DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Pure Football Forum Potential Changes?

Lets talk potential changes...With the thread of threatening Little to sit...what are some other changes that could spark this team, schematic or personnel?

Schematic:

I think that first and foremost...We should ditch the zone D...For some reason, no matter which coach we've had, our zone coverages leave guys open in space ALWAYS. We zoned up hard against the Bills and got killed by a bad QB in Fitz. Get back to our press coverage that we utilized so well with Joe Haden on the field. Skrine, Patterson, and Wade are press corners, get their bodies on the WRs...not in space.

Another...bring back (for some reason we only use it in the preseason) the seam route. Our TEs never go up the seam in the regular season for some stupid reason. We have guys with that ability and we dont do it ever. In addition it opens up underneath routes for some YAC.

More short slants.

More consistent use of TRich. We dont do much to get him into the flow of the game. Our playcalling seems more like throwing darts at the playsheet rather than using other plays to set up other plays. We dont do anything with any rhyme or reason it seemslike in playcalling. It would be very nice if we used some plays perhaps some running plays to set up the playaction. The only time we ever do that is when we use Benjamin running the end around and the handoff, but all it does is hold the edges. Schematically we need to use plays to open up other plays.


Personnel:

Bye Lauvao Hi Ryan Miller...We need a mauler at the G spot...Miller is a 6'7 animal. Get him in there for some 1st string snaps either in practice or occasional snaps in games like how we rotated Hicks at times last year. In addition...while I wouldnt do it in games, but rotate Greco a little bit with Pinkston to let him know his spot isnt 100% secure.

Bye Owen...from the team, and hi Brad Smelley. Especially with the injury to Alex Smith we could use another TE able body.

Bye Hardesty Hi Dan Gronkowski. With Watson looking like an old unproductive man, and Alex Smith on the injury list, and Jordan Cameron not completely trusted yet, we could use another stable body in the TE spot.

Bye Fujita...from the starting lineup. Fort and Robertson should start on the outside, and JMJ can earn it when he comes back, and Carder can start being active on gameday. If we play fast with our LBs we can get stuff done. We can be better at LB than we have been in years.

Maiava...backup status.

Norwood active over Little for a game or two would be sweet.

More snaps at WR for Cribbs...He's better than we all think. Lets get the ball in his hands more often. Period. More Cribbs, more danger for the offense.





Your thoughts...schematic or otherwise...what changes can/should be made to spark this team, or improve it, be it for today or next year or whatever...

Ready Go

I agree with a lot of it but will comment on this..

Quote:

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Our playcalling seems more like throwing darts at the playsheet rather than using other plays to set up other plays. We dont do anything with any rhyme or reason it seemslike in playcalling. It would be very nice if we used some plays perhaps some running plays to set up the playaction.

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Running plays only help set up playaction if they work. Such is what I think the issue is with our playcalling. If what you are doing isn't working, then you can't really "build" off it to help set up other stuff. We have no offensive identity that scares anybody. Our passing doesn't scare anybody enough to open up the run and our run doesn't scare anybody enough to open up the pass... and trick plays only really work if you get the defense guessing and off balance, which we can't do.

Right now I don't think that zone will help.

Skrine played man in the game against the Bengals and got eaten up. He played the bigger receiver, and was abused badly.

The key to a good defense is to play multiple looks from the same sets, and we really haven't done enough of that.

Look at how the Bills played us. They largely played straight up, but they did rush 3 and drop the rest into cover ...... they blitzed ..... they mixed in zone coverages ...... they did a beautiful job of mixing things up. They showed a 4-3 from on almost every snap, but really switched things up from snap to snap. They did a really nice job.

They were also able to get decent pressure with their front 4. (or sometimes 3)

We rarely mix things up to that degree. I would like to see us actually able to confuse opposing QBs somewhat. I would like to see us show the same front consistently, but play a variety of coverages out of the same look.

I do agree with you about the TEs. I don't know what the scheme is, except that we frequently keep a TE in to block. I like Gronkowski. I would like to see him brought back, but I don't think that's going to be in the plans yet. I would be more inclined to bring up Smelley and drop Marecic. He hasn't shown me anything at all that is special, or that can't easily be replaced.

I would definitely sit Little if he has drops and or stupidity in the upcoming Thursday Night game. We have extra time after that game to get the next man up up to speed if he continues on his current path. I do have to say that Little has done a nice job blocking down the field, but his primary job is to catch the damn ball. He better get better at this. So had the rest of our guys. This is their wakeup call.

As the season goes along, the more I am all for starting the rookies at OLB so we can see what we have their.

We really, really miss Haden.

I thought Skrine was good against Cincy...he made one bad PI, the rest was fine I thought, save for the couple times he slipped...that makes 3 bad plays.


All of the big plays came against Hagg, Patterson, and Wade...Skrine is good in man-to-man

Skrine gave up plays of 12, 20, 12, a 31 yard DPI penalty, 10, 10, 0, 8, and IIRC, he also gave up one of the long TDs as well.

(these are from CBS Sportsline play by play recap)

If we're going to sit Little and activate Norwood (which I'm all for) then sit Marecic and activate Smelly.

Can we sit Shurmur and activate the waterboy?

Unleash Chilly. We are repeating the same lousy stuff. No holes to speak of, and we will get TRich killed in there. He works well outside. Point it out, huh?

Weeden needs to do more, and is developing some alarming habits. Sit Little, he has earned it. Start Fort.
Start Smelley. Sit Marecic for at least a game or alternate series. Get a handle on the penalties. What has changed in the losses? Seems like much more of the same.

Is changing that schematic? Nah. Play like a pro.

This organization will be cleaning house. I would make sure we have Phil Taylor back and Joe Haden back before they make any changes just so the new regime has a chance. After they change everything, I want to keep everything the same for ten years minimum. All in with whatever regime is brought in so we have some continuity for once.

none of the TDs...they had 3, and Wade, Hagg, and Patterson were on the coverages.

Theres a slight difference in what he gave up and when he was in on the tackle yea? He has been in zone quite often

Maybe they could watch some other NFL teams and mimic what they do.

I don't see any other NFL team, that on a 2nd down and 1,... I think it was 2nd down but it was definetly 1 yd to go...

They completed a 0.5 yd pass, short of the sticks, but the refs mercifully gave them a 1st down.
Now I think that takes a real special something, because I don't think I could get a team to do that, ... that is like getting a cat to eat a mouse one piece at a time.

It's not like it was a pass completed behind the los and he ran up to just short of the marker, it was a drop back, a completed pass, an immediate tackle, at the spot of the catch, there was 1 yard to go, it was a 0.5 yard gain.

We've seen this offense before, it looks like it's designed to take 6 snaps to get a first down, and 25-30 plays to get a touchdown.

It is going to get better. I just don't know WHEN it is going to get better.
I used to think it would HAVE to get better, just by ... well odds... the same odds that says they can't lose 12-13 coin tosses in a row in 2011.

Odds are, they HAVE to get better, they just have to, but I can't say it's just a matter of time anymore. It's a whole new level of bad since 2006,

They want to bench little? Bench Gordon.
Why? too many negative plays.

Shurmur MUST give up playcalling.