Commanders Post at The Warpath - Redskins vs Bucs Defensive Review: Tryon Something New

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Redskins vs Bucs Defensive Review: Tryon Something New

Short one this week: they didn't do much wrong.

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Why does Justin Tryon make a difference? Should he? Will it matter once we play a team with more than 2 NFL competent wide receivers?

I'll try not to bite off anymore than I can chew. Tryon may not yet even be an adequate nickelback in the NFL yet. But when he gets to play, the Redskins at least give the illusion that they have a deep, talented secondary built almost entirely through the NFL draft in the last five years, with the exception of DeAngelo Hall. And when the Redskins' secondary is working, the rest of the puzzle comes together quite nicely.

All of a sudden, the Redskins defense is no longer a bunch of underachievers. It's got Reed Doughty, who is a great fundamental tackler, Chris Horton, more effective in the box than most LBs, Kareem Moore, whose range in the deep secondary frees up LaRon Landry for some in the box play, Rogers, Hall, and Tryon.

Justin Tryon may never develop into anything more than a nickelback, and he hardly has to do so to be worth his draft position. With the first sack by a Redskins defensive back in 2009, he becomes the first Redskins cornerback to get a sack since Greg Blache became defensive coordinator.

[B]Zone coverin' Greg Blache

[/B][FONT=-editor-proxy]The Redskins are blitzing much, much less then they were last year, which was effective this week because the Redskins did not drop Brian Orakpo into coverage 80% of the time. In fact, Orakpo played more defensive line than he had at any point in the past three games. He recorded his second career sack, both coming from the down lineman position.

What's the difference? Simple really: the Redskins played less 4-3 defense when they decided in the gameplan that they were going to have to use a lot of zone underneath coverage to slow down Josh Johnson. This rose the frequency that the Redskins used their Nickel, Cobra, and Dime coverages. In every one of those schemes, Orakpo moves to the defensive line. And the Redskins are a much better defense for it.

The other thing the Redskins did with their zone coverages was that they played Kareem Moore as the free safety for his first significant playing time of the season, and let Landry play in the box. He's still a horrific tackler, that LaRon Landry, but he's a player that offenses actually have to gameplan around when he's in the box, instead of just not putting any deep post routes in the gameplan during the week.

Blache did one other thing with his zone coverage that was probably his best improvement: he stopped the stupid "two corners on the same side" in the base coverage routine, opting instead to take the strong safety and line him up over the slot receiver like a normal defensive playcaller. It's an easy way to keep an eight man near the box without having to worry about defensive ends containing on the weak side and still having to rush the passer.

I'd love to give Greg Blache credit for everything he did right this week, but the last time I did that, he went out the next week and couldn't figure out how to keep a rookie quarterback who can't throw an accurate pass from converting 3rd and 13s. So this time, I'll note the positives and bite my tongue.

[B]Defensive Hog Hits

[/B]Some notes on this shorter than expected because-I-have-nothing-to-complain-about defensive review.

[/FONT][LIST][*]Defensive line play is still night and day when Haynesworth isn't in there, but Blache has apparently figured out that the pass rushing team of Orakpo, Haynesworth, Griffin/Jarmon, and Andre Carter/Chris Wilson is his best third down team. That's probably correct.[*]Carlos Rogers seems back to his normal self in coverage, but my god man, catch the football![*]DeAngelo Hall now made it two straight weeks without a reception allowed of over 10 yards. Then again, that's against Matt Stafford and Josh Johnson.[*]Doughty over Horton is the right call. It's close, but Doughty is the better player.[*]Rocky McIntosh has been a very easy completion in the early stages of this season, but at least he's been a sure tackler.[*]The Redskins are doing a much better job covering backs this year than last. It's not going to be mentioned anywhere else, but the job that McIntosh and Fletcher and Doughty did against Cadillac Williams in the passing game probably made all the difference in the W-L column.[*]2-2, two more weeks to get things right before Philly. Time for Greg Blache to prove he's not the reincarnation of old 50-50.[/LIST]