Why can’t we stop the run?

[slanidrac16]

Serious question for the more knowledgeable people about X’s and O’s.
Why can’t we stop the run?
Is it scheme? Is it our linemen? Is it our LB’s not filling the right gap.

It appears the only way we can stop the run is by blitzing which opens up other problems?

 

[Goldfield]

Add Watt & Jordan Phillips to the Dline and it would be better. But both can’t stay healthy

 

[JeffGollin]

Most likely the problem is physical, but can be minimized thru cagey scheming. But unfortunately, this hasn't usually been succesful.

To succeed, we'll have to make both of these work PLUS contain Kupp and ( if he plays) Beckham. Tall order.

plays)

 

[reebokalone2001]

I am no football guru like Harry, but I believe it is the combination of the three. Scheme-wise, we run 3-4 which means we in general only have three linemen in the base defense plus VJ loves to run two deep safety. This scheme leaves a natural lightbox. Player-wise, our linemen are not big, heavy, and nasty enough outside Jordan Philips. Watt has the technic and instinct to counter that but he was the only one. LB-wise, Jones, and Golden have the tendency to overpursue especially Golden and that has not changed a bit since he joined the NFL. My guess is he does that to compensate for his lack of speed and burst. Our ILBs are either not instinctive enough to read the defense and find the running lane (Simmons, Reddick), or are not fast and elusive enough to avoid the block and hold the gap integrity (Hicks, Vallejo, Walker). I can count four Dline/LB players on our team that are average to above average against the run, Watt, Phillips, Kennard, and Collins. Peters is OK, but he does not have the burst anymore. Fotu showed flashes but needs to be more consistent. He does not always lower his center of gravity, but he is a beast when he does. Not sure why Lawrence has not been shining in the run game yet, had high hope on him.

 

[BullheadCardFan]

Poor tackling and poor schemes

 

[Harry]

This article may help though I’ll try to explain why this failed later

Lee: Hunting for sustainability in the Arizona Cardinals' attacking defense

The undefeated Arizona Cardinals are playing a unique style of defense under coordinator Vance Joseph in 2021, and to this point, it's clearly working.

www.pff.com

 

[Jetstream Green]

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[reebokalone2001]

This article may help though I’ll try to explain why this failed later

Lee: Hunting for sustainability in the Arizona Cardinals' attacking defense

The undefeated Arizona Cardinals are playing a unique style of defense under coordinator Vance Joseph in 2021, and to this point, it's clearly working.

www.pff.com

Thanks to Harry for sharing the article. What PFF described in our defense does not seem to fit what we have seen. PFF summarised our defenses as an attack defense, but the defense we fans saw was a conservative bend-not-break defense. PFF counted us as the 5th most blitzed defense in the league but that does not resonate with what we saw. However, this article was published on Oct 27th, a day before our Packers game and Watt was still in play. Maybe VJ adjusted the scheme and the strategy after the Watt injury. PFF showed a positive thing that fit what I saw is Collins and Kennard are both really good vs the run. They are the highest graded run-defenders (Collins 77.1 and Kennard 74.1) on the team (including Watt 62.3) and have the 2nd (24%) and 3rd highest (22%) % of plays with a positive grade trailing Watt (30%). At the same time, Simmons is atrocious against the run with a 48.9 Pff grade.

 

[THESMEL]

Packers owned it, made a template to defeat it, they were undermanned and just earned it, possessing the ball on offense and limiting our offense. We still could have won in the end, but really they knocked our whole season down, we can get back up, basically not give up the big plays and red zone, go for turnovers and allow a lot of yards between the 20s. Time of possession.

the complimentary part comes as our offense possesses the ball, we are not crapping out big plays like early in the season with hop. Still get some though, and opposing defenses stay disciplined to containing km and Big plays, accept our token run effort As our backs and oline pass defend.

special teams give me hope, I mean without our field goal specialist, it stopped our accumulation of points, basically cowboys game shows 5 field goals, bests 2 touchdowns in most scenarios, bit curious if the going on 4th down trend continues in the playoffs? Seems to have cost jobs on Monday, analytic should not always trump football fundamentals, I mean there is a reason why old school coaches win consistently.

 

[HairZach]

It seems in games where we can stop the run we are playing a safety close to the line and in games where we can't we are playing 2 deep safeties. We saw both looks from the defense during the Seahawks game. It makes sense to me that Vance likes playing the safeties deep since our cornerback room was suspect even before the injuries.

 

[reebokalone2001]

It seems in games where we can stop the run we are playing a safety close to the line and in games where we can't we are playing 2 deep safeties. We saw both looks from the defense during the Seahawks game. It makes sense to me that Vance likes playing the safeties deep since our cornerback room was suspect even before the injuries.

I agree with you, Vance changed things up as the season proceeds. Per the PFF article Harry shared, Vance called a lot more single-high safety during the first half of the season when Watt was playing, and we were one of the most zero-blitzed teams in the league, behind Rabens and Chiefs. Vance got more conservative as the season goes, might be caused by injuries, or other teams' counter-game plans.

 

[Harry]

I posted the article precisely to show the Cards radically changed how they played defense. Reebok is right, things changed after Watt was out. I noticed there seemed to be impatience on the part of the LBs to pick a gap. The Cards OLBs tended to get caught inside, especially Golden, which made them more vulnerable to outside runs. Opposing runners were told to be patient and wait for a hole to open. Time after time the play was designed to go inside, but with ILBs caught in the inside gap (A) would open the B gap. The above observations that the line lacked an inside anchor was true as Phillips did not live up to his contract.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Thanks to Harry for sharing the article. What PFF described in our defense does not seem to fit what we have seen. PFF summarised our defenses as an attack defense, but the defense we fans saw was a conservative bend-not-break defense. PFF counted us as the 5th most blitzed defense in the league but that does not resonate with what we saw. However, this article was published on Oct 27th, a day before our Packers game and Watt was still in play. Maybe VJ adjusted the scheme and the strategy after the Watt injury. PFF showed a positive thing that fit what I saw is Collins and Kennard are both really good vs the run. They are the highest graded run-defenders (Collins 77.1 and Kennard 74.1) on the team (including Watt 62.3) and have the 2nd (24%) and 3rd highest (22%) % of plays with a positive grade trailing Watt (30%). At the same time, Simmons is atrocious against the run with a 48.9 Pff grade.

Keep in mind that article was written October 27th when just about everything was going right for the Cards.

 

[Hoodhero]

Good article about how 49ers shutdown the Rams run game last weekend

How 49ers Shut Down Rams Run Game

The key to San Francisco's playoff-clinching upset was an aggressive defensive front that stymied Sony Michel and company. Derrik Klassen shows what this means for the 49ers—and the Rams—in the playoffs.

www.footballoutsiders.com