CrimsonCrew wrote:SK21209 wrote:Yup, and I would be fine to see more blitzes than usual against this particular opponent.
I feel like there hasn't been a ton of discussion of Chase Young since he got here. I was not impressed his game against the Packers, he was having a lot of trouble setting the edge. With Ferrell out for the rest of the playoffs, we really need Young to step up and be a consistent 3-down guy.
Seemed like no one could set the edge against GB. Bosa was awful, too. That's not to excuse Young, but it was a team-wide problem.
I'm very interested to see the DL play this week. They tend to play pretty conservatively against mobile QBs, trying to keep them in the pocket and keep things in front of them. I think (hope?) that's why we see so many bull rushes without much in the way of counters. Goff is the antithesis of a mobile QB, so I hope we see some more aggressive rushes and maybe a little more blitzing. Rattling Goff is absolutely the key to shutting down this Detroit offense. We have to stop the run, too, or they'll just grind it out against us. But history suggests that if we hit Goff, he'll fold.
Man, I'm so down on this DL. They are over-rated and downright disappointing.
DL struggling to set edges and plug gaps up the middle is the main reason why the run defense has been struggling. A few weeks ago poor tackling on the 2nd and 3rd levels was a key ingredient to that as well. But last week, it was almost all related to DL getting outplayed. Of course you have to get past Detroit first but if the DL continues to struggle that badly to set edges and lose contain Jackson will murder the defense with his legs and Mahomes will be able to extend lots of plays and hit dudes downfield.
The pass rush has just be pitiful. Like embarassingly bad. I read that they had like 20 pressures against Love last week, which I'm not buying. I really need an explanation on what qualifies as a "pressures" because watching that game last week it sure seemed like Love barely had any heat on him the entire game. Only thing I can think of is on the select few plays where they did get some push, there must have been 3 or 4 guys in the vicinity and they all got credit for a pressure. Love had 34 pass attempts and the eye test showed that he pressured on like 7 or 8 plays tops. He was afforded quite a bit of comfort back there. Regardless not recording a single sack in 34 pass attempts (plus 5 credited runs, where probably at least 3 of those plays started as dropbacks to pass) is just dumbfounding.
Wilks isn't real big on blitzing (3rd lowest in the league at 18%) And as good as the LB's are, they aren't great pass rushers. Don't think the safeties are good blitz candidates either. Gipson has never shown much pass rushing chops and while Ryan does have some abiliity there in the past, he's old, so not a lot of burst to offer in a blitz situation. So I'm not sure what the DL and Wilks needs to do to generate more pressure, but they need to figure the heck out. As you made mention Goff struggles mightily when he's under durress, and he's historically not that difficult to rattle if you can consistently get in his face.
Whatever they do, don't dial up a blitz that will leave Ambry Thomas on an island because we all know how that would play out.
Right now it just feels like it will be easier to find live specimens of a sasquatch AND a chupacabra than it will be for the defense to get a sack.
