I don't agree. Our defense last year was one of the worst playoff defenses ever. Some of that has to do with secondary. Some of that has to do with Billy Davis as well, as I see it.
Cardinals D. coordinator has not done a solid job. As LB coach, he may have done a great job it seems, but not as a playcaller. I don't expect that to change this year at all. Clancy Pandergast on other hand was maybe better at X's and O's, and letting him go, was a mistake. However, it's not like he was awesome either. He got ahead of himself at times (vanilla) and was too "exotic" as well.
We need to force offenses to be exotic and change stuff up. Not the other way arround. We need to be in control and I still haven't seen that for a long time. I always see a Cards defense that is adjusting to the opponent and try to slow them down but never stop them and dominate. It's very rare that we allow 10 points and less. A great defensive game for the Cards at the moment is letting 25 points in and making a good play at the end.... That's not domination..... It's escape.....
Put DRC in single coverage at LCB. Use the extra guy on more zone help other places of the field, like RCB, deep right 1/3 etc. Rush 4 lineman. I don't care if that comes from 4 man D-Line or 3 man D-Line and one LB, the difference is not significant. DD, DW, CC, Porter, that's a top 3 D-line in football, without any doubt. Even last year, without Porter, statistically our D-Line was top 3 in all of football. As a coordinator, you can't let up that many points with such a good pressure on QB's.
We have a corner that can handle 1 on 1 matchups. Do like Jets, isolate him and let the extra help come other places on the field, and let the "DRC island" be the "weak" spot in single coverage. DRC has made plenty of mistakes in our cover 3 zone assignments in reading plays, in coordinating with other players zones both in time and space. That can't continue this year. He is made to play man coverage like Revis, Nnamdi and Bailey. He is that talented. Period. And the Jets were forced to be exotic in the front 7 to apply pressure with 4 man. They could do that with the brilliant mind that Ryan is. We don't even need that. We can rush the 4 conservatively and still apply pressure, much like the Vikes.
I'm not sure that we schematically and philosophically are doing a great job on defense. We blitz too much IMO. Clancy had the reverse problem. He played vanilla too much, which is significantly worse from blitzing too much, it's a defense that is not defending anything. It's surrending to the offense while the defense is staying more on the field, getting more tired.
Calling defense can be simple, as long as you have the talent. Having 4 great lineman that apply the pressure and problems for the O-Line and QB. One great corner that can handle 1 on 1 matchups with almost anyone. And rest of the defense needs to play alot of zone and double teams; without 5th rusher and a corner on an island, there are plenty of defenders and plenty of double teams. Good fundamental tackling and intensity are important. To be more precise, it's 6 against 4 not counting the 1 on 1 corner, a with a RB most of the time used and ILB assigned, it's 5 against 3 for the rest. A good coordinator can always find a way to double all of the 3 with 5, and shutting them down (almost) no matter how they line up and run their patterns. Jets defense last year did this very well.
The most important part of playing QB is to know where and when the single coverage will end up during each play. That's where you need to deliver the football. However, with a good corner, it does not need to be a secret and something confusing to the QB's. Revis single coverage? Not a secret, rather a rule. It has to be the same with DRC. Those throws are low percentage throws and they need to be allowed, despite that the single coverage is easy to read for the QB, even from the very start of the play. The rest of defense becomes much better. A DRC throw last year was rather high percentage, but that's with him being 10 yards of his man. Most of those were quick underneath patterns. We need him im more agressive man assignments.
What i mean with all this is that we have the tools and talent on the necessary positions to have the best defense in NFL. We have a top 3 D-Line. We have a corner that potentially can be called a shut down corner if he gets the chance to show off those man to man skills. We are more talented than most of the offenses on these key positions, and the offenses should find exotic ways arround that problem. Not the other way arround.
We don't need to be exotic and fool defenses by million of looks to try to fool them where those 2 (3 with 5 man rushing) single man coverages will end up. Last year, we fooled our defense by doing this, just as much as our opponents. The more exotic you are, the harder it is to execute the plays correctly.
The more talent you have, the less you have to rely on being exotic, and perfect a much smaller playbook. I hope we will see a more old school defense, more predictable, but on other hand utilizing the talent most effectively.
With Hayes out and Dansby gone, it's also a concern how we will do against the run. Problem has always been the pass. However, if stay similar philosophically against the pass with lots of zone, even from DRC, and I assume we have taken a step backwards against the run, I'm afraid the defense will have just as many problems this year, if not more. And there is less help from offense is scoring alot of points.
I hope we see more agressive man to man and 4 man rush with all that talent and there are some promising indications that this will occur. To me, this will be the most interesting observation of game 1, wheter we will keep the same philosophy on defense. For sure, the one on offense, will change alot.
