Lack of QB pressure; coaching, players or both?

[Oldfan]

Duplicate see 16

[Skinsfan4life83]

No Orakpo makes a huge difference. All the people wanting to trade him will see that even more as the season progresses. He opens up things for everybody else on our D.

[Dirt]

Regardless of whether we feel we have the ability to get pressure or not, through Kerrigan or through the middle, we really need help on the other end. We ought to figure we won't get pressure and train for situations in the secondary. Because sometimes we will get pressure, and it comes naturally at this point IMO. It's the part of this 3-4 transition that's working. Nearly all attention needs to be on secondary concepts.

After watching a lot of Matt Ryan, I kind of feel like he's a guy that can get the ball smacked out of his hand from behind, although not often... he's 'mr prototype' and is keeping his eyes downfield. It's key to have the secondary keep receivers occupied while matty sits in the pocket. Matty WILL wait, and let's hope he underestimates Kerrigan, I can just see his big arm swatting around his blocker for a strip.

The CB blitz is a good play vs Matty IMO. Freakin HATE cortalnd finnegan, but st louis sealed their game with dude blitzing free. We've seen it with deangelo. This is Haslett's chance to get creative.

'cuz I think this game should be approached like the Saints game. We were an unknown, and for that particular game, we were particularly different with a lot of man defense. Not that we have to just man defense this game, but let's hope Has opens up some new, favorable, and most importantly, confusing looks for matt ryan. His stubborn ways of zone-ing guys to achieve interceptions just might work at home with everyone pumped and RG3/Alfred making things happen on offense.

BTW, another 'key' detail. People acting like Alfred Morris isn't legitimately one of the best RBs in the league. Acting like RG3's running threat doesn't make Alf even more dangerous. Actin' like this isn't going to be a HUGE task for the Falcons. Because even when running isn't the thing to do at the time, RG3 has done nothing but show he can move the team himself. So instead of US figuring we have to win the scoring parade vs the Falcons... they're rolling with their typical offense, trying to outscore an unknown, suddenly league tops-scoring offense. We're versatile. Stuff with banks, maybe we'll go lot's screens, all kinds of rollouts, maybe Griff will keep, etc. Defense has crazy blitzes (sometimes failures), but nonetheless, I feel we're a much trickier team to deal with (especially on offense), whereas the Falcons ought to be pretty predictable. I consider that: advantage: Skins.

[HapHaszard]

Nice WT article about this subject up in BRBN about lack of sacks/pressure

[Koolblue13]

I think a lot of it, is that D Hall is the only player in our secondary playing at a high level.

[ZoEd]

Without question it's both. Our coaching staff hasn't shown much of a propensity for creative, unpredictable playcalling which can certainly go a long way towards putting guys in position to get quick pressure. Teams have seemingly had no problem identifying and picking up blitzes from the secondary or from the ILBs when we've dialed those plays up. It also wouldn't be too far-fetched to suspect that there are certain technical elements that the staff is not addressing well on a positional basis. However, I'd have to say that when it comes strictly to getting pressure that execution by the players is probably most to blame for the difficulties we've had.

Out of our down linemen SOMEONE needs to step up their game and actually collapse the pocket every now and again to help our edge rushers out. Cofield has been pitiful in this regard and Bowen has been less consistent than he was a year ago. The edge rushers themselves also seem to be fairly limited in terms of technique and don't seem to have much of a repertoire of inside moves to mix things up with instead of just trying to get around the outside of the tackle on most plays (Orakpo always stands out as being exceptionally shoddy in this regard but all of our OLBs are guilty to varying degrees).

You pretty much summed up my feelings exactly! Don't see much fire from our big boys up front and I really don't buy into the them only being there to collapse the pocket and not to get pressure. There's a whole lot of DL's in the league getting sacks on the QB. I just don't see our guys doing anything scheme wise to create opportunities, seems pretty much straight up bull rush and outside speed rush from our OLB. That's pretty easy to pickup, for almost every IIA school in the nation. We don't have the talent to run this type of defense, ala Chicago, so Has must be smarter than the guy across the field.

---------- Post added October-5th-2012 at 06:51 AM ----------

I think a lot of it, is that D Hall is the only player in our secondary playing at a high level.

High level, that's arguable don't you think? How many times does he have get burned on double moves? How many times does V Jack's have to own him?

But, honestly, he's the best we've got and with his ball hawking nature he needs safety help over the top and we haven't had those type safeties this season.

[Koolblue13]

High level, that's arguable don't you think?

I don't. Hall has been outstanding and there have been threads after every game to back that up. You're retired now, get reading.

[Chump Bailey]

Beating a dead horse but I'd like to see Cofield at DE...

[Darth Tater]

We aren't getting pressure on the QB because everybody is going for the sack.

[Mahons21]

I don't. Hall has been outstanding and there have been threads after every game to back that up. You're retired now, get reading.

Don't believe everything you read, and this is being said by a staunch Hall supporter. I had him as my most underrated Redskin this offseason, and my posting history shows I think much more higher of him than most on this site. With that being said, when I read an article that blames Haslett and Williams for Vincent Jackson slant pattern at the goalline, after Hall allowed inside leverage, the source loses credibility in my opinion.

If you've played football, or more specifically played in the secondary, you know allowing inside leverage on the slant in that situation is a crucial mistake, and one that I'm sure Hall regrets. Making one mistake doesn't make him a bad corner by any means, but trust me when I say Hall deserved blame for the play.

Quick breakdown (from a previous FS):
Down that close to the goalline, when in cover-2 with trail technique you want your CB to damn near cheat to prevent the slant route. You either flatten the route out as Jenkins did to Fitzgerald in last nights game, or get such a good jam that prevents inside release.

The point of this is to force the QB/WR into a harder situation. A slant with inside release gives the QB a clear throwing lane, and puts Madieu in a position where he has to go through WR to get to the ball. If you take away the slant, you force the quick out/fade, which allows Hall in his trail technique to play between the QB and the WR, with Madieu on the back end to cover the pylon if they get the quick out or to make a play on the ball if it's a fade.

Essentially you're creating a much more difficult throwing lane, because Hall is in between the QB and the WR, and Madieu is on the other end. QB will either have to make a perfect bucket throw, or a high and away out, both of which are much less likely to get completed than a slant with inside leverage.


Anyways, tangent over.

I think the answer is both as well.

The loss of Orakpo is much larger than most people seem to believe in my opinion. While Rak's bullrush may not always generate the sack numbers we hoped for, it does collapse the pocket, causing the QB to either move his spot, or to throw from a spot with bodies closing around him. Furthermore our d-line rotation got hurt by the loss of Carricker. Like many others, I would also add, I think cofield should be playing 5-tech, in many situations.

As far as scheme is concerned, I'd like to see our blitzes disguised better. I'd also like to see some more stunts on obvious passing downs. But after watching some of the dominating performances put on by some d-lines (in very vanilla matter) bears dominant Romo with front four, Rams dominating Kolb with front four and so on... I can only put so much blame on the scheme. If Haslett had the talent to generate the pressure those teams do with a 4-man rush, I don't think people would be as hard on him as they are.

[youngchew]

It feels like the blitz hardly ever gets to the QB. Kerrigan is ALMOST there a lot, but other than him forcing the qb to hurry his throw, we hardly get any hits.

[HailB&G]

He's got a couple of starts and 4 games of experience under his belt now. It'd be nice to start hearing Jarvis Jenkins' name being associated with the offensive backfield more.

[PortisBetts]

I havent seen too many blitzes from the linebackers aside from the god awful 0 blitz where they all went. There hasnt been many stunts with the linebackers and i think that is an issue. We should be bringing Riley and Fletcher every so often and try to confuse the lines, but it seems like we just sit back with 7 in coverage most of the time, which i dont like when we have such a suspect secondary. If we cant get pressure with just our line, we need to find another way to create pressure. Its another fault in Haslett's inability to adjust.

[Oldfan]

]Duplicate

[Mahons21]

I havent seen too many blitzes from the linebackers aside from the god awful 0 blitz where they all went. There hasnt been many stunts with the linebackers and i think that is an issue. We should be bringing Riley and Fletcher every so often and try to confuse the lines, but it seems like we just sit back with 7 in coverage most of the time, which i dont like when we have such a suspect secondary. If we cant get pressure with just our line, we need to find another way to create pressure. Its another fault in Haslett's inability to adjust.

And if he makes that adjustment and teams start eating us alive with short passes, or even worse the blitz gets picked up as it has so many times this year, and teams beat us deep, then what are you going to say? You going to come back here and talk about how Haslett is too aggressive?

The problem with the arguments against Haslett is so many contradict one another.

One poster says he's too aggressive, another says he sits back too much.

One posted says we should play a lot more man, we do that, and another poster says we don't mix up the coverages enough.

To judge whether or not a DC is to blame and not the players we should be asking ourselves a few questions:

Was this play executed properly by the players, but still had a bad outcome? If so was that outcome, just a ridiculous play? For example I'm not going to blame a DC, if Megatron out jumps triple coverage to make a play.

If the play was not executed properly the blame probably shouldn't fall on the DC. Unless, that DC is putting players in positions where they routinely fail. For example Gomes is bad at blitzing, if we blitz him once every couple of games I don't think we can put blame on Haslett, he does have to mix things up. However if Has blitzes Gomes multiple times a game each week, than the problem is probably with him.

Blaming Haslett just seems like the "in" thing to do on ES right now. People do it any chance they get, and create scenarios to blame him, when he isn't the person to blame.