Thoughts? I’m confident I have seen it work before at the NFL level, but how often is the real key. Not sure any stats out there would track this.
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I’m not sure about tape showing a spy working, but I can point to last Sunday where “Not using a Spy” didn’t work.
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Well if you are going to spy a QB, you need a player as athletic as the QB is. Spying with a linebacker slower than the QB is going to fail more often than not. Spy with an extra safety on the field would give you a better shot at it.
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I have no idea whether we used a spy or not, but one thing we did well last year was guard running QB’s - Lamar and Kyler Murray, in particular. What did we do different with Hurts?
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The main problem was not the use of a spy but that our d line just pushed him out the pocket and didn’t think of trying to contain the outside first
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Honestly, we did nothing different. We blitzed the heck out of Murray last year and it worked. Murray had 4 yards rushing in the game. We blitzed the heck out of Hurts as well, but we couldn’t bring him down. He kept making us miss. We should have had about 5 sacks and 3 intentional groundings if the refs weren’t blind. Hurts just killed us. 66 of his 90 yards rushing were after contact. The scheme wasn’t the problem, the execution from the players was IMO.
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Right we’ve certainly seen the splash plays, but what percentage overall is that? It definitely seems to me that these athletic QBs won’t have any problem making a guy miss one-on-one in space. And it does have a domino effect on the overall defensive scheme, for sure.
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Yes - and on many plays, they overpenetrated.
Over pursue and lack discipline. And not be quick enough at the DT spot cominsky was occupying.
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Outside in rush, instead of a direct route…
it’s how he gives zero help with contain on those.
With the direct rush (instead of outside in), it may have been the coaches gambling too, and creating chaos.
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It looked to me like Philly’s tackle and guard were using out rusher’s momentum against them. The tackle was steering the outside rusher way wide while if Aiden got past the guard on the inside it was between the guard and the center. So when Hurts caused the miss, there was a wide-open running lane where our DT and end used to be. Like maybe they practice it that way. Hopefully its lesson learned game one. Just my untrained eye, going off memory. Film might prove me wrong.
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Kyler is not a rushing QB anymore, he only averaged 30 yards a game last season. I’m not sure if this is Kliff’s decision or Kyler’s but it seems like someone doesn’t want Kyler to run the ball anymore.
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Agreed, and the less he runs the worse off the Cards offense is. That’s kinda what scares me about Jackson, he may stop running running as well and become a pocket passer, yikes!
I genuinely think this was the biggest issue. If the DL would have worked more as a cohesive unit and kept contain in their respective lanes, Hurts wouldn’t have had nearly as much success.
I like and am excited about Hutch, but I have to blame a lot of Hurts’ success on him last week.
I get it. He’s a rookie, it’s his 1st game, the crowd is electric, he wants to show all of Detroit what they got in him…He came out on fire and wanted to make plays. I get it.
But, he’s got to get that out of his system and learn to play as part of a unit, especially when the Lions are facing a mobile QB. I have full confidence that he’ll get it right next time.
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I hate when I do that.
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I hope Shep reads this thread, because there is a lot of truth here. It’s not about a spy.
It’s almost as if the Lions go into a game unaware that a QB can run.
- They need to coach techniques that limit a running QB’s opportunities… then, implement a game plan that accounts for a running QB.
That clearly didn’t happen against the Eagles.
Mike Vick could not tackle Mike Vick in the open field. And that’s what a “spy” is in charge of doing. Tackling a guy in an open field situation. This is not the old days where people considered John Elway a problem with his legs. I realize “old timers” don’t want to hear this. But Elway at his best is Baker Mayfield athletically in today’s NFL.
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Get well soon.