Latest from JLC: The lying game

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

Looking back on previous seasons we did manage to do a good job stopping the run with the likes of Griffin, Salave'a, Wynn, Daniels, etc.

So what changed so much last year? Did these guys get old overnight and their games fell off that much?

Was the scheme to blame?

Injuries?

A combo of things?

Great question, definitely worth examining. I think:

- Joe Salave'a used to be sturdy against the run. I thought he was way underappreciated for a while. But the guy is older now and always has foot problems. His replacement was mainly Golston throughout the year, and while he's quick, he's not real big, and he got pushed around against power running games. Griffin was hurt at times throughout the year too. I remember against the Titans, we started Golston and Montgomery at DT. Travis Henry went for over 150 yards on the ground, a huge portion coming in the 4th quarter.

- Going from Wynn to Carter was a big downgrade in run support. Carter started to get a lot better, even in run support, at the end of the year, though. He had several games where he made 7, 8, 9 tackles at the end. It seems like Carter had a learning curve at the beginning. Along with his learning curve, the problem on his side was compounded by the fact that Warrick Holdman was worthless behind him. When Carter improved, the run defense improved. I do think our defensive line will be better this year, simply because Carter is better.

- We took a downgrade two years ago when we went from Pierce to Marshall in the middle. We didn't have the QB of the defense. In 2005, this was covered up by a healthy Griffin & Salave'a, and healthy Wynn & Daniels for the most part. These guys had continuity from the previous year and didn't have learning curves. They weren't the same as the 2004 defense, but they stopped the run well enough. In 2006, with Carter and Golston as newbies, we needed a QB of the defense to really help them out. We didn't have one.

- The problems in the secondary exacerbated the problem. We had to drop LBs into coverage more often than we liked. We couldn't attack the line of scrimmage. I think the LBs were on their heels quite often.