General Observation About Defense from MNF

How many watched the Monday night game last night?

Now that was some smart defensive strategy with how Atlanta would not show their hand and rolled coverages all over the place to confuse the great Peyton Manning.
Instead of just lining up and telling your guys to execute while Manning reads everything and adjusts they gave them a chance in the chess match. It was exciting to watch and it worked...at least to a great extent in the beginning. Not sure if they kept it up or not cuz as that game got out of hand I found myself switching to other stuff and not watching as analytically when I did flip back.
Showed a willingness to adapt that I think many of us have been wanting to see with the Steelers.
I doubt Decker had the same post game comments about the defense he saw last night.

 

I live in Atlanta and listening to the radio this morning they talked about how the Falcons watched the tape agaisnt us and said well he can still eat you up underneath, but no one has forced him to throw deep. Let's force Peyton to throw deep and see what happens.

 

You know, I thought this was what we used to do. At least on certain occasions (playing the Pats, as I recall). For some reason, never did it against everyone, though.

 

atlanta had a nice gameplan.....denver looked more like who we thought they were

 

The NE game last year definitely had a different and very tailored Defensive game plan. The pressed and played man coverage if I recall.
In recent years I remember them doing a lot of standing around and trying to blur the reads by not having anyone with their hand in the dirt. I don't recall that being part of the NE game, but perhaps.

We always hear how Rookies don't play 1st year because the defense is so complex to learn, but then as spectators we don't seem to see much of anything complex or different...then other teams state the same. So which is it? What is so different that it takes players longer (if they ever get it) to get it? Are the assignments really that different than what most are used to?

 

I was going to post the same topic the Falcons had a good gameplan on defense, the Steelers not so much. That's 2 games in a row LeBeau had a bad gameplan against the Broncos which resulted in losses.

 

I know he ate us up but all his passes wobbled in the air...not convinced he's right

 

Got to wonder if he has some nerve issues/damage in neck.

His passes did get tighter last night as the game went on.

 

we kept bringing troy up to the line, that should have allowed him to attempt deep passes against us. maybe that was what DLB was trying to do, but having troy up at the line forces him to have to throw short because of his pass rush. well that and you have to be able to stop the short stuff to make him throw long.

one thing with peyton you have to remember, he's got all this stuff in his head. they had only put in so much offense before we played them the first game. as they keep dumping more on these players around him, there is going to be a little getting used to. peytons mind reminds me of a guys head thats like a super computer, it took years before they all meshed in indy. you could also tell when one of his regulars were out injured, the next guy up haden't had a gazillion reps with peyton and it showed. these receivers and backs are not on that level yet with peyton. they will struggle at times this year. peyton gets excited at times and forces things to where they should be, but not everyone is that precise.

 

It all goes back to getting pressure on the QB.Even the best of them will
make mistakes.