Dolphins coach Tony Sparano met with defensive coordinator Mike Nolan in January. And, together, they came up with a new, more creative defensive system.
"No longer is Miami steering itself toward the pure 3-4 defense of the past two seasons. And although Sparano contends last season's unit employed more than just the strict 3-4 scheme, there's a belief among the players that they're about to get far more creative. More attacking. More athletic. More diverse."
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/31/1755790/dolphins-coach-tony-sparano-met.html :chuckle:
Enjoy!
-Cobrajet
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I get the sense that Pasqualoni was not a popular guy after reading that piece.
dolfan7171 likes this. -
Great.... Channing Crowder is the player spokesperson for the new hybrid scheme. Guy is dumber than a box of rocks.
He talks about cover two over man. Has he watched film at all. The cover two has been exposed in this league. Please god don't let us run that coverage. That is worse than the quarters zone garbage. -
The performance of this D will make or break the season.
As a much despised coach once said, paraphrasing here, "history is the best indicator of the future".
Nolan's history suggests he's a gambler: big play defense that gives up big plays. I suppose we had the same thing last year without the big play defense.
The big question - will the D be more like Jimmy Johnson's or Jerry Glanville's. -
Well, one thing is for sure....there is no doubt that this is Tony Sparano's team, and he's trying to squeeze every ounce of juice out of it.
A tad OT, but here is another example of it from another article regarding Brandon Marshall.
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?slug=capress-fbn_dolphins_marshall-4091032
gunn34 likes this. -
It sounds a bit like Nick Saban's hybrid defense except he didnt blitz as much.
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Hmm, I have a different take on this.
This is not so much Sparano collaborating with Mike Nolan on a new defensive scheme, though the article suggest it, this is Sparano working with Nolan to make sure he is on the SparanoPhin Reservation so to speak.
McDaniels fired Nolan because he wanted certain things from Nolan's scheme, Sparano is trying to preempt that via working with Nolan before the Defense is even installed.
In Sparano's presser yesterday he mentioned a couple of things about Nolan:
-played against him
-liked his scheme because he found ways to outnumber blocking schemes
-"Mike has been a guy who where ever he went he was able to use what he had already there to build his defense"
As for Crowder..last yr at this time he was calling Pasqualoni a "genius"..take what he says with a grain of salt folks.gunn34, finyank13, siciliansith and 2 others like this. -
I thought last year's defense was a 3-4 version of the Wanny defenses we used to run. By that I mean there was no scheming, it relied only on individuals beating other individuals. I still remember Zach Thomas' comment at one of the pro bowl games after being told about the rules in that game that kept the defense vanilla, ie. no blitzes, etc. ZT quipped, "that's what we play in Miami every game". I complained about our vanilla schemes just about every week. That is one area where I thought the NYJ were clearly better last year. Nolan and Ryan worked together and I see some similarities in their philosophies. I'm hoping this will be the year that all the talk about having a more attacking defense actually translates to on the field results.
I think the tweaks that we'll see in this defense will reflect the fact that it has become more of a passing game. I think we're seeing the switch to smaller, quicker DTs/NTs b/c they can get pressure up the middle even though it may give up a bit against the run. I also think the pressure up the middle is far more effective than outside pressure. Last year we relied less on pass pressure from our OLBs than a true 3-4 usually does. I think that trend will continue and even accelerate. I also am not a fan of the quarters coverage we used last year. I expect that we'll see a bit more man-free this year. I heard Sparano say how Clemons had to understand his last line of defense duties after Marshall got deep on that first day of practice. To me that implies that he is going to be used as a true FS more often. I also think we may see the corners play a soft-man and a cover-2 on occasion. I don't agree that it's been exposed. I just think any coverage is easy to beat if you know it's coming. Many teams just got too predictable in their use of it so good QBs took advantage. I also wonder if we'll see the CBs blitz as much as Nolan has in the past. I don't know if we have any great CB blitzers on the team or not. Davis is such a phenomenal athlete that he might be good at it. He has always played better when he is moving towards the LOS. -
Remains to be seen with Vontae, I suspect Will Allen when covering the slot will remain a threat to blitz.rafael likes this. -
Stringer Bell likes this.
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That is why I'm hyped over Soliai's light coming on, if Starks can move back to DE, our passrush will be really effective, if Charles Grant has recovered from the injuries along with Cam Wake and Odrick, we may see the crown jewel of defensive schemes, pressure from a 4 man line with virtually any coverage package a possibility behind that passrush. -
eltos_lightfoot likes this.
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I just wanted to take a minute and thank everyone. I have never been "thanked" that many times on a thread that I have posted. I search very hard to find good articles to share and I am glad you liked this one so much.
:thanx:eltos_lightfoot, The Aqua Crush, cnc66 and 4 others like this. -
You are very welcome Cobrajet!
This article explains a great deal and lends hints to what it doesn't directly explain. No wonder they are grabbing so much defensive talent with both hands. This defense they are working on must really be something. -
I betcha what they are cooking up will be just as unique to the Defense as the Wildcat was to the Offense. I think Tony Sporano is the hardest working coach in the NFL and we should be very happy to have (and keep) him
siciliansith likes this. -
man our D this year is going to rape opposing QB's. I cant wait to see Sanchez and Brady get smacked over and over again(noone cares about edwards)
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We're all up for a good scheme ... but good talent can make any scheme work.
I didn't care much for the D-Coordinator Pasq, but he had a tough job with the players he was given. They couldn't always call & get in the right defense early in the year.
Year before last we looked alot better & went 11-5. I still don't know why we let so many decent DBs go to save a little money. I think the FO would now admit that was a mistake.
We still need talent at several positions before we will have a good D, and need some depth ... cripes we're forced to start rookies to survive. Nolan has his work cut out!! -
If the QB comes out of the huddle knowing exactly what coverage he's going to see, he knows where he's going with the ball before the ball is ever snapped.
That's really hard to defend at that point... and leaves your DBs out to dry. Vontae and Smith were definitely baptized by fire last year. Good thing is that they seemed to fight back. As Parcells has always said about rookies... "If they don't bite as puppies, they'll never bite."
Smith nipped, and Vontae chomped... hopefully they keep chewing... -
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Also, what I think Crowder meant with the Cover2 crack was that they wouldn't be playing as much man in passing downs but would employ more help over the top. Or that the Offense wouldn't be able to assume it would be man coverage in passing situations. Makes sense to me and I LOVED what Dom was doing in 06. We've got a much deeper roster now though! -
This would suggest not as much Wildcat....it is still be there, but I dont see it as much as the past 2 years...I can see the cat being a wrinkle in the offense and not a main stay as it has been the past 2 years....
remember Henning/Tony said they were desperate to do something to move the ball, I dont think that is the case anymore. -
In my mind every defense has been exposed in the NFL. You only have 11 defenders there is no magic defense that covers everything. You have to leave something undefended. Just the nature of the game. Cover 2, cover 3, quarters, all those have weaknesses. So I am not sure cover 2 is inherently worse than any other coverage call. -
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I am printing those posts out to read damn it!!!
I am not arguing that Tampa 2 doesn't have flaws or holes. My point is EVERY defense coverage has flaws and holes. So to call out Tampa 2 for it seems a bit unfair.. to Tony Dungee I guess :lol:. Cover 3 gets destroyed by 4 verticals. Cover 2 zone ( 2 deep 5 underneath) has a hole in the deep middle. Every coverage call has it's strengths and weaknesses.
Come on Killer be fair to Tony Dungee!!! :lol::lol:Killerphins likes this. -
You can run a Cover-2, the players have to perform in it first and foremost, I'd take a slow FS who can tackle, knows his assignments, and can read routes, over a wonderfully athletic FS who is marginal on the field.
That's why ancient Safeties like Harrison and Sharper managed to play at a high level into their mid 30's, they know what they are doing out on the field.
Heck, any coverage scheme will work as long as the Qb is running for their life..
In all of the years I've watched Football, the most important defensive quality isn't speed or athleticism, it is solid tackling and being in position, eliminate RAC and YAC and EVERY offense sputters.
90% of big plays involve an opportunity to tackle the offensive player that is just whiffed on.
That is what made da Gerbil such a disaster in Miami, dude couldn't tackle well..period.mbmonk likes this. -
mbmonk likes this.
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IMO the best coverage you can run is Man-Free. You can defend anything against it. You also completely take away the middle of the field passing as well as the inside run game. You force everything and you play picket(sp?) defense. If the cornerbacks play by the Divider then you don't have a lot of room for errors on offense and you have to make great throws IMO. The only downfall of it is that it doesn't really create many turnovers due to the fact that the players are not facing the ball and going downhill.
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