Phins on the Blitz

[So Be]

Miami blitzed 234 times last year (#6), and had success getting pressure on the QB 40% of the time (#6), a god thing. When we did not blitz, we were #10 on pressures. Throw it all together, adding an increase for our 46 sacks, and we end up at #4.

Although inconsistent at times. the pass rush was a strength of the team. I expect improvement from our front 7, with a healthy Wake, Jordan, a better OV, and our LB's have to be better.

IF our LB's can tackle and stop the run, we could have something special to talk about this year.

 

[So Be]

https://www.profootballfocus.com/blog/2014/04/07/new-to-pff/

FWIW, here's a good read with PFF agreeing and disagreeing with what some have posted about them. They do explain in detail what they do, and it may or, may not make a difference in what some think. In any case, worth a read. JMO

 

[Atila]

I've said it about 100x and I'll say it again - anyone who harped on our defense or Coyle is clueless. Our defense was the bright spot of this team. Even without any help from the offense (bottom 5 in rushing, bottom 5 in scoring, bottom 5 in time of possession), our defense still produced consistently game in and game out.

We did have weak spots - our rush defense was about average (when you factor in all the reasons that teams continued to rush on us, our run defense wasn't nearly as bad as made out to be on this forum) and our LB play was below average. Kevin Coyle did an excellent job with this defense all around last season and in all but 2-3 games our defense played good enough to win.

We need to fix our OL and fix our offensive playcalling and philosophy. Hopefully Lazor is as big of an addition as we are all hoping and we should be a more consistent team next season.

 

[spiketex]

I've said it about 100x and I'll say it again - anyone who harped on our defense or Coyle is clueless. Our defense was the bright spot of this team. Even without any help from the offense (bottom 5 in rushing, bottom 5 in scoring, bottom 5 in time of possession), our defense still produced consistently game in and game out.

We did have weak spots - our rush defense was about average (when you factor in all the reasons that teams continued to rush on us, our run defense wasn't nearly as bad as made out to be on this forum) and our LB play was below average. Kevin Coyle did an excellent job with this defense all around last season and in all but 2-3 games our defense played good enough to win.

We need to fix our OL and fix our offensive playcalling and philosophy. Hopefully Lazor is as big of an addition as we are all hoping and we should be a more consistent team next season.

Statistically our Defense kept opponents to fewer points per game than any of the other AFC East teams (yes, including New England and the great Rex Ryan Jets Defense). We just need to add a tackling machine to our linebackers (eg Chris Borland 2nd round) and our Defense could be good.
Don't be surprised if Delmas and Finnegan make the DBs very bad a$$. We just need a bit of depth to cover for injuries.

 

[Atila]

And we need Jason Trusnik to never play another snap of meaningful football ever again.

 

[KTOWNFINFAN]

I've said it about 100x and I'll say it again - anyone who harped on our defense or Coyle is clueless. Our defense was the bright spot of this team. Even without any help from the offense (bottom 5 in rushing, bottom 5 in scoring, bottom 5 in time of possession), our defense still produced consistently game in and game out.

We did have weak spots - our rush defense was about average (when you factor in all the reasons that teams continued to rush on us, our run defense wasn't nearly as bad as made out to be on this forum) and our LB play was below average. Kevin Coyle did an excellent job with this defense all around last season and in all but 2-3 games our defense played good enough to win.

We need to fix our OL and fix our offensive playcalling and philosophy. Hopefully Lazor is as big of an addition as we are all hoping and we should be a more consistent team next season.

Well that works both ways. Time of possession has a lot to do with the defense as well. Since we WERE 27th vs the run and couldn't get any 3 and outs, the defense gave up long drives time after time. This gave the offense fewer chances to do anything with the ball. Our poor tackling and terrible run defense gave teams 3rd and 1s & 2s which is nearly impossible to stop consistently. Your view is the defense would have been better if the offense could have kept the ball longer, which I agree with. But you have to also admit that the offense would have been better if it has more opportunities from the defense giving them the ball more often and in better field position. Works both ways.

 

[bird33]

the thing that could take the pass rush to another level is getting pressure from the dt position. if we had someone who could create havoc up the middle the defense would take it to another level. the dt from pittsburgh is a little small but is a pass rushing force. i would be doing cartwheels if we took him at 19.

 

[spiketex]

the thing that could take the pass rush to another level is getting pressure from the dt position. if we had someone who could create havoc up the middle the defense would take it to another level. the dt from pittsburgh is a little small but is a pass rushing force. i would be doing cartwheels if we took him at 19.

The DT we picked up in Free Agency is Earl Mitchell from Houston. There was very strong demand for him (he was signed quickly). He's not as big as Soliai - but who is? He will probably come in and rotate with Odrick and Starks. I doubt that we use the 1st round pick on a DT. More likely O-line or a MIKE LB.

 

[So Be]

the thing that could take the pass rush to another level is getting pressure from the dt position. if we had someone who could create havoc up the middle the defense would take it to another level. the dt from pittsburgh is a little small but is a pass rushing force. i would be doing cartwheels if we took him at 19.

As opposed to what some think, our DT's did very well on bringing pressure last year. Starks had 4 sacks, 6 hits, and 30 hurries (#10), and Odrick had 5- 13, and 28 (#14) on more chances. The Duo was 3rd behind Detroit and Denver. Starks was top 5 vs the run but Odrick needs to improve.

Soliai chimed in with 2 sacks, 3 hits, 9 hurries, and a surprising to me 5 batted passes. Mitchell had 4- 3- 9 at NT.

I'm hoping for the same kind of year from Starks, an improvement from Odrick (in a contract year), and a more complete game from Mitchell at DT.

 

[Geforce]

As opposed to what some think, our DT's did very well on bringing pressure last year. Starks had 4 sacks, 6 hits, and 30 hurries (#10), and Odrick had 5- 13, and 28 (#14) on more chances. The Duo was 3rd behind Detroit and Denver. Starks was top 5 vs the run but Odrick needs to improve.

Soliai chimed in with 2 sacks, 3 hits, 9 hurries, and a surprising to me 5 batted passes. Mitchell had 4- 3- 9 at NT.

I'm hoping for the same kind of year from Starks, an improvement from Odrick (in a contract year), and a more complete game from Mitchell at DT.

I'm hoping with a true 3 or 4 man rotation at DT (Starks, Odrick & Mitchell), the players won't get so tired at the end of games and bring more consistent pressure up the middle and not allow the QB the ability to step up into the pocket and avoid the rush from the outside.

 

[Atila]

Well that works both ways. Time of possession has a lot to do with the defense as well. Since we WERE 27th vs the run and couldn't get any 3 and outs, the defense gave up long drives time after time. This gave the offense fewer chances to do anything with the ball. Our poor tackling and terrible run defense gave teams 3rd and 1s & 2s which is nearly impossible to stop consistently. Your view is the defense would have been better if the offense could have kept the ball longer, which I agree with. But you have to also admit that the offense would have been better if it has more opportunities from the defense giving them the ball more often and in better field position. Works both ways.

Some valid points but I mostly disagree, and purely because I notated in my post that our defense was not perfect. We both watched the same games - that defense was good enough to win in 12/13 of our 16 games despite our lack of an offense. We pulled out wins in half our games even though we were one of the worst scoring offenses in the NFL - less than 20pts/game. Let that last sentence sink in - we won despite being one of the worst at scoring... so who was picking up the slack? The defense.

We were ranked 27th against the run because teams never were playing from behind. Because we never played with a lead, teams were never forced into "pass only" mode. Their playbooks were always open. This also hurts our defenses aggressiveness because the opposing offense has a wide open playbook considering we were almost always losing or in a close game. If our offense was able to put up some points, the other teams wouldn't be able to run so much against us. Like I said in my previous post, our run defense wasn't GOOD - it was about AVERAGE - it just looks worse in stats because teams were able to exploit the fact that we couldn't score points. They were able to use their entire game plan entire games because running the ball was never off the table when the team you're playing can't score points.

Our run defense could have been better and mostly if Phillip Wheeler and Ellerbe played better themselves. But harping on our defenses play last season is ridiculous considering how well they did despite playing with an abysmal offense.

 

[So Be]

Some valid points but I mostly disagree, and purely because I notated in my post that our defense was not perfect. We both watched the same games - that defense was good enough to win in 12/13 of our 16 games despite our lack of an offense. We pulled out wins in half our games even though we were one of the worst scoring offenses in the NFL - less than 20pts/game. Let that last sentence sink in - we won despite being one of the worst at scoring... so who was picking up the slack? The defense.

We were ranked 27th against the run because teams never were playing from behind. Because we never played with a lead, teams were never forced into "pass only" mode. Their playbooks were always open. This also hurts our defenses aggressiveness because the opposing offense has a wide open playbook considering we were almost always losing or in a close game. If our offense was able to put up some points, the other teams wouldn't be able to run so much against us. Like I said in my previous post, our run defense wasn't GOOD - it was about AVERAGE - it just looks worse in stats because teams were able to exploit the fact that we couldn't score points. They were able to use their entire game plan entire games because running the ball was never off the table when the team you're playing can't score points.

Our run defense could have been better and mostly if Phillip Wheeler and Ellerbe played better themselves. But harping on our defenses play last season is ridiculous considering how well they did despite playing with an abysmal offense.

Mostly agree, and no one can dispute that Wheeler and Ellerbe led the way in our disappointing play vs the run. However, Wake was way off from a year ago, with Jones and Clemons close behind, and OV was up and down. Shelby surprised me with his play.

 

[Atila]

Shelby was a nice surprise, Clemons was better this past year than last. Reshad Jones was just as inconsistent as the previous year just without the highlight plays. The biggest drop off was definitely in the LB's as Dansby and Burnett both had their best seasons with us before getting cut and replaced with underperforming counterparts.

 

[Digital]

When Paul Soliai was not playing our run defense was very bad. He was the sole player on our team that commanded a double team and could stand his ground when he received it. We will have Soliai for zero snaps this year, and Earl Mitchell is a poor man's Randy Starks. We will be dominated by power running games this year ... we just do not have the strength to stop it.

Just like Jonathan Martin was too weak to play LT last year and it wrecked our O-Line, losing Soliai means whomever takes his place will be too weak to handle the double teams inside and will wreck our D-Line.

Our offense better get the lead consistently, because this team is built for playing with the lead. If a team gets ahead on us and is content to run the ball, we simply do not have the power up the gut to stop them. We are all quick twitch speed guys now, and that leaves us vulnerable to the run.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[NRA]

And we need Jason Trusnik to never play another snap of meaningful football ever again.

throw in [or out] jimmy wilson and you would have had the perfect post.