Originally Posted by
texaspackerbacker
That two man D Line you're talking about is actually a de facto 4 man line, as the Smiths (or Fackrell if one of them moves inside) play it like DEs instead of OLBs. The problem with that, of course, is no OLB behind them to turn in running plays. It's worse when you have a 3 man line - which actually is 5, and two of them are the two Northwestern slugs - still no strength inside, and nobody to stop plays from getting outside except DBs. And when those DBs are in man coverage, which they usually are, then it's wide open for an outside run. It's a wonder more teams don't do to us what the Niners did.
Actually calling it a 4-3 and having a couple real OLBs would help a lot. Using zone pass coverage would help a lot. For some reason, though, I doubt Pettine will do that.
Signing somebody like Chris Jones or Reader or maybe drafting somebody like Raekwon Davis would make that 2 man line a lot better - paired with Clark, but it still wouldn't solve the problem outside.
Martinez really isn't the problem. There just is too much left on his shoulders to stop as it is now. I doubt even a better ILB - if indeed any of those mentioned are better - would have success under the circumstances we have now.