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Sherman or Henning?
- Thread starter gnome011
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Sherman is tough to take, but Henning was horrible.
:err:........:jawdrop: :foundout:
I agree Coyle did not do that great a job this year, but that's crazy talk.
I realize it's counter intuitive but consider:
Our defensive payroll was top 5 in the league. Nevertheless, our defense was -- in most of the statistical categories -- sort of middle of the road. Better than average but hardly great. And Coyle is the biggest reason why. His insistence on line stunts forced our defensive linemen out of position constantly (if you look at the games and just watch running plays by the opposing teams, you see this constantly). He blitzed when he shouldn't have at times. Left things wide open with silly over-thought schematic games. Didn't play to certain players' strengths. I'm not going to sit here and defend Ellerbe and Wheeler because neither one played very well, but what Coyle was doing didn't help.
Sherman on the other hand was operating with a payroll in the bottom third of the league. I forget the exact number but it was like 24th. Something like that. And that's with guys like Incognito and Gibson still on the team. In other words, he had a lot less to work with. Still, we averaged 5.0 yards per play while giving up 5.2. That's not as big a disparity as it should have been given the raw payroll numbers.
Consider that our defense, which was "good", would have looked elite had they EVER played with a lead. Or when they had the lead (like at halftime in more than several games), the offense would come out and put up zero points in the second half.
Consider that a defense playing with a ****ty offense is likely playing from behind more often than not - allowing the opposition to have a full playbook in front of them, never becoming one-dimensional.
Our defense was pretty damn good all season in spite of the offense. If we scored the league average - 23.5+pts/game - our record would have been something like 12-4 or better. Because we failed to even score 20 a game, our defense had to work a hell of a lot harder. If you think the defense was the problem this season, even a little bit, you're not watching the same game as I am.
Consider that a defense playing with a ****ty offense is likely playing from behind more often than not - allowing the opposition to have a full playbook in front of them, never becoming one-dimensional.
Our defense was pretty damn good all season in spite of the offense. If we scored the league average - 23.5+pts/game - our record would have been something like 12-4 or better. Because we failed to even score 20 a game, our defense had to work a hell of a lot harder. If you think the defense was the problem this season, even a little bit, you're not watching the same game as I am.
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Even with line stunts, there are gap assignments. I have no problem with stunting, I have a problem with guys doing it in an undisciplined fashion and losing their gap assignment. And that's what happened.