Vic Fangio brings big changes to the Miami Dolphins' defense | Page 4 | FinHeaven - Miami Dolphins Forums

Vic Fangio brings big changes to the Miami Dolphins' defense

dolfan91 said:
The blitz craze of the past few seasons looks to be over. I'll admit I loved the zero cover when it was working. Lots of fun to watch.

But Fangio is a different beast all together. Let's hope the reports of the positive reactions of the Miami players, to the new scheme, translates to an improved defense in 2023.
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a good Coach will use what we were good at last year, I wouldn’t be surprised if we seen it once a game. Not a whole half,
 
rafael said:
I'm answering the question what kind of offense might we have trouble matching up with next season. Fangio tends to use lighter boxes and usually uses a big NT to basically steal a gap. Our current defense doesn't have one of those.
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There are multiple ways Fangio can and will steal gaps in his defense. Keep in mind that just because a lot of the time he will present a light box pre-snap does not necessarily mean that he’ll stay in a light box post snap. Remember that the coverage dictates the run fit, and Fangio actually runs a lot of Match Cover 3 on early downs, and while he’ll present a 2 high coverage and a light box pre-snap, post snap he’ll do what’s called slinging the fits and one of the safeties will roll down to run fit immediately and the defense will play cover 1 or cover 3 if it’s a pass. The defense is now gapped out which means they have enough defenders to account for every gap the offense presented.

If he stays in a light box and his 2 hi coverages post snap. the defense now has to steal gaps to account for every gap, but that doesn’t mean the only way to do that is to have Vince Wilfork in the middle to legit play 2 gaps. You can have your NT play a lag technique which means he reads the angle of departure of the center, and the NTs run fit will change based on what kind of block he sees from the center. You can also have your LBs ball fit which means the LB will choose the gap they attack based on where the RB goes. Stunts are also a cheap and easy way to steal gaps.

There is no one single right way to steal gaps, it’s all just dependent on the players you have to work with.
 
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CMD said:
There are multiple ways Fangio can and will steal gaps in his defense. Keep in mind that just because a lot of the time he will present a light box pre-snap does not necessarily mean that he’ll stay in a light box post snap. Remember that the coverage dictates the run fit, and Fangio actually runs a lot of Match Cover 3 on early downs, and while he’ll present a 2 high coverage and a light box pre-snap, post snap he’ll do what’s called slinging the fits and one of the safeties will roll down to run fit immediately and the defense will play cover 1 or cover 3 if it’s a pass. The defense is now gapped out which means they have enough defenders to account for every gap the offense presented.

If he stays in a light box and his 2 hi coverages post snap. the defense now has to steal gaps to account for every gap, but that doesn’t mean the only way to do that is to have Vince Wilfork in the middle to legit play 2 gaps. You can have your NT play a lag technique which means he reads the angle of departure of the center, and the NTs run fit will change based on what kind of block he sees from the center. You can also have your LBs ball fit which means the LB will choose the gap they attack based on where the RB goes. Stunts are also a cheap and easy way to steal gaps.

There is no one single right way to steal gaps, it’s all just dependent on the players you have to work with.
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I'm not saying there's only one way to do anything. I think our Ss are more run support oriented than coverage oriented. I think they did that b/c they didn't have that big NT. I still think they may add one. And I think it gives us more flexibility and makes us less reliant on filling gaps by taking guys out of coverage. But the question was what kind of offense might give us trouble. Given our current personnel, a run heavy offense (especially one with good P/A) was my guess.
 
rafael said:
I'm not saying there's only one way to do anything. I think our Ss are more run support oriented than coverage oriented. I think they did that b/c they didn't have that big NT. I still think they may add one. And I think it gives us more flexibility and makes us less reliant on filling gaps by taking guys out of coverage. But the question was what kind of offense might give us trouble. Given our current personnel, a run heavy offense (especially one with good P/A) was my guess.
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What I’m saying is it wouldn’t make the defense “less reliant on filling gaps by taking guys out of coverage”, that’s not how the run fits work, your run fits are completely dictated by the coverage you call. You can call Quarters and have the safeties take the vertical of the #2 receivers and if their receiver blocks, they will add into the run fit. The defense would be max fitted for the run game while also not taking anybody out of coverage. On the inverse of that, you could call a bracket concept where the safeties are playing an inside/out double on a receiver with the corners, but they’re completely out of the run fit. Now, the defense has maximized their pass coverage, but they’re out gapped in the run game and need to steal gaps.

Most of the time, Fangio is going to line the defense in a Nickel 4-2-5 with Wilkins & Sieler both in the interior. You really don’t want to replace either of them with some space eater, you want to keep both of them on the field as much as you can because they’re both effective pass rushers. Fangio’s philosophy is to invite the offense to run the football, he’s going to keep his safeties high pre-snap, he’s gonna line up in an even front with 2 backers and give every pre-snap indication to the offense that they can run the ball. If the offense does run it, that’s fine because maybe the defense stunts post snap into odd spacing, closes the B gaps and brings a safety down in the run fit, the defense has every gap accounted for and the offense gains 2 yards. If they pass, the QB now has to diagnose how the defense rotates post snap and make them hold the ball an extra beat, and since the defense still has 4 guys on the Dline that are plus pass rushers, that extra half second could be a strip sack.
 
Ren said:
I like to think I know football better than the average bear, having both played and coached (years ago, granted), but I've never heard the term "light box". Can anyone explain that? Is it just fewer bodies in the box instead of stuffing 8?
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It's used to describe my wife, 20 years ago and 20 lbs lighter...
 
Fin-Loco said:
Good read. If you can find the text between the pop up ads. Maybe they should evolve to an all pop up ad model and just cut out the pesky sports info.
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I have to use ad blockers that cause some sites to have unavailable content. I just go to a different site or ask the forum for a sum up.
If I don’t use ad blockers, the ads cover the content, take forever to load, and Take away enjoyment from the article.
 
gofins60 said:
While every defense gives up the occasional big pass play on 3rd and long, Miami gives up more than their fair share. Even worse, I don't think any defense in the past decade has been as bad as Miami when it comes to giving up a 21 yard RUN on 3rd and 20!
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It seems that way to me also.
But does anyone have stats?
 
CMD said:
There are multiple ways Fangio can and will steal gaps in his defense. Keep in mind that just because a lot of the time he will present a light box pre-snap does not necessarily mean that he’ll stay in a light box post snap. Remember that the coverage dictates the run fit, and Fangio actually runs a lot of Match Cover 3 on early downs, and while he’ll present a 2 high coverage and a light box pre-snap, post snap he’ll do what’s called slinging the fits and one of the safeties will roll down to run fit immediately and the defense will play cover 1 or cover 3 if it’s a pass. The defense is now gapped out which means they have enough defenders to account for every gap the offense presented.

If he stays in a light box and his 2 hi coverages post snap. the defense now has to steal gaps to account for every gap, but that doesn’t mean the only way to do that is to have Vince Wilfork in the middle to legit play 2 gaps. You can have your NT play a lag technique which means he reads the angle of departure of the center, and the NTs run fit will change based on what kind of block he sees from the center. You can also have your LBs ball fit which means the LB will choose the gap they attack based on where the RB goes. Stunts are also a cheap and easy way to steal gaps.

There is no one single right way to steal gaps, it’s all just dependent on the players you have to work with.
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You know Football Bro, Post more please 💪
 
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CMD said:
What I’m saying is it wouldn’t make the defense “less reliant on filling gaps by taking guys out of coverage”, that’s not how the run fits work, your run fits are completely dictated by the coverage you call. You can call Quarters and have the safeties take the vertical of the #2 receivers and if their receiver blocks, they will add into the run fit. The defense would be max fitted for the run game while also not taking anybody out of coverage. On the inverse of that, you could call a bracket concept where the safeties are playing an inside/out double on a receiver with the corners, but they’re completely out of the run fit. Now, the defense has maximized their pass coverage, but they’re out gapped in the run game and need to steal gaps.

Most of the time, Fangio is going to line the defense in a Nickel 4-2-5 with Wilkins & Sieler both in the interior. You really don’t want to replace either of them with some space eater, you want to keep both of them on the field as much as you can because they’re both effective pass rushers. Fangio’s philosophy is to invite the offense to run the football, he’s going to keep his safeties high pre-snap, he’s gonna line up in an even front with 2 backers and give every pre-snap indication to the offense that they can run the ball. If the offense does run it, that’s fine because maybe the defense stunts post snap into odd spacing, closes the B gaps and brings a safety down in the run fit, the defense has every gap accounted for and the offense gains 2 yards. If they pass, the QB now has to diagnose how the defense rotates post snap and make them hold the ball an extra beat, and since the defense still has 4 guys on the Dline that are plus pass rushers, that extra half second could be a strip sack.
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I agree with all of that except that Fangio, while inviting the O to run, has used a space eater on early run downs rather than having pass rushers in there. Maybe he'll change his philosophy here, but in the past that's what he's done.

Why don't you answer the original question about what offenses this defense will be vulnerable to?
 
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