3-4 Defense...MM bane.

[bobblehead]

It seems to me that under MM we have struggled against the 3-4. His gameplan never really developes. It could just be that a lot of 3-4 teams are really good so it is perception, but san fran isn't so good and the ones all struggled. Its also not just this year, the last few we have had problems beating 3-4 teams...but again, they were always good teams. So is it our system that doesn't match up or just coincidence that those are some damn good teams?

[Harlan Huckleby]

maybe a 3-4 defense is good against the quick slant passes that the packers favor.

[HarveyWallbangers]

I think it's more that a lot of 3-4 teams have great defenses. Whether that's because the 3-4 is a better scheme, I don't know. It's also a scheme that can be gouged. It's also a scheme we don't see much. Besides Dallas, we only played one other 3-4 defense since the start of last year, and we handled San Diego.

[bobblehead]

I think it's more that a lot of 3-4 teams have great defenses. Whether that's because the 3-4 is a better scheme, I don't know. It's also a scheme that can be gouged. It's also a scheme we don't see much. Besides Dallas, we only played one other 3-4 defense since the start of last year, and we handled San Diego.

We played the pats and jets 2 seasons ago and looked bad...but they were both very good that season.

[HarveyWallbangers]

I think it's more that a lot of 3-4 teams have great defenses. Whether that's because the 3-4 is a better scheme, I don't know. It's also a scheme that can be gouged. It's also a scheme we don't see much. Besides Dallas, we only played one other 3-4 defense since the start of last year, and we handled San Diego.

We played the pats and jets 2 seasons ago and looked bad...but they were both very good that season.

And McCarthy was in his first season. Were those his first two times against the 3-4 defense?

[bobblehead]

I think it's more that a lot of 3-4 teams have great defenses. Whether that's because the 3-4 is a better scheme, I don't know. It's also a scheme that can be gouged. It's also a scheme we don't see much. Besides Dallas, we only played one other 3-4 defense since the start of last year, and we handled San Diego.

We played the pats and jets 2 seasons ago and looked bad...but they were both very good that season.

And McCarthy was in his first season. Were those his first two times against the 3-4 defense?

No idea. I trust MM as a coach and I don't want to beleive he can't gameplan for 3-4...and again, it may just be the talent of said teams. I only brought this up because 1) I don't know the answer 2) I wanted some discussion. Which I am getting some, but no for sure answers.

[Cheesehead Craig]

For a team that supposedly is a 3-4 defense, there were a lot of plays where DeMarcus Ware was on the LOS lining up as a DE and making the 'Boys a 4-3 team. I have a hard time pinning this game that MM can't handle a 3-4 defense. Dallas was in a 4-3 far more often than a 3-4 lineup.

[Lurker64]

I think part of the problem is that we play against so few 3-4 teams that it's hard to get reps against that scheme. There are seven full-time 3-4 teams in the NFL: Dallas, Pittsburgh, San Diego, New England, New York Jets, Cleveland, and Miami. One other team (San Francisco) runs it part-time. So on average in the 14 games that are not determined by last year's schedule, we play an average of two 3-4 teams (counting San Francisco as 1/2) through the twelve year cycle, with a high of 4(we play both Easts) and a low of 0 (we play both Souths); the median number of 3-4 teams we play in the 14 predictable games is also 2. The greatest number of 3-4 teams we can play in a 16 game season is 4.5 (we play the AFC East, the Cowboys, and the 49ers). The Dallas game this year is our only game against a 3-4 team unless we face Dallas or San Francisco in the playoffs.

Considering that the 3-4 scheme relies a lot on misdirection and confusion to get flowing linebackers unblocked heading to the ball, the combination of 1) We get very few opportunities to play against this scheme and 2) Our interior OL is still young and inexperienced is fairly deadly in terms of "getting everybody blocked."

As our OL guys get more experienced playing in the scheme, and McCarthy gets more tape on how 3-4 teams respond to his looks and formations, things will get better. I sincerely think part of the problem is that four of the eight 3-4 teams are just legitimately pretty good on defense. I don't see a lot of teams switching successfully to a 3-4 look on defense to mimic those four, however, since that scheme demands very specific personnel (particularly defensive linemen) and these groups are hard to come by.

If I had time, I would compose statistics of winning percentages of teams that NFC North and South teams against 3-4 defenses, since they play against the fewest 3-4 defenses on average (since six out of seven and a half of the 3-4 teams are in the AFC.) I think there might be a considerable correlation between "how often you play against that scheme" and "how you do against it."