re: 4-2-5 vs 3-4 and Stopping the Spread

quote:

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I know no one read the article, but it does explain why we did what we did

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I read the article. And many thanks for posting it.

I found it very interesting. IRL, it seems defenses are far more complicated than mere alignments.

Few other thoughts:
- Not sure why (don't think injuries tell the whole story) but our D was pretty meh most of the year but they were outstanding the last four games.

- IIRC, Queen was the odd man out and the plan was to move Divinity inside at the start of the season. In hindsight, we had already decided to replace a 1st rd pick with an UDFA.
LINK

- I think it's really hard to 'engineer' a defense that can match up against all the exotic offenses it will see across a season. "bad games" are gonna happen.

- Almost every DC has weaknesses and will eventually accrue lots of bones in their closet. And I also think it's flawed to cherry pick their worst moments as if that defines them.

- Every DC has some minimum talent threshold to make their scheme work.

- Although Saban/Bama have had a decided talent advantage in almost every game, any team with above average talent and a competent scheme on offense has good success against them. I think it was Gary Danielson about 4-5 yrs ago that compiled a series of quotes by Saban on 'how to defend the spread.' It was funny. Nick was all over the place with his "keys." For all the success and talent, he really does not know how to defend modern offenses.