Bull Rush: Too Much Hesitation Along The D-Line
December 8th, 2009
Former Bucs DE Steve White
By STEVE WHITE
JoeBucsFan.com analyst
Steve White spent every season of the Tony Dungy era playing defensive end for the Bucs. He’s spent countless hours in the film room with the likes of Warren Sapp, Rod Marinelli and more. Joe is humbled to now have White, also a published author and blogger, as part of the JoeBucsFan.com team. Below is White’s weekly Bull Rush column that breaks down all things defensive line. It’s simply a can’t-miss read for the hardcore Bucs fan.
Same song, different day.
With the Carolina Panthers missing their starting quarterback and starting running back along with one of their starting offensive linemen, I had this crazy idea that we might actually win this game. What in the hell was I thinking?
Now to be sure it wasn’t quite all the defense’s fault. After all, if you just look at the stat sheet it doesn’t look so bad. We only gave up 16 points. The Carolina offense had a little over 300 yards total, which isn’t great but better than what we had been averaging earlier in the year. And, of course, we know the offense turned the ball over four times in the redzone.
Blah Blah Blah.
The truth is this, if they don’t score they don’t win, and that has to be our defense’s mindset at this point.
We came out flat in the first half and the Panthers’ offense moved the ball up and down the field at will because of it.
When we weren’t missing tackles, we weren’t fitting up in our gaps. When we weren’t doing a sorry job of defending the run, we were giving backup QB Matt Moore all day to throw on play-action pass. I mean seriously, how in the hell does Matt Moore complete 70 percent of his passes on our defenses, including a bomb to Steve Smith in the second half to for all intents and purposes seal the deal?
But hey, this is supposed to be a post about the defensive line so I will confine my critique there.
First of all, Chris Hovan did not have a good day. He missed a tackle on Jonathan Stewart at the line of scrimmage that ended up being a 28 yard run.
Hovan also got out of his gap earlier in the game on a counter play where he crossed the guards face and Stewart cut back where he was supposed to be and gained 11 yards on 2nd-and-3. He was ok on the run other than those two plays, but where he was very average was his pass rush. Now all year I have said that the guy getting the most consistent pressure inside has been Hovan, but yesterday we didn’t get a lot out of him in that regard.
Trampling the run on the way to the pass
The truth is, we didn’t get a lot of pass rush yesterday from anybody on the defensive line. We had a few hurries and we got one sack on a play when Tim Crowder simply wasn’t blocked, but for the most part our guys were hesitating instead of creating.
Now I am not willing to make any excuses at all, but if they are still stuck in that wait-and-see approach of the Jim Bates scheme, then they need to get that out of their mind. Whether its run or pass in our one-gap scheme, you have to get off the ball and get up the field. We used to call it trampling the run on the way to the pass.
Instead, way too many times all of our guys are coming off looking in the backfield waiting to see if it’s draw or pass and then trying to speed up into a pass rush after they see the quarterback still has the ball.
Even in the run game at times you see defensive linemen peeking inside, only to see Stewart bounce it outside where they are supposed to be and getting positive yardage. I realize there isn’t a playoff berth or anything like that to play for right now, but hell, at least play for pride and stay in your own damn gap!
Missing run blitzes on first and second downs
Second of all, it was very disappointing that Roy Miller and Michael Bennett were both out with injuries. This was exactly the kind of game that it would have been helpful to use to evaluate those two guys. Instead, Kyle Moore and Dre Moore got their reps and neither guy was especially impressive. But then again, who was yesterday?
On the coaching side of things, I liked the fact that we went to a six-man line on the goal line, but I didn’t like the way the guys were lined up. You need a big guy on the end of the line to keep all runs inside and to be able to rush the passer. You also need at least three linebackers off the line to cover the remaining gaps. Otherwise, as we saw yesterday, when you only have two linebackers they both end up going to lateral instead of downhill and by the time they get to the ball carrier they aren’t able to change his momentum.
What I didn’t like was that we didn’t run blitz enough on first and second down, and the blitzes we did run didn’t make a lot of sense to me.
For years and years we have run what was called a “bark” or a “frisco” run blitz which consisted of a zone blitz with an outside backer and the middle backer blitzing one side of the line and a defensive end slanting all the way inside to the A-gap. The nosetackle cross-faces the center, the 3-technique tackle gets upfield in the B-gap then loops outside to the C-gap for contain. And the other defensive end has a drop.
Not only are these two blitzes good ways to get in the backfield and screw up blocking schemes against the run, they are also great ways to get pressure on a quarterback should they go play-action pass.
For whatever reason we haven’t run these zone blitzes in the last two games, yet they were a staple of our defense for years and years.
And to be honest with you, several of the blitzes we HAVE run haven’t really made much sense to me nor have been gap-sound. Too many times yesterday our defense was lined up just like they would be on a chalkboard, and without having any movement we made it relatively easy for the Panthers to know their blocking assignments.
Like I wrote a few weeks ago, our defensive personnel right now is built to play 3rd-and-long. If we aren’t getting teams in 3rd-and-long situations, then we are usually going to get in trouble. Running these zone blitzes can help get us in our most favorable situations, and hopefully Coach Morris realizes that and starts putting them back in the game plan.
Another game, another loss and it’s getting harder and harder to watch these games.
But I am going to hang in there for the rest of the season if for no other reason than sick curiosity, and I hope you will, too.
December 8th, 2009 at 4:37 am
Thanks Steve, that was great. I love your terminology of “Trampling the run on the way to the Pass”. It makes so much sense, even to the average Joe(no pun intended), like me. The zone blitzes on 1’st and 2’nd downs too. It all makes so much sense. I’m just sorry that you’re not there to implement these operations for us. Awesome Column and thanks for posting it late tonight. I can’t sleep (LOL) and have to be up for work at 6:30 religiously.
December 8th, 2009 at 7:45 am
Mr. White…ever think about coaching? You could be the next Rod Marinelli! Great stuff you sports literary genius! Good day to you sir.
December 8th, 2009 at 9:55 am
Steve,
Great analsyis as always. However, the tackling this year has been horrendous. In particular, Sabby is just killing us. He gets in position to make a play, but doesn’t get it done. The guy plays hard, but he just can’t finish. Can he become a better tackler? I’m not so sure. Sabby alone is the reason I want the Bucs to draft Eric Berry.
December 8th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Steve, you’ve said before (I think) that you were not a Suh fan for the Bucs to draft. He looks damn good to me. The Bucs have many needs, but if you were GM and had the top pick, who would you draft and why?
December 8th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Joe here,
Don’t think Steve said he wasn’t a fan of Suh, just didn’t like him as a can’t miss No. 1 pick. Big difference.
December 8th, 2009 at 10:36 am
Thanks for the compliments and the support again.
@Trox I think Sabby can become a better tackler but I also favor drafting Eric Berry.
@Jeff I like Suh as a player but I didn’t think he would make a big difference had we stayed with Jim Bates’ scheme. The reason being is that I don’t see him making very many pass rush moves and while he is able to rag doll guards on the college level, that generally won’t fly in the NFL. Now I still think he will make somebody a good 3-4 end or he could be a pretty good left end in a 4-3 scheme if he gets a little more technique in my opinion. I think now it comes down to what scheme we are running next year, ie if Coach Morris is still here or if somone comes in and replaces the scheme. If we keep the same scheme I would say he could be a good left end for us although I like Jimmy Wilkerson just fine. If someone else comes in and we switch to a 3-4 he would be good for that too.
Having said all that I think our best option will be to trade down, pick up additional picks, and draft Eric Berry. I personally feel like we would be better off targeting a good undertackle in free agency like the Arizona Cardinals’ Darnell Dockett. There will be other pass rushing defensive ends coming out that we can pick up in the 2nd or 3rd round if that is what we are looking for but I haven’t seen a dominant inside rusher that I think will transfer as an undertackle in the NFL from the college ranks. I think the pressure will be pretty strong on the Bucs to draft Suh though as so many NFL pundits have said he is sorta the missing link for our defense. I dont necessarily think he would be a bust or anything, I just think his technique work is lacking. Who knows though, maybe he goes to the Senior Bowl and tears it up and shows something he never showed in college. He definitely has all the physical traits needed to be a good defensive lineman.
December 8th, 2009 at 10:41 am
By the way, we tried to figure out a way to include an illustration in this post of the bark/frisco zone blitzes but to no avail. For that reason I posted it up on a separate blog I will use just for illustrating plays on a white board. After the rest of the games, if there is a play good or bad that I think merits diagramming I will put it on the white board and post it to this other blog. Here is a link to the picture of the diagram of the bark/frisco zone blitzes only illustrating where the defensive line and blitzing linebackers should go. Don’t wanna give away all of the trade secrets 😉
http://sgw94pictures.blogspot.com/2009/12/barkfrisco.html
December 8th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Steve, with what you’ve seem from the Moore boys (Kyle and Dre) are these guys any more than back-up players? I mean seriously. As the D-line played yesterday White was disappointing and Wilkerson just didn’t seem to “want” it.
With regard to draft picks – I know it’s early but why go with LB or D-line? Is it value? Is it need?
While the defense gave up less then previous games did you feel that there was as much improvement as the prior week against Atlanta?
I hope these guys understand that they’re not playing for pride as much as a roster spot next season. As it currently stands I wouldn’t be surprised if a new coach came in and cleared house. Heck with as many draft picks as the Bucs will have (assuming some trade-downs) we could start a whole team of newbies and get the same 1-11 record.
December 8th, 2009 at 1:27 pm
@MrLucky
Not sure what you mean by Wilkerson not “wanting” it. He didn’t pass rush well but he made several nice plays on the run. Greg White was similarly dissappointing on pass rush which is his biggest asset but also made some plays in the running game.
As for the Moore boys, they didn’t show a whole lote on Sunday. Dre Moore is big which is an asset but he tends to play a little high. I don’t really believe Kyle is a defensive end even though thats where they are playing him. I think he is kind of a utility guy who can pass rush inside and maybe play the run outside at end. But neither guy really made any moves on pass rush.
As for who to go with this year I would go with need. And we need better play all over the defense not just at LB or D Line. We could use another cover corner who is physical. A physical safety. A pass rushing interior lineman. Or a physical middle backer. Take your pick.
December 8th, 2009 at 2:55 pm
I pick
d). all of the above
December 9th, 2009 at 12:20 am
Steve and the rest of you guys, I’m still numb by what I watch every Sunday. It’s harder and harder to get up for it and really take it seriously right now.
I think I agree with what you wrote about no movement before the blitzes. There doesn’t seem to be much disguise or trickery going on, which seemed to be a hallmark of the old defense — Brooks or Quarles looking like they were bringing it but then dropping back