwill_420]

I don't know if anyone else caught it, but Bosa, Brown and the rest of our LB and DL did a really good job of confusing the Denver OL by stunting inside. For a while through the 2nd and into the 3rd quarter, they were just struggling to stop every stunt that had someone coming into the middle with any sort of delay. So Pagano and Smith were slanting and twisting guys in and out for a big chunk of the game. They only stopped when our guys started to run out of gas and were just not fast enough to finish the rush.

Normally, I am not that big a fan of running a lot of stunts. If you have a really good pass rusher it just slows them down. And if the guy isn't a great pass rusher, then you're going to have a hard time getting pressure out of the stunt.

I think it is a good option for us going forward because it is something Bosa does well, and he has very little wasted motion. He is not a super fast guy, but he uses the speed he has very well. It also works because of Brown. Brown is one of the 5 or so fastest LB in football, and he gets the sacks on the blitz even when he comes pretty late, because he can still finish the QB before he can get rid of it. The only thing I am disappointed with is that think we need to use Brown a bit more on the inside rush. I know he doesn't have the size, but I really think the various OL have had trouble picking him up on the delays, and then by the time they see him, it's too late. HE is good on the outside rushes, blitzes and overloads, but I know teams are looking for that (I would). I wouldn't stop the outside rushes, just mix in Brown inside some. Add his speed and closing burst to the DL that can finally stunt and set up twists/games, and we have the blitz package we have been missing since Ron Lynn was our DC (pre-Seau).

Woohoo. Williams and O'Neal were badass mutha-fuckas. I'd like to see that defense again - except without the late-game meltdowns, the inability to cover a tight end, and the really shitty corners who played opposite Byrd.

[Steve]

I'm pretty impressed with how Bosa has been used so far despite missing so much time.
I really thought he would be more limited at this point. They are already moving him around to get match ups. 54 snaps too. This is only gonna improve, even though teams will have more film on him going forward.

I think the limiting factor with Bosa is that his conditioning is still behind where a lot of other guys are. He is better in general because he is not carrying a lot of extra weight, but he lost a lot late in the game. His legs must have felt like Jello. But his game, being efficient, having moved and using his hands, all mean he is less impacted by slowing down as the game goes on. Bosa was still pressuring the QB even after it was clear he couldn't get to Siemens late. Siemens had enough time to get rid of the ball, but as long as we get pressure, it forces the ball out of the QB hands before he wants to, and that hurt Siemens accuracy.

The thing I want to see is more of using Bosa and Ingram and another edge rusher. Ingram and Bosa, to me, are not pure edge players. They aren't one trick ponies who just come off the edge. They can do that, but they can also bull rush, slant inside, run games and stunts. They threaten a large part of the OL even when they line up wide with their hands in the dirt. I would love to see Bosa and Ingram lined up on the same side of the field. Ingram as a wide 9 (wide), Bosa as a wide 5 technique (outside of the OT), with Liuget around the C (0 or 1 technique), and another edge rusher as a 7 technique (outside of the OT) or wide 5 (outside edge of the OT). That lets Bosa and Ingram rush together, but it only really works if the other edge OLB can get upfield and rush.

Attaochu is the real key to our D going forward. He has to get his head out of his ass and start to play well. He has the speed that Ingram and Bosa lack, and if he can finally start to lift his game it would really compliment those two. Speed guys really force offenses to give a chip block to help them out, and with teams playing so few extra blockers, it would give us a way to dictate to offenses even before the play starts.

Imagine a rush line where we can mix and match Ingram, Bosa and Attaochu can mix and match where they line up, stunt and attack the edges while their C has to handle Liuget one on one.