The stolen tapes?

[SoCalRaider]

Original take by ZOD
It also seems to me that the 34 is a better system for the mediocrity that free agency has created in the league. The New England defense quietly ranks as good every year to defenses stack with the “marquee†names and I’m beginning to favor what Bellichek does versus a league dominated by spread offenses. It seems that he has taken a variation of the 46 defense and uses Mike Vrabel as that defensive end in the 46 scheme that has to be able to play pass coverage.

I could ramble on here but I think you get the picture that I’m attempting to display. The “Walsh offense†or similar spread offenses are all over this league and it’s allowing “the mediocre†to make plays. The 34 looks like the defense that is having the most success with all the transition of free agency and combating these “Walsh†type offenses.

That's probably the one point I would advocate the strongest. In a playing field diluted by the salary cap, the key to building a perennial contender is about building a great system around decent players as opposed to fitting superstars into an antiquated system.

Look at Gru in Tampa. He has absolutely no talent on offense, dumps his best WR, and still get great results out of that system on offense. Look at Bellichick, what Cowher did in Pitt during their 5 year run, and what Philli is doing in their current run. They're quietly dumping highly priced superstars and replacing them with cap friendly, yet effective "role players" in 34 schemes that not only are built to stop the West Coast offense, but don't require perennial All Pros to execute.

 

[Mr.Murder]

The West Coast uses more standard sets than the spread sets. Montana's first teams used 2 backs, and Dwight Clark was almost projected at TE...Jerry Rice was "slow" on his combine sprints...
West coast used 2 FB when most successful, the early team had Earl Cooper and Bill Ring, both college fullbacks as their start duo, and the Roger Craig upgrade of a true speed man who was a college triple option FB was a turning point. When Craig went in he could be a HB or FB and mismatch out of the backfield, as could a solid pass catch block pure fb who teamed with him named Rathman.Charlie garner was a fullback for Ricky Watters there later as well.
Classic west coast spread sets were used in red zone... their spread set was not 3 WR ,it was the 2 TE set. Last year when Oakland went to a standard 3 WR base set, and when Favre and Elway combined the shotugn offense with timing routes were the times true west coast went spread.
Favre and Elway used the west coast system but combined it with the shotgun so the QB could incorprate a three step "drop" to his presnap shotgun distance. The D line had to take wider angles to get deeper in the backfield, and it cleared pass windows for crossing routes and slants. The timed deep in became a Favre staple, he made his WR look great. Freeman was not great without him, and Sharper vanished as well. McAfferty minus Elway has been below radar if sighted at all in mile high city... for Favre he has the best WR crew perhaps he's ever had and has thrown almost ten td in 2 weeks.
The idea of taking a shotgun and adding a 3 step drop to it makes the qb focus on footwork and develop a timing rhytmn to match the WR breaks on the 7 yards plus routes that are what the shotgun works best for. Thus true deep timing routes became a staple with these great players. The other QB who can best make this look work at the present time is Steve McNair... that is the trend chart for west coast.

'Cover 2' is about taking away the control game and making teams execute downfield. So many teams sit those routes now that vertical emphasis is what will defeat this scheme. The spread deep covers and pure zone were the trends that the West Coast Faced originally.
Now teams are focusing the under routes and the return to vertical passing is a success key. Billik has tried it because he sees this necessity, the Bengals CHad Johnson/Kelly Washington have done well with this, and a screen pass staple of Tom brady has learned downfield passing to get scores and let his defense play to its strentgh.
The Broncs saw this trend and had Plummer and Lelie to stay ahead of the curve, will it work? They are hot at the right time.
The Rams continue vertical emphasis with their great WR and when teams cannot stack 8 in the box it has revived Mr.Faulk...
The Seahawks were best when their ephasis was vertical winning saturday to perhaps reach the postseason.
Dallas has a QB who has thrown bombs to make his team a surprise conteder and when he is force to execute the control game it is tougher on his team. Another vertical success.
The Vikes at their best are vertical to Moss and his triple teams open things up for others. Favre has found the vertical game late to make a run for it also for North teams.
The trend is vertical, Oakland went spread and nickle-dime all year, and Tampa was ready by taking away the short pass and forcing a QB to execute deep under pressure.
That should have told everyone that the trend was coming, and to be a leader in this was important... the teams who have addressed the vertical priority successfully are winning this year. Perhaps this trend continues a while, the AFL days are reborn.

Funny to mention a 3-4 as the trend, when Walsh first implemented the Niners greatness the entire league was playing 3-4...only Detroit, Chicago, Dallas , and Washington used the 4 man down lines at the time in the NFC...
Everyone was still copying the Shula trend, a great undefeated season can make teams follow the trend. Fewer LB of that caliber, and the size upgrades of every OL with the zoneblock schemes Norv used with Dallas forced matters. Teams had to get big at the line.
Good luck with the game, December has been tough traditionally, a good statement game by these players would help. This fan wants to see Sage the Rage get an opporutnity to go vertical... he can make this aspect a strentgh of the pass game for Chambers.

 

[Mr.Murder]

The Norv Turner Notions

What is it about the Norv Turner system that saw tremendous success in Dallas? The answer is a simple as most of the system he used: personnell.
The game begins with the offensive line. The big O line is what Turner favors, large linemen who zoneblock. Zoneblocker go straight upfield, at the man across from them. Fewer pullblocks, when done so usually as a counter-trap. Zoneblockers space farther apart as well, since there is less pulling ground to be covered the distance is made up by wider spacing between the set linemen. This also helps force the front seven to put more players physically in the "box" from shoulder to shoulder of the down lineman/tight end. The result is better isolation for the recievers, especially to the strong side or on a short field.
Zoneblockers tend to be larger as well. The Cowboys guards were projected Tackles at the previous level. The big size allowed straightforward runs so technique could be mastered on simple fundamental levels.The run checkdowns were as simple as to which shoulder or nose up alignement was at the point of attack. The extra space between blockers and the deep I formation sets gave talented backs plenty of adjustment time for these runs.

Motion offense in these sets more of then not is simple dressing, a way to use up time before the snap and tell what the base cover set for safety rotation would be.
The idea is that once the run game is established with size pushing people off the line, a team has to address this with pinch stunts and slants where players cheat to a side/dircetion/area at the snap. Such turns into a guessing game and usually allows better isolation on one field side for play action or straight dropback routes.


The pass game was simplified because the run emphasis made teams fight through blocks as run gappers instead of two-gap pass rushing. Linebackers first read step was upfield instead of pass coverage drops, and the strong safety was forced to support the ground defense as well.
The freed up tremendous opportunity for Jay Novachek to secure pass catches all over the field. His footwork allowed him to line up in the slot or clear a release for play passes. Too fast for safeties and LB, too tall for edge cover CB's, he was the primary read on many a play.
The middle of the field commands so much attention that isolation routes could occur for outside recievers easily. The Norv Notion used a big possession reciever to move chains and lead block runs. Michael Irvin, the first pick of Tom Landry's final draft class was the man to do so. His size could beat physcial press covers at its game style.
The final Norv Notion is the speed man/clear out WR. The man for the Job was Alvin Harper, an impressive track background was on his resume and that speed was what forced teams to respect his deep catch ability. He did not need a lot of reps to score, his yards per touch were quite impressive though and he usually required either safety or linebacker help to limit his explosive plays.
Norv usually used this look just enough to loosen the run force or double teams on Irvin.
The final note was how simple this worked, when the tight end and Irvin went to the same side of the field, run and pass covers were overloaded to free up Harper deep. When Harper was on the same side as Novachek the Safety either stayed out of the box to help with pass or the other safety rolled over to allow run force and pass coverage integrity.
Simple enough. It was about the player... more so than the system. Simplified looks focused execution and timing. Low turnover ratios, good completion percentage were the final product.
Any individual matchup available was a win in terms of team football. The ball control and field position helped Wannstadt's defense play safe and force teams to execute per play. Few teams of the time had talent sufficient to keep up. Wanny played vanilla as result, knowing teams had to match this level of play. His team was able to let action develop in front of them, rotate depth, and win games with fundamental football.

The question is what talent does Miami have to match this? The answer is plenty at skill positions.
Chambers has the speed to be the clear out/big play guy, or limited reps as the chain mover that can come as teams honor his speed.
Gadsden and Thompson have the size/height to be chain movers in an Irvin fashion.
McMichaels has the fundamental ability to secure edge blocks for a runs and catch from any position on the field to command coverage looks.
Ricky said he was ready to win games "three yards at a time" the tough way which is the heart of Norv's straightforward runs. He has big play ability as well, and has improved his passblocking/catch ability to round out the game plan.
The two issues most troubling for this system are as follows: no trigget pull man at QB and limited OL bulk.
Norv pulls more guards here, is it because they have less ability to move people off the ball or was it vs. teams whose interior linemen cannot run down the line as well? I need to see more film to assess.

Improved line play would allow more straightforward zoneblocking and better spacing for interior line to give Williams his space to make more plays between the tackles. Once teams put 8 in the box to stop this, big plays off edge runs can occur and the great TE play pass opportunities can happen.
Teams who roll the safety up then must address where Chambers is on the field with their other safety.His speed will allow isolation routes to move chains/create big plays. When teams focus a safety to him and another to the run game/tight end it will open up the ball control routes to a possession reciever.
These isolation matchups allow better turnover ratios since less people can get to the football. Ball control and field possession are better and the fundamental football that is the heart of this sound stratagy then can flourish when matched with Miami's D personnell.