[Bigtinylittle]

Originally Posted by barrett

I don't think we are really disagreeing all that much. I don't think the DL played a great game, I just think they did a large part of what they were asked. I think they were in the backfield often.

As for diagnosing when a play is a run or a pass, this is the strength of a read and react DL scheme. If you are firing off you are not doing much diagnosing. So we had gaps and lanes. And we have no LBs or Safetys whose strength is filling a whole. This makes the DL look very bad. As for other teams doing it, the only team I know of who plays with 2 DTs penetrating is the colts. And they get gouged by the run, but they play with the lead most of the time so it is not a big deal. And of course they have Bob Sanders in the box and they lose when they don't.

Most teams have at least one DT anchoring and eating blockers. We don't have that guy. Travis Johnson is far and away our best at it, and he is average (and missing). Okam, for all his size, is better at penetrating than at holding ground. deljuan shoots gaps. okoye shoots gaps. Cody shoots gaps.

We don't have a DT that plays the run. So I am not going to blame DL play but rather Bush or Rick Smith. More aggressive is not always better. I said this over and over last year when people wanted aggressive. You have to have the players for aggressive. Otherwise every D-coordinator in the NFL would be bringing pressure on every play. We don't have the players for it. Our LBs are too small to play unprotected. Demeco is great when protected by the DT and awful when the OL gets to him. Diles is small at SLB. And our Safeties are no force in the run game. And we did nothing at DT or at Safety this offseason.

We need to hope TJ and Cushing make a big impact, or we may be even worse on D than last year.

I'm going to go ahead and nominate this for post of the week!