Quote Originally Posted by KYPack View Post
Wist, you gotta slow down or speed up or something. You've stated you don't get to see a lot of games, right? They are running all kinds of power/gap runs. Watch the opening play vs the Lions. Linsley and TJ double down on Suh, Bulaga kicks out and Eddie bangs for a nice run. Shit, with Kuhn in there, they run BOB blocks all the time. Quarless has actually improved his blocking skills to execute angle blocks and making decent seals. The 3 ZBS running plays (there are more plays than that in a ZBS, BTW) may have been true 4-5 years ago, MM has shook things up since then.

Another BTW, Capers put together a brilliant D game plan vs Dallas. So ease up on the Dunderdummy, if ya can.
No, I watch most games - sometimes we don't get them, sometimes I'm tied up, sometimes my BP is too high, lol... my family almost made me leave the room during the review of Dez's non-catch - wouldn't be the first heart attack trigged by watching football

As the old saying for boxing goes - styles make fights. I would expect that we would be more effective against big lines b/c of all the running the zbs requires DL to do - but Seattle is a smallish defensive front that is very quick, and very disciplined, their LB's flow like nobody's business, and their DB's crash and kill like no other team in the league.

Zone blocking plays usually take time to string out and devolop with the back looking for the cutback or the front side play - neither will be available against the Seahawks. The zone play up the middle is quicker hitting, but it still allows those quick players to slide off blocks and make the tackle. Hence my contention that the best scheme to run against them is a power scheme that has a lot of pulling and trapping.

MM has used power in the past, but very sparingly. I didn't pay that close attention during the Cowboy game, but I didn't see any pulling... I saw a lot of reach blocks - which will be impossible against Seattle.

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As for dunderdummy - you've got to be kidding me??!! We sucked against the Cowboys - the statline may not have looked terrible, but by all rights we should have lost that game... we got lucky - very lucky on defense. Cowboy receivers were open all over the field, and Murray was running at over 5 yds/clip... only luck saved us.

There are 3 plays inparticular that stand out... and only 1 of them had anything to do with our defense making a play - and that was a desperation swat by Peppers.

1) The 3rd and 1 where they passed the ball. Romo bumbled it around and essentially had to throw it away. They then had to attempt a long FG, which was NG. Why the Cowboys didn't simply run it for the 1st down - which they could easily have done, is beyond me.

So thanks to their headscratching playcalling - we dodged a bullet there.

2) The Murray fumble. Murray had a hole the size of the Grand Canyon to run thru... I don't know if he'd have scored or not, but it would have been a foot race. As it was, Peppers make a desperation lunge and gets a hand on the ball.

And make no mistake - that was a desperation lunge, b/c if he doesn't do that... Murray is going to run for a long, long way on that play. Another bullet dodged - no thanks to dunderdummy.

3) The Bryant non-catch. If Bryant simply is content to go to the ground under control, the cowboys have 1st and goal at the 1 - and are a 1yd Murray stomp from taking the lead late in the 4th.

The defense stunk, literally stunk most of that game. They tightened up a bit in the 2nd half and were able to produce a couple of coverage sacks, but other than that, DB's were constantly out of position (Williams long TD), the tackling was average at best, and that is a function of being out of position, and receivers were running free all over the place.

No, dunderdummy called an idiotic game - the fact that we won, and the Cowboys did us a lot of favors masks the fact that dunderdummy was classic dunderdummy, i.e. completely overmatched as an NFL DC.