DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Attacking 3-4 vs. Reacting 3-4

I came across this article and found it interesting. I know it is about the Cowboys, but I see a connection with the Browns. I see the Browns under Crennel as being in the Bill Parcells mold with the simplistic, reacting 3-4 instead of the Phillips' attacking 3-4. I would much prefer the attacking 3-4 that Phillips runs, but what do you guys think?

DMN: Good read on "Phillips 3-4"

Last season, the Cowboys used the NFL's most simplistic 3-4 defense. That's not debatable. You are, however, allowed to debate whether Bill Parcells or Mike Zimmer is at fault.
All we know for sure is Jerry Jones has grown weary of spending millions and using premium draft picks on a defense that has yet to join the NFL's elite. Jerry hired Wade Phillips, a noted defensive specialist, to fix this.
"The Phillips 3-4 is a little bit different than some of the other ones," Phillips said. "We slant more, we give our defensive lineman a little more chance to rush the passer."
Phillips has made a career of emphasizing his best defensive players. He uses an aggressive style that relies on stunts, zone blitzes and traditional blitzes to harass quarterbacks into making mistakes.
That was a foreign concept during the Parcells Era. Parcells didn't like using blitzes and stunts on a regular basis because he thought it gave the offense too many opportunities to make big plays. The Cowboys' conservative style frustrated many defensive players, who didn't have opportunities to make plays.
Think about this: In the last few years, Jerry has spent first- or second-round picks on players such as Roy Williams, Terence Newman, DeMarcus Ware, Marcus Spears, Kevin Burnett and Bobby Carpenter. All were dynamic college performers, playmakers.
That wasn't always the case with the Cowboys last season. It's not that they didn't dominate from time-to-time, but they didn't take over games like they did in college. Spears is a perfect example.
At LSU, he made plays by using quickness and strength to shoot gaps and make tackles in the backfield. Although Spears weighs 305 pounds, he's at his best using finesse, not power. The Cowboys asked him to be a power player by lining him up over the right tackle and asking him to consistently win one-on-one battles against players who routinely outweighed him by 20-30 pounds.
Does that make sense?
Phillips beat out Norv Turner to become the Cowboys' head coach because Jerry believes defense wins championships. Really, he does.
It's clear Jerry thinks this team has the personnel to dominate on defense, otherwise the good, old days with Norv and The Triplets would be the talk of the town instead of Phillips and the 3-4 defense.
Teams that don't sack the quarterback inevitably proclaim sacks are overrated. In the last 10 years, the Cowboys have routinely fallen into this category. Ware became the first Cowboys' player since 1996 to record double-digit sacks, when he notched 11.5 last season.
Traditionally, Phillips' teams sack the quarterback.
Shawne Merriman, a linebacker taken one pick after Ware in the 2005 draft, had 17 sacks last season, despite missing four games after violating the league's substance-abuse policy. Shaun Phillips added 11.5 sacks for the Chargers, who had a league-high 61 sacks while claiming the AFC's top seed.
Phillips loves attacking on first down in hopes of creating long-yardage situations on second and third downs.
Last season, San Diego blitzed 82 times on first-down pass plays, resulting in 15 sacks. Thus, Phillips could dictate the game's tempo because the opposition often found itself in predictable passing situations. Dallas blitzed 45 times on 206 first-down passes and recorded two sacks.
San Diego had 42 sacks on first or second down; Dallas had 18.
Now you know why the Cowboys' defensive players are so excited. You can hear it in their voices. And read it in their quotes.
They know Phillips' reputation. Twenty times, said Phillips, he's led a defense that ranked among the top 10 in sacks. He's reportedly an excellent teacher, who specializes in fundamentals.
"I think I improve players – and quickly," Phillips said. "What I try to do is get my best players in position to make plays. Then I put the pressure on the best players to make plays."
That's how it should be.

http://gryphononcowboys.blogspot.com/2007/02/dmn-good-read-on-phillips-3-4.html

Attack! Helps though if you've got a healthy secondary and don't have to keep LBs & safeties back in coverage to shore it up. We need help up front, a healthy secondary and maybe another OLB, then maybe we can become more of an attacking D. Like the article says, Jerry spent the last several years taking defense in the first and second rounds. We're just getting started.

This is definitely an interesting article on the 3-4. Just from my observation I guess Grantham is using the reacting to what you see 3-4 instead of the blitzing one. Either he feels our DB's are too inexperienced to blitz, or he feels that if we did, the opposing offense would dink and dunk us all day.

But with the additions of Kam, Dquell, Williams, and maybe more defined CB's in free agency, our defensive mindset may start to change for the better. I am very eager to see what Savage does this off season and draft to improve the econdary and D Line. Samuel or Clements anyone?

It all boils down to the personel you have on the field. You can't attack if you can't shut people down man to man.

JMO

Shoot Bp , you can't attack if your Coach ain't into it .. My Dawg " EO " even talked about are prevent " O " .. We have played " not to loose " for so long , we forgot how to win !

enh... I thought Grantham was using the ineffective 3-4, not the reacting or attacking.

Jokes aside, Grantham was definitely reactive. There wasn't many times I saw our defense bring the house this year.

Hopefully we can replace McKinley with someone more effective and give Big Ted a little back up at NT. With the O-Line more occupied with our front 3, maybe we'll actually collapse the pocket and fill a few running lanes.