Unfortunately in 3 seasons this defense has made very little progress. AG is a big part of the problem.
Not saying some blame doesn’t fall on Holmes for hits and misses on that Dline and drafting and picking up injured players (it is no joke even know some think it is)
But regression has taken place since the beginning of the year and has really been highlighted the last 3 weeks. Don’t get me wrong the offense has not helped out.
But they way the bears and packers came out on the road and scored on their opening drive should tell you this defense is not prepared. Why make crowd noise the defense doesn’t use it lol.
And here is where Dan Campbell will run into problems with this fan base who loves him. Never holding AG feet to the fire. Glad mlive asked him yesterday why he always blames the offense for everything.
Find someone who loves/admires you the way Campbell does with Aaron Glenn. At this point I’m starting to think there is nothing AG can do to get fired. Seriously, what would he need to do at this point to get fired? His unit has been varying levels of horrible for 3 years now. Occasionally he gets to beat up on a back up level QB and Dan Campbell rushes into the locker room to give him a game ball. By my very unofficial count AG has the most game balls on the team so far this year. And despite all of this, coach Campbell is more critical of the offense (the sole reason for this teams success). It’s almost like he’s afraid of hurting Glenn’s feelings.
I really like Dan Campbell. We all do. But the AG thing right now is a massive problem and starting to threaten some of his support.
people may be shocked at that, but hes a lockeroom, leader of men guy that can be huge for the players and mentality
as we see though, hes not good at Xs and Os at all, and his schemes can be solid at times to baffling at worst. Did show some adjustment in yesterdays game but still
The only way AG gets promoted this offseason is if Dan Campbell buys an nfl team. Seriously - this idea that the worst DC in the league over the past 3 years is getting promoted is getting pretty crazy. He may get a Rooney Rule interview but that’s about it.
So you think we will hold up in man? If you look up at AG’s influences and how things started here I think it’s pretty evident he would prefer to play a lot of man. In the past when we did we got shredded bc we don’t have the dudes.
The bend don’t break stuff can be infuriating but it actually held GB to 23 points including 7 off of the possession Dan gifted them at our 22. We punt the ball there.
It looked ugly but I actually think the strategy was sound. The offense and Dan didn’t deliver. After all we only gave up one field goal and one 22 yard TD drive (Thx Dan) after that initial rough stretch. We only allowed 217 yards in the game’s last 48 minutes. The defense and team weren’t prepared early but otherwise the defense wasn’t that bad. But second week in a row when the D came out unprepared. There is little doubt about that.
That being said, after Q1 defense wan’t the problem yesterday.
Don’t have the all 22 so I don’t know where the corners were aligned on every play. Love’s accuracy is hit and miss so making him push the team methodically down the field was a sound strategy that IMO actually did work after Q1.
An 8-3 team is not firing its DC in the middle of the year, and that would somehow make a bad situation worse. In fact, if they finish with anything more than 9 wins, it’s highly unlikely AG goes anywhere.
But at a certain point Brad Holmes will step in and fire him if Dan Campbell won’t if they don’t get this turned around. It is trending in the wrong direction.
Disclaimer: I do not really spend the entire game focusing on specific alignments or where players are slotted on the field before the snap.
But, from what I have noticed, and maybe you or someone can correct me…
Why are we slotting Hutchison in the LEO slot coming out of a 3 point stance when last season he was much more effective working out of the ROLB/LOLB slots coming out of a 2 point stance?
Why, when Houston was available, did he spend the majority of his snaps dropping into coverage rather than rushing the QB?
Why is Commish working almost entirely out of the REO slot when I seem to remember him working mostly the LEO last season.
Are they almost exclusively a 4-3 team now with very little 3-4 concepts on defense?
Why are we changing what seemed like was a successful recovery on the defense late last season and not incorporating that into the defense this season.
I welcome someone educating me on the defensive concepts, player placements, that we are running this year versus what was successful late last season.