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+--- Thread: Falcons: Are You Ready For Mike Nolan? (/Thread-Falcons-Are-You-Ready-For-Mike-Nolan)
Are You Ready For Mike Nolan? - Knight of God - 01-27-2012 03:46 AM
This is my absolute thrill in football. Defense. Man I could go on and on about the many options that are used, but let's just say that with Mike Nolan you'll see 98% of the options I know and love.
Many folks here already have heard me say that Matthews could fit in a 4-3 if used right, but I never went on from there. Well, Nolan will show you how shortly.
Its highly misunderstood that Nolan ran the 3-4 in Miami, but he also ran the 4-3 quite a bit. Its hard to tell because he made few personnel changes to make it happen. That is the beuty of his defense, you can do most anything, but the main part his his scheme is coaching. That's right. Coaching.
Coaching use to mean taking your guys to the side and instructing them on what is seen from the coaches point of view. Not just the defensive, but the offensive coach as well. Nolan is a lot like Belichick in that he will actually ask an opinion from someone other than his players and the HC. He will ask the OC, QC, and whoever else. Then pull the player that has a chance to amke a change in the play...usually a high caliber LB and tell him what he wants from him first then instruct his groups.
This is why his defense appears to have so much urgency and hard hitting. He teaches proper stand up hits and how to protect both the defensive player and offensive player and possibly end up with a FF, INT, Sack, or frighteningly hard hit.
For those who don't know, Mike Nolan runs a Hybrid defense. http://www.ehow.com/facts_7510107_nature-hybrid-defense.html
This is not a catch all term for the 3-4 or the 4-3. Its a mixture of the two...actually three if you count the 46 which is one of Nolan's versions of the 4-3. What I mean by that is he will stack his WLB and SLB on the same side while having his MLB in the natural spot, then allowing the SS to play up, but in zone coverage or blitz.
In other words he likes to confuse. Now for all of you 3-4 enthusiasts who believe that we will be in the base 3-4. I have good and bad news. He already said that the base will be the 4-3...that means absolutely SNOT. All that means is that the team is built for the 4-3 and without rebuilding completely (which would be bad) we will be using an off version where the hybrid is built from the 4-3 to the 3-4.
You will probably have Weatherspoon in his natural spot.
MLB/ILB
SLB/ILB
DE (like Sidbury)/OLB
Then
DE Edwards
DT/NT Peters (305 and growing was 295)
DT/DE Babineaux
Weatherspoon is a fast coverage, run stopping, and blitzing LB who can do anything asked. You keep him free. He can actually be placed on either side on the ball so that too is a plus.
Lofton or Dent whoever would serve the purpose of MLB in the 4-3 or as an ILB and either way you lose nothing in THIS case as coverage for the LB is less in use than usual.
Nicholas is usually the SLB, but in this based on what we are using and a shift can happen just before the snap, Nicholas would move inside to give support to whoever the natural MLB is at the time, which he would have no problem doing, but would still play his natural position SLB in the 4-3.
Moving on to
Sidbury/Abraham/Biermann/Matthews or whoever. DE/OLB in the hybrid automatically creates a double digit sacker even on an off year. You tend to get looked at funny with less than ten sacks regardless of what you heard Nolan say even though he did mean what he said. He would love a group of 4 sack guys, but he already knows that his system pays the price of having guys who put up madden numbers unless rotated. Don't expect a high rotation rate if he doesn't like what he see's. You will see a large amount of sacks coming from this position though and from here the player lines up anywhere. ANYWHERE. Problem with doubling this guy is who accounts for the ILB/SLB, the true DE, the OLB/WLB, the NT/DT...you get the idea. This position gets attention right off the bat.
True DE: Edwards now Edwards gets to be a plug and work to get what he can. He would stay three point stance all game and rush as a $-3 end and a 3-4 end. He seems light, but its the nature of the hybrid and he's not the smallest to do this. If there is any issue, you can always look to Jerry. He's love a shot at 6'1" 290lbs. Size really goes out the window in this scheme though. Its all about coaching. Remember that, you'll hear it again.
DT/NT Peters would benefit the most from the change. Not in sack numbers but his responsibility will be the first step only no matter if in the 4-3 or the 3-4 (because its essentially the same...seriously).
DT/DE You know Babineaux has played DE in the 4-3 before, but he would actually revive his look in the hybrid and that's just based on the fact that he will have less attention on him...but if attention is placed on him he still benefits from someone else getting to the QB.
The secondary HAS to man up on most plays, or else there will be cleraing in the middle for HUGE slants. By manning up on CB and NB, that leaves the safeties the ability to play some zone and read and react instead of the CB's. THAT creates coverage sacks and INT's, not that other mess BvG had...and yes, I thought it was Smith but turns out it was BvG and a few failed draft choices were his babies too. You'll know who they were on their way out.
Well that's most of what I have, its simple really. Even in the case of the 4-2-5 and 3-3-5, those are hybrids of one another. Don't be surprised to see 3-1-7 as well. In the 4-2-5 one of the players is strong enough against the run where the lost LB isn't needed, and in the 3-3-5 you use the principle of the 3-4 version of the hybrid sans an ILB. the 3-1-7 has two DB's who hit like LB's so its still like the 3-3-5
More than anything, Nolan's defense is about attitude and takeovers...not turnovers I mean takeovers. Nolan plays psychological games and specializes in a terrorizing secondary.
Are You Ready For Mike Nolan? - juraitwaluzka - 01-27-2012 08:27 AM
Awesome. Can't wait to see it. Sounds like the polar opposite of Van Pornstache in many ways.
RE: Are You Ready For Mike Nolan? - JDaveG - 01-27-2012 11:35 AM
Man, I am so fired up about this hire. I am on board with the Koetter hire -- have been ever since I researched him and realized he was basically running a more Martz-like Coryell system with (hopefully) a power running game. But Nolan is going to put this defense over the top. Dude is a mad scientist. If Koetter can be minimally competent, we ought to be able to do at least as well as the Niners did this year (which, for the record, is pretty damn good).
Re: Are You Ready For Mike Nolan? - [cHaOs] - 01-27-2012 11:51 AM
Are we getting too excited? I fear were going to struggle this year as the players adjust.
Sent from my Moto Defy
RE: Are You Ready For Mike Nolan? - cooperbh - 01-27-2012 01:27 PM
Good read, KOG.
As I've said many times before, scheme and playcalling have not been the achilles heel of this defense. What has killed us time and again are the missed tackles, blown assignments and general lack of killer instinct. That's a failure of coaching.
Can't wait to see our players get some much needed and long overdue coaching up - on both sides of the ball.
RE: Are You Ready For Mike Nolan? - ATLBound - 01-27-2012 01:53 PM
I always thought that most of our players were fine NFL players. The coaching is what I was always afraid of that would be our achilles heel.
Now with the proper coaching which we know Nolan to have and from what it seems and what he hope Koetter to be we can progress further. Its only so far the players can overcome the bad coaching and it was easy to tell we had reached our limits.
Good stuff KOG...didn't think I could get more excited about Nolan but obviously I was wrong.
Coaching!!! What a concept...some people would have you believe it doesn't matter much
RE: Are You Ready For Mike Nolan? - Paprika Neck - 01-27-2012 01:57 PM
i have a feeling him and smitty are gonna get these guys playing chamipionship ball with a full offseason.
RE: Are You Ready For Mike Nolan? - monoxide - 01-27-2012 02:30 PM
I'm certainly giddy about it, it still hasn't sunk in yet all the way! I've always been a HUGE Mike Nolan fan, so our new physical style of play will be a huge improvement over Porno Stache.
RE: Are You Ready For Mike Nolan? - cnasty - 01-27-2012 02:39 PM
(01-27-2012 11:51 AM)[cHaOs] Wrote: Are we getting too excited? I fear were going to struggle this year as the players adjust.
Sent from my Moto Defy
We will have a full offseason this year. That is going to do wonders.
RE: Are You Ready For Mike Nolan? - Paprika Neck - 01-27-2012 03:00 PM
i pray nolan gets every bit of talent out of every single player on this defense. if so it will be an amazing year.