I gotta say I love this: New defensive coordinator Mike Nolan has instituted the "every ball is in play" philosophy to instill a more aggressive mentality. Nolan's approach follows the principle that dictates you practice how you want to play. Full Story: http://espn.go.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/24145/miamis-ballhawks-on-hunt-for-loose-balls
I always loved how when I watched other defenses, the players picked up ANYTHING. The refs would have to whistle at least 6 times for them to stop. With Miami, it was make the tackle or break up the pass and get back into position. I love this idea. I'm seriously loving this. For some reason, we never looked like an NFL Defense to me, hopefully we will now.
A hidden nugget about Charlie Anderson and Phil Merling: Anderson 2009: Anderson 2008: Phil Merling 2008: 09: Charlie Anderson and Phil Merling both graded out better in 09 than in 08, they both may be ascending heading into the 2010 season.
Don't know what Anderson and Merling have to with this thread, but back on topic...I love what Nolan is trying to do with the D.
I seriously have no idea how I'm supposed to read these graphs or what the numbers represent. I've seen you post them a few times now with no info as to what exactly I'm looking at.
http://www.profootballfocus.com/home.php?tab=home Those are the game by graphs of each player's game grade as compiled by ProFootballFocus, if one wants deeper analysis then simply look at the game by game performance: http://www.profootballfocus.com/by_player.php?tab=by_player&season=2009&page=4&surn=M&playerid=4346 merely scroll down to the game by game section and one can then match whether or not the player had a good game against say New England, or a bad game. You can then click on the game and a stat sheet will appear for the contest: http://www.profootballfocus.com/gst...ason=2009&wk=02&teamid=17&gameid=1426&stats=d In the upper right hand corner there is player participation stats
I'm really excited about this defense this year. I feel our defense could have done better last year if we had a better coordinator. Plus booting Wilson out the door is addition by subtraction. Also I'm liking what I am hearing about Clemons and feel he can really help the defense with the pass defense it was missing last year. Another year under Davis and Smith's belts can only be good and build with what they started last year. Now we also have Dansby to help us out in the middle, I can see this defense having a huge turn around year.
I may sound like a broken record, but our best pickup IMO this off season wasn't Dansby on defense, it was Nolan.
Can't wait to see the first INT of the year being taken back for 6 via convoy. My favorite play in football.
The trade off may be that we are penalized more often. Aggressive defenses often get penalized for pass interferences, holding, personal fouls, etc. It will come with the territory of this mentality.
By the way I hate the promise that comes with these over-generalized illustrations of various coaches' philosophies. As if Paul Pasqualoni instituted a defense of "for god's sake, don't ever catch the ball". The most overused lines of BS that any defensive coordinator can use to make his defense look better without playing a down: 1. "We're going to be a lot more aggressive." 2. "We're going to attack offenses and dictate to them instead of letting them dictate to us." 3. "We're going to create turnovers, the ball is anyone's once it is in the air." You hear these things every year, over and over and over again, until they're meaningless. Utterly, stupendously meaningless. And if you say that, then you get accused of not liking the new defensive coach.
They are magic, like rabbits. As for the over generalization, well, sort of, Omark did say 'this looks like the same scheme Pasqualoni ran except the ILB blitzes more often", to me this regime is so paranoid smiley that if Nolan was going to use exotic blitzes they wouldn't just bust them out for all the media to see.
I'd like believe Nolan is some kind of football wizard.....but he's not.He's just a guy that likes to rush the passer and that leads to big plays going both ways. And in San Fan they got sick of seeing them go the other way.He got the job their with them thinking he'd help that D..........but it fell apart and he lost his job because of it. Then in Denver he started off as a wizard but then teams figured him out, and that's why he's here. I'd like to believe he's more then what he is but the real reason he is here is because his NFL career is on life support.
Well, I don't buy into the "Savior Coordinator" as every scheme will work if there is enough talent, however Nolan's track record is solid, especially in his first season with a club. As for SF, imho that has more to do with a talented Coordinator who was over his head as a Head Coach, Cam Cameron was that to a "T". But since you brought up SF: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHoJbh08n3c"]YouTube- Mike Nolan Rap Song[/ame]
LOL Killer song. Cam Cameron was god awful as a head coach but he was just playing with Paul Pasqualoni when they faced each other and just made him look like a tool.
His time in San Fran was destroyed by the fact that his offense could never score any points. Alex Smith looked terrible there, and at best he looked Ok. Vernon Davis was either hurt or a no show during his tenure, and Gore was all they had. Ironically, the niners looked pretty good this year because those three guys all showed up and gave them chances to win games. if they had done that for nolan, he'd still be there. But nolan has no business running an offense, and unfortunately that's what hurt him. As for Denver, I'm positive that had a lot more to do with McDaniels than anybody else. Dudes a tool, and unless Tebow really shines, Im not sure he lasts too much longer in Denver. I don't think he's a savior, but the man can coach a defense. No doubt.
