What defense does Clancy run?

[Crimson Warrior]

We we're awful against the pass this year.

We need better CB and FS play.

 

[CardinalChris]

Urban reported today that Whis is probably looking at other options besides Pendy. I hope it's true. I don't buy the revisionist history going on that Clancy was just doing what Green wanted. Unless everyone wants to give Green credit for the good games the defense played too.

(No takers? Yeah, that's what I thought.)

BTW---To answer the original post:

When I watched the Giants this year it was like watching our D. Their corners almost always played back and never jammed.

Of course because early on in the year the Giant corners were toasted. That's what you do when your DBs can't perform without help. You back them off, rush less to have more men in coverage and hope a 14 play drive results in a sequence that benefits you. It is the bend but don't break mentality. Either get some more talent on the back side or create one heck of a front 7 to compensate.

 

[Skkorpion]

Green told him to scale it back, as he thought he was being too aggressive. That was from Greens own mouth.

I heard that too, I think it was in one of his Monday morning media sessions. I also remember Green saying early in the year, after a loss, that we had played too much man-to-man defense and he didn't like it because we are a zone team.

I definitely want Pendergast back and I'm leery of hiring too many coaches from the same team. Diversity in experience and ideas are good things.

 

[Renz]

With Tomlin getting the Pittsburgh job, I think Pendergast is through here. I look for someone like Butler or Lebeau from the Steelers to be our new DC.

 

[MaoTosiFanClub]

With Tomlin getting the Pittsburgh job, I think Pendergast is through here. I look for someone like Butler or Lebeau from the Steelers to be our new DC.

Agreed, if Whisenhunt wanted Pendy that bad he would've hired him already. LeBeau is a proven commodity as a DC in the NFL. All Pendergast has proven is that he can contain Mike Vick and Rex Grossman.

 

[Aikdog]

Pendengrast did the best with what he had to work with. See what any DC could do with Griffin at FS, Huff at OLB, and no depth whatsoever at DE. Move Rolle over to FS, get a top 20 caliber CB in FA, and just an average OLd to put oposite Dansby and CP's defense will look 100% better next year.

 

[SuperSpck]

What I liked from what little I saw of the Steeler's D was how the SS, Polamalu was all over the field and was used in an "X" factor for the D.

One of the things I've been happy with about the Pendergast defense is that A. Wilson finally made that leap from potential to probowl that we'd been hoping for.

If LeB can use Wilson in a high amount of creative plays than I'd be very happy to see him here.

 

[CardinalChris]

Agreed, if Whisenhunt wanted Pendy that bad he would've hired him already. LeBeau is a proven commodity as a DC in the NFL. All Pendergast has proven is that he can contain Mike Vick and Rex Grossman.

Pendergast is already under contract, so there is no need to hire him. And I'd say containing Michael Vick and an at-the-time hot Rex Grossmen as a start. switching to the 3-4 (Labeau) would be very detrimental to this team for a couple of years. We definitely do not have the personnel for it and it would take some time to assemble that specific talent to an already so-so defense.

 

[CardShark]

Especially when fans complained and writers noted about Green delegating nearly everything. I don't buy for one second that Green was this lazy head coach who rarely attended meetings yet devised and forced his coaches to implement some defensive scheme.

Well maybe you've never been in a situation where you have a supervisor that outlines what he wants from you. So you do it. Yet things change, so you adapt and try to stay productive while keeping within the outline of what you were told. For awhile things work out well, but at one point they don't. Now he comes back and tells you that you went too far. He lets you know outright that if you would've stuck to his plan things would've worked out much better. Are you going to tell your supevisor that you know better and you'll do it as you see fit? Add in the fact that he's gotten rid of everyone that dares to disagree with him.

I think this was how it was with Green and Pendergast. He may not have been dictating plays throughout the game, but he stepped on the brakes when he thought Pendy was being too aggressive. As I said, that was Green who said that. Why didn't Pendy go after a limping QB? My guess is it was because Green laid down the law and he wasn't going to disobey him. I don't think it was the real Pendy we saw last year, but rather a constricted one. The first two years are more indicative of the real Clancy Pendergast. Of course that is my opinion.

The first year everyone was excited on how the defense played, especially in the red zone and with the aggressive style.
The second year Clancy had to make alot of adjustments due to all of the injuries, yet they still held their own and they remained aggressive.
The third year, when the defense struggled in the early games, Green said Pendy was too aggressive. Later he said that he wanted to get out of having more than the front four attacking the line. Without sending more, then you are going to end up giving a QB more time to carve up your defense. Send more and it's less likely that he's going to get off a deep ball. Add in the fact that you have slow corners to begin with and now you have a great shot at getting beat deep. How do the corners compensate? They play further back. The whole key to keep slow corners from being toast is to be aggressive in going after the QB. Even if you don't get a sack, you make him throw it before a deep play can develop.

I think that was Greens whole MO. He came here with a plan. The same plan he had in Minnesota. He hired coaches and said this is the outline of what I want, now implement it. He wasn't involved with every play, but if something went wrong and he had to explain it, then he would throw the coach under the bus. Usually he'd fire them. What happened after he supposedly took over playcalling in the Bears game and went conservative early in the third quarter? They lost and the next day he fired Rowen.

If it was a player, then he would bench him. It was during the first game that he benched Macklin, but after Green was hurt he didn't bring Macklin back, instead he put someone in that had no business being there. Remember the same thing happened with McCown. He wasn't putting up big numbers and everyone kept asking when we were going to see the high powered offense that we were told about. What does Green do? He replaces him the night before a game. When that backfires, Green doesn't go back to McCown, he goes to someone that has no business being on the field.

So just because Green wasn't involved with every play, don't think he didn't exercise a great deal of control in every phase. When Greens master plan didn't work like it did in Minnesota, he was clueless on adapting to something that did. It wasn't his plan, it was those running it.

 

[JeffGollin]

I think CardShark is onto something.

Modern CW is that "there will always be surprises" and plans have to be adjusted constantly to keep up with events on the ground.

It's one thing to "plan your work and work your plan." The problem is that, if you fall in love with a plan (because it worked earlier) and fail to keep it current, you'll wind up with an inventory of buggy whips in an automobile era.

DG operated like his perception of a CEO, but that model has changed also. Today's successful business leaders avoid being too aloof from where the bullets are firing.

 

[slanidrac16]

My problem with the D was that we didn't seem to "audible" out of a planned defense on any given play.
Many times I saw teams come up on us to play tight man. Leinart would Audible out of the play only to see the CB's drop back in the middle of our play change.
I don't recall seeing us do that.
One thing I know for sure. This team needs to go out and get a top flight FA CB. In addition to that I wouldn't be upset to draft the best CB in the draft at #5 if he is capable of being a return man. If the rookie was good enough to beat out Rolle, so be it.
Think of the cb's we've gone through since AW left. A great cover corner takes away half the field and usually the opposing teams biggest weopon. That makes your DC's job a whole hellava lot easier.

As far as the Pendy distractors, I just have to ask myself...did this guy just get stupid overnight? Green hung more than 1 of his assistants out to dry. Rowen was basically released after the Bears debacle. Maybe Pendy just did as he was told. I know in my line of work I'm told to do a lot of stupid things that I don't agree with. I do them because I get paid to do what he tells me to do.
One other thing. This DC issue will be cleared up very shortly. If we are going to believe in Whisenhunt, then we have to assume if he keeps Pendy then he must see enough to believe he can make it work.

 

[CardShark]

I think after the Bears game is when the front office actually determined that it was Green who was the problem. He'd always been able to pass the buck onto another coach and/or player. Rowen called a good game in the first half. In the third it suddenly changed, supposedly when Green took over playcalling. When he fired Rowen the next day , the front office spoke up and said no, he wasn't fired. Could it be that they realized where the problem laid? Could it be that is why they retained certain coaches to be evaluated by a new head coach? They must have realized what the problem was and that a coach like Pendy didn't just get stupid overnight.