Falcons: Thoughts on the BVG scheme

[NOVAFalconFan]

I never played football, so this may be obvious to others, but I haven't seen it articulated exactly like this yet, so here goes:

I have seen some dominant defenses. The Ravens in the early 2000's and the Steelers in the 90's with Lloyd and Greene are two that come to mind. I would give anything for an aggressive D like those, but I think I have figured out why it doesn't look like we are even trying to do that. When a team has a dominant and aggressive defense, it is because the coaches have players that they trust to make big plays.

Our scheme, on the other hand, is just designed to put players in the position to make plays (specifically sacks, tips, and interceptions) if they can. When the players do make plays, like the sacks and picks last week and this week, the D can hold the Packers to 25, and the Panthers to 17. When the players don't, like the Decoud drops against Chicago, the Spoon non-tackle on Forte, or DRob taking bad pursuit angles and being generally slow, the team gets gashed.

Now the bad thing is that, either way, the scheme isn't going to limit yards and 3rd down conversions, as we have seen. It just limits points, when it works. And the major concern, if I am correct, is why don't we have players the coaches trust yet that would allow us to dictate terms to the other team's offense?

[RFlagg]

Pretty much the definition of a "Bend But Don't Break" defense. The problem this season has been we've broken way too often. Through 6 games last season, the Falcons were giving up an average just under 17 points per game. This year, that number is at 24.5. The good news is that the number is trending down right now, and hopefully that continues.

For the Falcons, the good news is we only play 3 more games against teams currently ranked in the top ten in terms of scoring. The bad news, 2 of those are in 2 of our next 3 games (Detroit - #4, New Orleans - #6).

[Paprika Neck]

it's not supposed to be bend dont break

[nobkowski]

whatever it is, it ain't that good. Of course Peria Jerry isn't playing anywhere near
a 1st rd. draft choice either.

[cnasty]

I think it's a reactive scheme instead of a proactive scheme. We react to what the offense does, as opposed to forcing an offense to do certain things. That's what separates a shitty d from a stellar d.

[sandiegofalcon]

(10-17-2011 11:59 AM)cnasty Wrote:  I think it's a reactive scheme instead of a proactive scheme. We react to what the offense does, as opposed to forcing an offense to do certain things. That's what separates a shitty d from a stellar d.

How many times did you see Newton go deep on us yesterday? That is what they have been thriving on is long passes and we took that away completely, forcing them to do other things such as short passes and running, which we excel at stopping. It's the intermediate passes that we struggle with

[Paprika Neck]

say what you will but the defense played that offense pretty damn good. they held webcam to his worst qbr EVAR

[Paprika Neck]

i think our linebackers are the best in the league as a group. i think our dline is as talented as any in the league and our secondary is more than adequate. seems the defense as a whole is still thinking instead of doing.

[Paprika Neck]

btw corey peters interception was allsome. i think were gonna have a very very good defense by the end of the year.

[Paprika Neck]

(10-17-2011 11:59 AM)cnasty Wrote:  I think it's a reactive scheme instead of a proactive scheme. We react to what the offense does, as opposed to forcing an offense to do certain things. That's what separates a shitty d from a stellar d.

weatherspoon sniffed out quite a few plays, same with peters, and lofton.