Why was our run defense so poor last year?

[phinfan40353]

It doesn't help when your offense can only sustain 2 or 3 drives an entire game.

 

[FinHopeful]

There are several reasons;

* Miami’s interior defensive linemen ran too many stunts last year taking them away from eating blocks and beating offensive linemen one on one.

* Because the DT’s didn’t eat up blocks as well the LB’s were not able to run free to make tackles but had to fight off offensive linemen reaching the second level.

* The DE’s didn’t do a good job of setting the edges. Vernon needs to get better at it as he was horrible and Wake was never really healthy.

* Miami faced a lot of RB’s that changed direction and the LB’s and DE’s over pursued and didn’t stay in their lanes resulting in big runs.

*Ellerbe is not really a MLB in a 4-3, he should be playing WLB. Wheeler shouldn’t be playing WLB and should be playing SLB, but hen where do you put Misi?

I mostly put it on Coyle for not changing his philosophy to the talent on the field. They should have been playing a lot of 3-4 based D, but he would not.

I agree that there are a number of reasons. The one that really bothers me is the consistently poor performance of our DEs. The Giovani run really illustrates the impact of this poor DE play. The linebackers over pursued the play because the left DE gets crushed. The backside DE is not deep enough, and the lack of depth is devastating when your linebackers already over pursued. Add poor pursuit angles with lack of effort hustling down the field when Giovanni reversed field to the list, and the result is a touchdown.

 

[Zounds]

Wait. We blitzed last year?

Just the A gap like every play

 

[So Be]

If you want to compare the individual play between 2012 and 2013 on the run only.

OV went from a grade of 2.8 to 1.9 and was inconsistent vs the run in his playing full time.

Odrick went from a 4.0 to a 3.0 with the position change. Not bad at all.

Starks went from a -6.1 to a 15.3. He was Great.

Wake went from 10.4 to 0.2. Injury did hurt his play.

Soliai went from 6.9 to 7.9. He played well but, was not as consistent as year's past while playing hurt.

Shelby went from nothing to 5.2. He really omproved.

Wheeler was at -16.8, and Burnett was 6.5

Ellerbe was at -17, and Dansby was 7.5.

Misi went from 5.6 to 7.4. He is as rock solid as you can get.

Jones went from 7.0 to -0.6.

Clemons went from 4.4 to -3.6.

While it's easy to point fingers at Ellerbe and Wheeler, there are other considerations to take into account as to their adapting, schemes, and the play in front of them. I saw a lot of hesitation in both last year, and that just does not work in the NFL.

In any case, a lot of stuff to consider.