PhinsPhan
Pro Bowler
This has been proven time and time again. Stopping the run is vital if you are going to have success in this league.
If you are a defense and you stop the run, you are going to have success. You saw this last year with Pittsburgh, New England, Philly, Atlanta. Every defense that was successfull all had one thing in common. That was they were able to stop teams from running on them. Even teams like Pitts, New England and Atlanta did not have that much talent in the secondary. In fact by the end of the season New England would be playing players that are no longer in the NFL. Yet they still had defensive success. Looking at New England against Indy in the playoffs they were able to take away the runnign game and the result was another Colts loss with only scoring 3 points. If you look at Philly they actually have a very good secondary with a couple of pro bowlers yet they were getting into shootouts until Jeremiah Trotter came in and their run defense picked up.
Once you take away the run you are able to get the other team into 3rd and long situations where they will be forced to pass. When this happens you can blitz to apply pressure on the QB and force a mistake. With all good QBs the only way to beat them is pressure. It doesnt matter for the most part how good your secondary is, if you don't get pressure you are not going stop them. You are also able to control how long your defense is on the field for if they are passing. There is less wear during the game AND throughout the season. Finally, another key point is that the other team does not have a consistent way to drive the ball. The pass much more skill, timing, conditions, etc. to be effective than the run does.
Now this is nothing new, but with all this talk about how weak our secondary is, it should still be noted that we stop the run. We stuffed the Broncos, we stopped Curtis MArtin and we stopped the Panthers. All three teams are very effective at running the ball.
Bottom line is even though we are thin in talent in the secondary (mostly CBs) stopping the run is still the most important part. Last year we saw passing jump but stopping the run was still the most important thing in a great defense.
If you are a defense and you stop the run, you are going to have success. You saw this last year with Pittsburgh, New England, Philly, Atlanta. Every defense that was successfull all had one thing in common. That was they were able to stop teams from running on them. Even teams like Pitts, New England and Atlanta did not have that much talent in the secondary. In fact by the end of the season New England would be playing players that are no longer in the NFL. Yet they still had defensive success. Looking at New England against Indy in the playoffs they were able to take away the runnign game and the result was another Colts loss with only scoring 3 points. If you look at Philly they actually have a very good secondary with a couple of pro bowlers yet they were getting into shootouts until Jeremiah Trotter came in and their run defense picked up.
Once you take away the run you are able to get the other team into 3rd and long situations where they will be forced to pass. When this happens you can blitz to apply pressure on the QB and force a mistake. With all good QBs the only way to beat them is pressure. It doesnt matter for the most part how good your secondary is, if you don't get pressure you are not going stop them. You are also able to control how long your defense is on the field for if they are passing. There is less wear during the game AND throughout the season. Finally, another key point is that the other team does not have a consistent way to drive the ball. The pass much more skill, timing, conditions, etc. to be effective than the run does.
Now this is nothing new, but with all this talk about how weak our secondary is, it should still be noted that we stop the run. We stuffed the Broncos, we stopped Curtis MArtin and we stopped the Panthers. All three teams are very effective at running the ball.
Bottom line is even though we are thin in talent in the secondary (mostly CBs) stopping the run is still the most important part. Last year we saw passing jump but stopping the run was still the most important thing in a great defense.
