If Manning Misses A Few Games...

[chad72]

If Manning misses a few games, will we tinker with changing our defensive philosophy a tad little?

Can we do what the Saints did in their SB year with their 4-3? Mix up the 4-3 with some 3-man front looks, play a lot of 3-3-5 sometimes against passing teams, and then use ball hawking safeties and corners to trust their tighter man coverage when they blitzed with their LBs primarily. They still played bend and break a lot but their freedom to blitz and take chances was obtained due to the fact that Brees could score and bail them out if needed (I wish we had taken that approach more with Manning at the helm) and they could take some calculated risks (in Greg Williams' words). Their freedom to try different fronts and formations came from the fact that they did have experienced vets like Fujita, Vilma, and Sharper beyond the D-line to be on the same page.

It is almost imperative that more possessions and/or turnovers will definitely produce better field position for Kerry Collins and help him out given the fact that he is not Manning and probably will not score as well as Manning. A small change in philosophy might help if we have the horses to do so.

Can that work with the personnel we have? I know Moala has played DE in 3-4 formations for the majority of his college career. So, Moala along with Freeney can be the DEs in 3-4 formations with Mathis being a stand up rusher while we throw in an extra pass coverage LB like Moten if the team spreads you out with 4 wideouts.

Thoughts???

[chad72]

Bumpity bump .

[Larry Horseman]

I hope so...if we stick with the rigid bend/don't break philosophy and play the corners 10 yards off the ball, it's going to be nearly impossible to win games without PM (it's difficult to win games with this philosophy with PM).

It is imperative that we are more aggressive on the defensive side of the ball. More 3 and outs, turnovers, and defensive TDs are musts for us to win with Collins. If we don't become more aggressive, I'm really going to question the game planning of Caldwell/Coyer. And sadly, I have a feeling we'll be watching the same old philosophy...

[Coffeedrinker]

If Manning misses a few games, will we tinker with changing our defensive philosophy a tad little?

Can we do what the Saints did in their SB year with their 4-3? Mix up the 4-3 with some 3-man front looks, play a lot of 3-3-5 sometimes against passing teams, and then use ball hawking safeties and corners to trust their tighter man coverage when they blitzed with their LBs primarily. They still played bend and break a lot but their freedom to blitz and take chances was obtained due to the fact that Brees could score and bail them out if needed (I wish we had taken that approach more with Manning at the helm) and they could take some calculated risks (in Greg Williams' words). Their freedom to try different fronts and formations came from the fact that they did have experienced vets like Fujita, Vilma, and Sharper beyond the D-line to be on the same page.

It is almost imperative that more possessions and/or turnovers will definitely produce better field position for Kerry Collins and help him out given the fact that he is not Manning and probably will not score as well as Manning. A small change in philosophy might help if we have the horses to do so.

Can that work with the personnel we have? I know Moala has played DE in 3-4 formations for the majority of his college career. So, Moala along with Freeney can be the DEs in 3-4 formations with Mathis being a stand up rusher while we throw in an extra pass coverage LB like Moten if the team spreads you out with 4 wideouts.

Thoughts???

I think this was the teams thought and why Wheeler was playing DE in the some in the last two preseason games. I think a front 7 of Moala, Mookie, Anderson, Wheeler, Angerer, Brackett, and Sims could be mixed up enough to cover the pass and run equally well. And Moala, Mookie and Anderson are stout enough at the LOS as well as having the ability to collapse the pocket.

Actually the more I think about this the more I like it. Hey Colts organization, call me let's get this implemented.

[jbaron04]

i dont really have a problem with our defence but i hate that we dont challenge wide outs at the line i mean if its 3rd and 2 get up in their face and jam

how many time have we seen 3rd and 5 our coners are 10 yards off and keep droping the wideout runs to the 7 yard line and turns around first down our defence is slowly changing but i really hate that our line backers dont attack the line but always drops back even on run plays but i always thought that line backers first was suppose to be forward and d backs was suppose to be backwards

the reason why we our bad at stopping the run is thus our line backers drop back like d backs at the snap of the ball instead of thinking run first then pass like linebackers our suppose to do

when they drop back the oline men gets a head of steam while their trying to come back forward then get blow off the ball

[jbaron04]

I think this was the teams thought and why Wheeler was playing DE in the some in the last two preseason games. I think a front 7 of Moala, Mookie, Anderson, Wheeler, Angerer, Brackett, and Sims could be mixed up enough to cover the pass and run equally well. And Moala, Mookie and Anderson are stout enough at the LOS as well as having the ability to collapse the pocket.

Actually the more I think about this the more I like it. Hey Colts organization, call me let's get this implemented.

ok what about this formation

fs, beathea

ss, bullitt

cb, powers

cb, thomas

nt, johnson

de, freeney maybe anderson or brayton maybe even moala

de, nevis

joker, wheeler or use freeney in the joker

mike, brackett

sam, angerer

will, sims

we would be able to use this as a fake three four

have big bodys up front but also have the ability to drop out the joker in coverage or zones

or blitzs the mike, sam, or will

it would be interesting to see the type of blitz we could come up with

[indy_nick]

I think we would be fine if we just press the corners a little more and let our defensive front apply the pressure. I hope we don't do any of the fake blitz crap that we've been doing and focus on filling our gaps properly and tackling. If we can tighten up coverage and not allow much YAC we will have a chance of stopping the other team.

[Balzer40]

This team needs to do all they can to come up with a better pass defense. It is literally the thing im most worried about with this team, even if Manning misses more than a couple of games. I don't know if Coyer just don't trust our corners to play a tighter man coverage, or even a bump and run style, but something needs to be shored up in that aspect of the defense.

[Coffeedrinker]

i dont really have a problem with our defence but i hate that we dont challenge wide outs at the line i mean if its 3rd and 2 get up in their face and jam

how many time have we seen 3rd and 5 our coners are 10 yards off and keep droping the wideout runs to the 7 yard line and turns around first down our defence is slowly changing but i really hate that our line backers dont attack the line but always drops back even on run plays but i always thought that line backers first was suppose to be forward and d backs was suppose to be backwards

the reason why we our bad at stopping the run is thus our line backers drop back like d backs at the snap of the ball instead of thinking run first then pass like linebackers our suppose to do

when they drop back the oline men gets a head of steam while their trying to come back forward then get blow off the ball

You post is a little contradictory. You say you don't have a problem with the D then complain about the LB dropping in pass coverage first. That is what LBers are supposed to do in the Cover 2 type D. That is why draw plays and screens work so well, it gives the LBers time to get fully into their zones and then run the ball out with three olineman leading the way.

[Coffeedrinker]

ok what about this formation

fs, beathea

ss, bullitt

cb, powers

cb, thomas

nt, johnson

de, freeney maybe anderson or brayton maybe even moala

de, nevis

joker, wheeler or use freeney in the joker

mike, brackett

sam, angerer

will, sims

we would be able to use this as a fake three four

have big bodys up front but also have the ability to drop out the joker in coverage or zones

or blitzs the mike, sam, or will

it would be interesting to see the type of blitz we could come up with

yeah, I could see several different formations working based on down and distance. The only idea of your I didn't like is Freeney in the joker role. Only because I think when you have a guy who is a top 5 at what he does, you don't take away what he does best, to me that would be like putting Manning out at WR to run the wildcat on a third down, I want the ball in Manning's hands and I want Freeney to get to the QB, not worry about if he has to drop into coverage based on a certain offensive formation.

[chad72]

Yeah, we do have something we have not had before, run down DEs that can hold the fort. We have to maximize their usage, at least vs running teams in the division.

There is the other side of the equation, will teams that are normally happy to keep Manning on the sidelines by running more, start throwing more since they know they don't have to worry about the Colts scoring to match it and thus have to worry less about time of possession? Will they blitz more because they are not worried about Manning making them pay? It will be interesting to see.