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Defensive Schemes · NFL explained.

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: NFL Explained is a production of the NFL in partnership
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  Speaker 1: with I Heart Radio, Mike Am and a very thirsty
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  Speaker 1: Michael Robins said, it is the NFL Explained podcast. You know,
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  Speaker 1: Hey baby, how you doing me? Rob when he said thirsty,
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  Speaker 1: he wouldn't talk about my d M Okay, he was
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  Speaker 1: talking about this water right here. Okay, I gotta I
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  Speaker 1: gotta preface that the d m s are coming my way.
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  Speaker 1: And we keep getting some of those questions. By the way,
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  Speaker 1: we got a mailbag episode right around the corner. Keep
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  Speaker 1: them coming. I got another one right before. Did you
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  Speaker 1: check your cell phone? Because that's so right before I
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: was having lunch. I came downstairs, I checked, and I
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: got another question and I put it on our text threat.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: I needed a double tapped out before we finished up
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: this episode. And I know what you're thinking, all right, like,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: are we talking about hydration for players? Is that today's edition?
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  Speaker 1: It is really important? Did I just come up with
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: a new idea first. Okay, at some point we're going
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: to talk about hydration our producers, Like, what are you doing, dude, No,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: we're not all right. We have gone through the evolution
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: of offenses. We've talked about quarterbacks and wide receivers. I've
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  Speaker 1: been saying this for a long time. Can we please
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  Speaker 1: love up the defense? Can we talk about as much,
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  Speaker 1: if not more? I'm trying to an offensive guy as
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  Speaker 1: much importance defense man, just nobody we want points points,
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  Speaker 1: points points, saying a guy who was on a team
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  Speaker 1: with the Legion of Boom and we gave up like
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  Speaker 1: only thirteen points a game. So yeah, you know it's important.
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  Speaker 1: It is, I mean, is that old adage right? Like
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  Speaker 1: defense wins championships and the whole thing. By the way,
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  Speaker 1: we did do another episode of the podcast last season
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  Speaker 1: on does defense truly win championships? If you miss that one,
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  Speaker 1: highly encourage you to go back. But as we've been
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: talking about all these offenses and rob we realize, like, hey,
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  Speaker 1: defenses have to go and keep up with some of
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  Speaker 1: the evolution that we're seeing on that side of the football.
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  Speaker 1: So for today's episode, we're talking about defensive schemes and
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  Speaker 1: more specifically, what's effective, how teams utilize different personnel. We
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  Speaker 1: got you completely covered, but I think it's probably important
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  Speaker 1: to go through a little bit of the history defenses.
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  Speaker 1: Buddy Ryan it's a name that gets thrown out there
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  Speaker 1: a lot of times. You know, you're listen, you're watching games,
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  Speaker 1: maybe you're listening to him on the radio. Buddy Ryan
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  Speaker 1: is the guy that developed the forty six defense, which
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  Speaker 1: was used by the five Bears. Now we've got some
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  Speaker 1: younger audience, and I hate feeling like I'm old every
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  Speaker 1: single damn episode we did this podcast. Sorry, I like
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: that great hair. David Carson this to me. He's like, oh,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: it's the Wisdom Crown. You know like that, then you're
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  Speaker 1: my guy. Dude, I'm gonna use that all the time. Um,
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  Speaker 1: but I always think when I think eighty five Bears,
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  Speaker 1: I think the SNL skit Bears. You know what I'm saying.
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  Speaker 1: So go back to YouTube, you can check it out.
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  Speaker 1: I feel like you're not really buying the whole SNL thing,
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  Speaker 1: be understand, trust me. All right, So, the forty six
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  Speaker 1: defense actually utilizes eight defenders in the box, six defenders
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  Speaker 1: on the line of scrimmage, which usually doesn't allow teams
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  Speaker 1: to really run the ball effectively. There's usually some big
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  Speaker 1: bodies up front. Dick Lebou invented the zone blitz defense.
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  Speaker 1: Cannot wait to get your thoughts on that and a
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  Speaker 1: little bit more of an explanation coming up here. Tom
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  Speaker 1: Landry known for his famous flex defense. The flex defense
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  Speaker 1: confuse the offense before the snap, odds schemes, defensive lineman
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  Speaker 1: backing off the line of scrimmage, linebackers, safeties constantly moving,
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  Speaker 1: look and rob. When you were talking about quarterbacks, like,
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  Speaker 1: I think about sort of this idea of dudes moving around.
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  Speaker 1: You think it's gonna be one coverage and all of
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  Speaker 1: a sudden, due starts spreading to the other side of
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  Speaker 1: the field. You're like, what did I just see? And
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  Speaker 1: that's why I love working with guys like you, Mike,
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  Speaker 1: because like, I'll never know as much football as you've forgotten.
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  Speaker 1: And I think it's always my job to try to
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  Speaker 1: bring out the stuff that people don't always understand. But
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  Speaker 1: yet we hear the verbics. You're watching games, people talking
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  Speaker 1: about cover two, cover three, They're like, what am I
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  Speaker 1: looking at? I got you, I got all of you guys.
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  Speaker 1: But let's talk a little bit about some of those
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  Speaker 1: basic defensive principles that you just brought up. Sometimes even
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  Speaker 1: here phrases like Nickel, dime, man a man coverage, you know,
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  Speaker 1: blitzing all that stuff. Teams generally will run either a
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  Speaker 1: four three which is four down linemen and three linebackers,
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  Speaker 1: or a three four defense, which is three down linemen
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  Speaker 1: and four linebackers. In recent years, like basically that alignment
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  Speaker 1: at four three or that three four has been described
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  Speaker 1: as a base defense. So can you how about we
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  Speaker 1: start there? Can you just kind of break down four
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  Speaker 1: three three four and and that base defense. Well, first
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  Speaker 1: of all, I want to our listeners in our viewers,
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  Speaker 1: yeah we all YouTube to guys. Yeah, I want everybody
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  Speaker 1: to understand that there's a difference between nickel and dime.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: I should have put makeup on before we got here,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: because it's all good. We look good. We are we
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  Speaker 1: aren't to Mike's okay, we look good. We don't need
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  Speaker 1: no damn makeup. All right, we gotta understand the difference
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  Speaker 1: between Nickel and dime. Like like those are like coverage personnels.
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  Speaker 1: They aren't coverage calls. They aren't the call calls for
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  Speaker 1: the entire defense. Those are the coverage personnels. Those are
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  Speaker 1: the back end packages that match up with the front seven.
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  Speaker 1: The front seven is your base defense four three or
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  Speaker 1: three four and a four three Right, Oftentimes, you're gonna
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  Speaker 1: have a shade on one side of the center, which
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  Speaker 1: we oftentimes call a one technique. Right, that's a shade.
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  Speaker 1: And then you're gonna have on either guard, not both,
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  Speaker 1: but one of the other on either guard. You're gonna
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  Speaker 1: have a shade on that particular player too. That is
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  Speaker 1: what we call a three technique. And the crazy part
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  Speaker 1: of body is Mike. When you have a shade and
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  Speaker 1: a three technique, the offensive personnel will identify that is
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  Speaker 1: a four down three linebacker type of structure shore four
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  Speaker 1: three structure, meaning you got four linemen, defensive lineman, three
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  Speaker 1: linebackers in the blocking unit. In base offense, if I
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  Speaker 1: have two backs right, five offensive linemen for defensive lineman,
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  Speaker 1: my center can block one way and handle an extra ender,
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  Speaker 1: and our our running backs. One of my running backs
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  Speaker 1: can block another way and handle an extra defender. So
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  Speaker 1: if I keep one back in with my five offensive linement,
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  Speaker 1: I have the ability to block six players. At another back,
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  Speaker 1: I have the ability to block seven at a tight end,
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  Speaker 1: I have the ability to block eight. Okay, so that's
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  Speaker 1: the base for three defense. Now what I hated going
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  Speaker 1: against was a base three four defense. Okay, you know
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  Speaker 1: what I just talked about. I said, the identifying aspect
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  Speaker 1: of a four three base defense is a shade on
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  Speaker 1: the center and one of the guards having a three technique. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: in a base three four you have a head up
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  Speaker 1: guy or a zero technique on the center. So in
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  Speaker 1: slide protections, which all most protections are slab protections where
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  Speaker 1: the center has to slide to help one side of
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  Speaker 1: the offensive line of the other, that zero technique prevents
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  Speaker 1: the slide, which is very important because you lose a
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  Speaker 1: blocker from either way. You got a guy head up
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  Speaker 1: with pressure on the ball, snapping to the quarterback. Now, guys,
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  Speaker 1: zero technique over the center. Okay, Now you have to
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  Speaker 1: guard bubbles. There's nobody over your guards, and a basic
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  Speaker 1: three four defensive structure that you have to guard bubbles.
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  Speaker 1: And then what we have our four eyes. Right, these
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  Speaker 1: are two defensive ends which a inside shade on the
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  Speaker 1: tackle that's called a four eye. An outside shade of
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  Speaker 1: the guard is a three eye, and inside shade of
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  Speaker 1: the tackle is a four eye and when I say shade,
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  Speaker 1: that just means a tilt or a um just kind
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  Speaker 1: of over alignment over a little bit on that side
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  Speaker 1: of the player. So for me, when you have those
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  Speaker 1: two guard bubbles, to me, that's when all the funky
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  Speaker 1: stuff starts to happen, because see, like I don't know,
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  Speaker 1: I'm getting a little technical, but that four eye and
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  Speaker 1: that three technique literally the difference is about six inches.
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  Speaker 1: And in the backfield, sometimes your ask and get a
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  Speaker 1: little messed up. You can fall in the dirt, you
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  Speaker 1: can have a visor on, sweat can be there, and
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  Speaker 1: sometimes you look and you're like, man, I can't tell,
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  Speaker 1: well that's a three technique or four I. And so
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  Speaker 1: what you see on Sundays is constant communication in the
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  Speaker 1: blocking unit. The offensive line talking to the backs in
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  Speaker 1: the quarterback, quarterback talking to the offsive line, just so
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  Speaker 1: that everybody can be on the same page so we
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  Speaker 1: can block the same rule. Okay, So this is probably
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  Speaker 1: a really oversimplistic way of me describing it, but this
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  Speaker 1: is how I kind of always interpreted it over the years,
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  Speaker 1: because I think what you just described with the technique,
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  Speaker 1: it really is a matter of inches and how guys
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  Speaker 1: are lined up. So if I'm in that backfield and
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  Speaker 1: I'm a running back, I kind of look at it
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  Speaker 1: as a numbers game, Like if there's three down lineman, man,
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  Speaker 1: I'd rather run up against three of those dudes having
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  Speaker 1: a guard to be able to find, you know, a
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  Speaker 1: little bit more space than see four guys in a
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  Speaker 1: four three defense. But it sounds like what you're describing
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  Speaker 1: that's not always accurate. It's not always accurate. And again,
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  Speaker 1: to me, the teams that use the three four, they're
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  Speaker 1: more ready for giving an offense protection issues because they
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  Speaker 1: know that we're looking at that four ye at three
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  Speaker 1: on and we're looking to see that difference because it
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  Speaker 1: changes everything in our blocking unit. Right Again, when your
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  Speaker 1: guards are free to move as opposed to your center
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  Speaker 1: being free to move, that changes everything. And so you
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  Speaker 1: have to have special personnel. If you run a base
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  Speaker 1: three four and you have a tough run defense, you
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  Speaker 1: have to have bubble linebackers who are big enough and
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  Speaker 1: strong enough to get big offensive lineman up off of
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  Speaker 1: them and run and make the tackle. And you have
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  Speaker 1: to have a guy at the knows that that zero
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  Speaker 1: technique who can jack the center up share them and
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  Speaker 1: be a playmaker, meaning he can make tackles on his own.
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  Speaker 1: It really is wild. You know, we were talking about
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  Speaker 1: the acumen of a lot of players. Man, dude, defensive dudes.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: I don't want to upset anyone. And I haven't talked
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: to him in a while, but basically buds with an
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  Speaker 1: offensive lineman actually played for the Bills for a bunch
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: of years back in their early nineties, and I had
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: said to him like, hey, when you're offensive line, like,
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: what's what's it? Sort of like because I keep hearing
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: that all the offensive linemen are really smart dudes. He goes,
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: let me just tell you something, Mike, offensive lineman smart
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  Speaker 1: students on the football field. You know those d lineman
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: they're they're like like like hungry dogs. All they have
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  Speaker 1: to do is just go they got one issue. Just
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: figure out how to get to the quarterback. He's like,
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  Speaker 1: what we're doing in terms of protection, run scheme, all
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: that stuff? He goes, We're actually gotta think when we're
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: out there, a little bit of hate towards the is
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  Speaker 1: a lot of things. It's a lot of that going on,
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  Speaker 1: and from an offensive lineman standpoint, I mean, especially the
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  Speaker 1: center I mean, the center has to know just so
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  Speaker 1: much about the offensive blocking unit, has to know about
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  Speaker 1: routes and side adjustments just as much as the quarterbacks
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  Speaker 1: were very important. All right, Welcome back to the NFL
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Explained podcasts. Mike Yam and Rob with you. Okay, So
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: now I think the next question is how how many
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: teams are running for three? How many teams are running
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: three four? Alright, so through seven weeks of the season,
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  Speaker 1: sixteen teams we're running the three four defense. Fourteen teams
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  Speaker 1: we're running a four three, so relatively split down the middle.
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  Speaker 1: The two remaining teams are Denver in Detroit. By the way,
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: man Denver nasty defense, Detroit not so much. But those
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: two teams have actually used a mix of both. So
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: it seems to me coaching philosophy, is that the big
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  Speaker 1: reason why they're running the fourth three or three four
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: or is it personnel? Hey, these are the dudes that
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: can do X, Y and Z, and that's what we're
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: gonna run. I think it's a little bit of both.
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: I'll use an example. You remember when the Dallas Cowboys
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: they had Rod Marinellia for a while and then they
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: made the switch and picked up Mike Nolan, who Mike
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Nolan is a three four guy. He's a three four
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: base guy. That's what he loves to do. He was
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: my head coach with the San Francisco for the Niners.
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  Speaker 1: Mike Nolan is a base three four guy. And then
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: you looked at the Dallas Cowboys defense that year and
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: they couldn't stop a nose. Believe that. Yeah, we were
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: talking about just how historically bad the Dallas Cowboys defense was.
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  Speaker 1: They made pretty much one switch the following year. They
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  Speaker 1: hired Dan Quinn who was a four three guy. It
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: matched their personnel, and then all of a sudden they
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: were leading the league and takeaways and now and this
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: year they're also doing well on defense, and so yeah,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: I think it's a little bit of both. I think
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: coaching styles and coaching philosophy is forced to change. But
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: the constant trait of a great coach is taking what
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: you have and being able to coach what you have
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: and putting your guys in the best position to succeed.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: That is why Pete Carroll was all about the three
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: deep defense. Back when we went on Super Bowl with
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: the Legion of Boom. It was like, let's run one
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: simple defense. We have the perfect personnel for it. These
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: are the only two routes that couldn't beat us. So
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: on every place, we're only looking for these two routes.
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  Speaker 1: Everything else the defense takes care of, and I think
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: from a defensive standpoint, our guys took ownership of it. Okay,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: So we touched a little bit on four, three or
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: three for those base defenses. You brought up two coverage packages, right,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: like dime, nickel and all that stuff. So we hear
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: that a lot of times. And then I started thinking
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: about my day is covering in college football and different
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: imans that you're seeing there. We've talked about this on
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: the offensive side. Sometimes what we see in the NFL,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: it comes from college coaches, right, and college coaches got
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: it from high school coaches. Like it's really weird. It's
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: not NFL down, it's sometimes bottom up what we see
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: in the league. Most common defensive personnel through seven weeks
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: of the two season is nickel, which is five defensive
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: backs on the field. That's you sixty two point four
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  Speaker 1: percent of the plays. According to Next Gen Stats based
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: personnel which includes four defensive backs has been used twenty
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: six point three percent of the defensive place, so just
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: behind that nickel package and then dime personnel. This kind
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: of surprised me a little bit because we talked about
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: the evolution of offenses and how many offenses now are
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: so pass heavy. So dime personnel is six defensive backs.
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: I thought the numbers would have been slightly higher, but
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: that's been used nine point six percent of place, so
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: it's the third no I would know. I wouldn't have
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: thought it would be higher, just because, yeahs like, there's
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: still a physical part to football and you can't put
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: too many defensive backs out there. With the evolution of
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: our quarterbacks being able to run the football met Josh
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: Allen is the backup running back for the buffer It
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. Um Lamar Jackson is the lead
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: running back for the Baltimore Ravens, and so there's still
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: an element where you have to have some size on
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: the field. And I think what we're in the middle
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: of scene is our defenders bodies starting to change, right.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: We saw it with the outside linebacker with Lawrence Taylor,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: with some of the defensive schemes were just finished seeing
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: it with the tight end or eight back position or
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: fullback position whatever you wanna call it, kind of evolving
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: and changing. And so yeah, I think guys like Isaiah Simmons,
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: the outside linebacker slash defensive back slash Russia slash defensive
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: weapon that the Arizona Cardinals half, I think he's going
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: to be more of the norm going forward in the
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: national football Would you throw out a name like Mikael
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: Parsons as well? Because defensive chess piece, he can play
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: multiple spots. Again, it's like the Queen, Yes, like the
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: queen in chess. So like, if I'm always take myself
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: back to when I'm in the blocking unit, I am
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: a running back sitting back there looking at a defense.
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: How do we identify guys? Because it's all about identifying guys.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: And when you see Michael Parsons, it's one of those
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: you're telling you're tackling your guard and you said, hey, guys,
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: he's a big Okay, I ain't blocking him. You guys
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: get paid to block that guy. And then Dan Quinn
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: because Michael Parsons is so dominant, that's a chess piece.
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: You can put him in certain spots that force an
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: offense to have to react to him. It's a pretty
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: neat deal. All right, so you just told a little
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: bit of a story. And over the weekend I was
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: working with m j D who told the similar story
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: from his rookie season and he goes, Byron Leftwich is
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: our quarterback. He goes, man, it's like the first couple
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: of weeks and they're telling me there's like they're gonna
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: build in this this pass pro for me where I
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: gotta go and like, I forget who the player was,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: but it was like a monster. Maybe it was de
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Marcus Ware it might have been de Marcus where And
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: he goes, man, you got I'm getting paid like three
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: K right like that dude, No, like that ain't happening.
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: And he's like I started. MGD goes, I'm starting to
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: get anxiety about it because I go these dudes are
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: gonna run this stuff like and I can't do I'm
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: not gonna do it. So they go out there. Game
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: day comes and he's like, dude, where it blows right
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: past me left? Which gets blown off. Yeah, and he goes,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: I got reamed out, but I said, you know, what
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: would you expect exactly? He goes and once again that
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: dude was making it however many million. He goes I'm
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: making three hundred thousand dollars, he goes, man, I'm running coaches,
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: good point, my favorite next time, let's just let's not
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: vocalize that. But I mean he's right. I mean I
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: remember having arguments. We guy's never gonna be wrong. I
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: played fullback when I got to Seattle. But myself and
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: our left tackle Russell Okung playing up against um we
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: call him cowboy. But Justin Smith for the sempstoo for
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: it and not is an auton Smith. I mean, when
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: if Justin iNTS down to a three technique, then Russell
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Kong has to block out in Smith. If he stays
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: at a four, then aut in Smith's mind. And I'm
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: sitting here like, bro, you get paid all this money, Yeah,
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: you better block out of Smith. Man is due to
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: ten time longer than I. No way. But you know
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: I had to do my thing from so that that
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: little saying business decisions, all right. So I know we
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: were talking a little bit about some of these dbs
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: as well. So if you notice with Diamer Nickel packages,
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: there are a lot of dbs on the field, which means,
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: to your point, a little less linebackers out there as
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: offenses have evolved being run first to pass first. Defensive Actually,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: they've adjusted from Buddy Ryan's eight man in the box
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: defenses to Leslie Frazier's almost exclusive nickel personnel usage. Linebacker
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: usaid check this out has actually gone down in recent
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: years in favor of more defensive backs who are better
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: are in coverage. Fifteen years ago, two thousand seven NFL
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: teams used three or more linebackers on just over seventy
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: one percent of the plays. In the first seven weeks
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: of two, NFL teams used three or more linebackers on
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: six percent of the place. So in fifteen years talking
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: about a seven percent dropped. Many NFL teams today they're
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: looking for those versatile dudes that are out there. We
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: just talked about, right, Michael Parsons one of those guys
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: that we brought up. It's just it's sort of fascinating
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: to see and feel and watch when you're watching some
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: of these games, just what these dudes actually look like.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: There's actually a pretty wide variance and blitzing across the league.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: Last season, the Dolphins dialed up pressure on almost of snaps,
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: where the Raiders only did it on fourteen percent of snaps.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Now the raiders actually still pretty good at get into
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: the quarterback despite not blitzing. There's a part of me
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: and says, you know, bring the heat, bringing the heat.
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: There's like that aggressive side of me, and then they
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: I go, man, I might not want to be all
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: that aggressive. Maybe it's that ben don't break once again
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: coaching philosophy, or is that based on personnelity some of
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: those decisions, Um, okay, sound like a broken record. I
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: think it's a little bit of both. I mean, because
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: it is coaching philosophy. You do have coaches out there
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: who want to force action, meaning they're gonna blitz just
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: to get you to throw the ball to a certain
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: place so that they can dictate where the ball goes
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: and then rally and make the tackle. You got some
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: coordinators like a Matt ebra Flus, who's the head coach
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: for the Chicago Bears. Now he's the guy that he's
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: gonna play zone. He's gonna bend a little bit. He's
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: gonna leave a zone open that he knows the quarterback
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: is gonna see. It's oftentimes gonna be a shorter route,
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: shorter checkdown, and he's gonna have all eleven guys rally
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: to the ball to make the tackle. That's a bend
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: but don't break type of defense. I'm like this, and
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: obviously i'm Bill's my office. I like they play nickel
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: martin any other team in the National Football League, So
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: you know, obviously I know a lot about them, but
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: the personnel has to be there as well. They have
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: a nickel back in Tehran Johnson. Okay, I think he's
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: number for This guy is amazing because again he's a
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: defensive back, but he has the heart that he has,
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: the willingness, he has the toughness to be able to
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: sit in the box, cover tight ends, share blocks from
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: tight ends, and be able to make the tackle in
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: what we call the briar patrol between the tackles. So
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: he's uniquely built to be able to do that. They
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: also understand how to play their safeties, right do you
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: have guys like Michael had and Jordan Poor. I know
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: they're banged up right now, and they have some young
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: guys that are playing there right now. Um Marlowe just
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: signed back with those guys, so I think he's gonna
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: be there for the championship run. But you gotta have this.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: I'm already already did you see that. But you know
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying, They getting ready for un UM. But
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: you gotta have the safeties to be able to identify
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: trigger and be able to go to the box when
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: they see run. It's about playing currying these quarterbacks, these
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: dynamic quarterbacks with two safeties high. We talked about Vick
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: fan deal early in the podcast, how he kind of
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: his style of defensing where you have two safeties high,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: giving the illusion of the light box, doing some games
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: in the box to be able to stop the run,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: and then having dominant players. I mean, like I tell
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: people all the time, like with the Buffalo Bills, you
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: got a vom Miller who commands a double team on
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: pass Ruch. You've gotta add Oliver who commands a double team.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: With Tim Settle who commands a double Tippy. You've got
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: all of these guys who command double teams. They're gonna win.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: It used to be the old adage. Offensive coordinators want
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: to get their guys one on one. If I can
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: get this offensive lineman one on one with this defensive lineman,
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: we should win. My guy gets paid. We should be
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: one on one. That's no longer the case anymore. These
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: defenders are just too good and that's why you're seeing
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: defenses like this work. You know, I think too. You know,
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: talk about safeties, right, like guys are really fast, you
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: know from an offensive standpoint, you know this man, like
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: nothing better, Like if you're a quarterback throwing the touch hank,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: you know, coming out of the back field, getting into
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: that end zone. I always think it's really cool when
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: there's like that safety and you know, the guys starts
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: dropping back a little bit and as soon as the
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: ball is snap, it's dead sprint to the quarterback numbers,
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: game completely untouched, just a nihilates, like in my mind,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: like that's gotta be like they're Super Bowl obviously getting
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: a pig is though. It's nice, but it's like yo, man,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: I'm bringing the heat and it's awesome. So you got
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: some aggressive that a little bit, see, I know. Yeah, yeah,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: probably was a linebacker in this form of life, you
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. Yeah, and I got I got
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: punished with the body that I have now, so we
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: are we ain't playing I'll be like the water boy,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: you know, director of player personnel on the front office, right,
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: Like that's that's more more built for that at this
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: point that may have been a lineback, but in all honesty,
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: like again, with the dynamics of these quarterbacks. Man, we
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: talked about these quarterbacks getting all the reps in high school,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: all the reps in literal lyue going to these passing camps.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: They're coming to the National Football League ready to throw
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: the football to coming to the National Football League, ready
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: to push the ball downfield. Again, I'm one of those guys.
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: I like to just look at opportunity calls. Right, If
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: I'm a defensive coordinator, if I can affect the quarterback
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: with just four or three, why would I ever send
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: extra Russians to me? That's the way to do it,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: especially with the caliber quarterback our lower leagues are given us.
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: So you're talking about personnel and what you bring to
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: the table blitzing, I just want to throw some numbers
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: towards people once again. First seven weeks of season, teams
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: have blitz on twenty seven percent of defensive plays. One
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: percent of plays are five man blitz is, six percent
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: of plays are six plus blitzers. Man, can I stop?
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: People have to understand five man blitzer is usually come
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: with zone coverage behind it because you only send in
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: one extra rusher, so you still have enough guys in coverage.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: You still have six guys in coverage where you can
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: have a three deep and three underneath where you still
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: have enough eyes to defend the other eligible receivers that
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: are out there. When you start getting into this six
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: or more rushers, now you're talking about what we call
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: zero coverage. Now we talk about listeners. When you watch
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: the game and you start seeing third and eight and
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: third and six in critical situations in the game and
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: what we call offense. Look, all you see is a
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: line of defensive backs behind everybody else that's at the
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: line of scrimmage. That's zero coverage. When you get into
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: six and more blitzers, that's zero coverage. And again that's
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: the difference. And you got some defensive coordinators who specialized
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: in the zone dogs. We you know, we talked about
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: Dick Leboll a little bit earlier, who was the inventor
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: of that. That's the guy sending five overloading one side
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: of the offense of blocking unit with pressure while dropping
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: in the zone. That's zero pressure. That's what Patrick Mahomes
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: and Josh and they like that because it's usually touchdowns
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: on the back in there. No, just just flinging it
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: and and it's you know, straight to the end zone
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: for six. Um. A little more context here on blitzing.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: I'm glad you actually stopped me. Their NFL teams, they've
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: generated pressure on quarterbacks on of non blitz plays compared
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: to thirty four percent of blitz plays that resulted in
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: quarterback pressure. So, as you can imagine, it probably does
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: pay to blitz. I got some sack rates for some people.
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna go through all of them, but I'll take,
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: for example, sack rate no blitz five point six percent,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: one blitzing nine point eight percent. Those numbers generally twenty two,
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: relatively stable. There's some upticks here and there, but generally speaking,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: the point is blitzer get to the quarterback. How much
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: pressure is there, m rob It's obvious because the quarterbacks
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: the one facing it. But what does blitzing actually due
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: to an offense? What kind of pressure does that create? Oh?
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: It creates a tremendous amount of pressure. First of all,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: when you're sending more than five, right, because again, if
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: a defense sence five defenders, generally speaking, you would think okay,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: it was my five can block there five? Now you
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: know some may lose on one on one protection, but
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: generally speaking, my five will block there five Again, when
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: you start adding more to it. As a running back, right,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: I might be a premier runner, But now my bill
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: the need to protect the quarterback and hold up and
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: pass protection and my liability and is this something that
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: I know how to do? Can I hold up without
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: holding all of those things? And when you keep running
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: backs in, when you keep tight ends in for protection,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: whether it's to help the tackle or whether it's because
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: of blitz and guys, there's only but so many routes
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: they can do after that. Like I think our listeners
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: need to truly understand when you see running backs and
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: tight ends on the outside blocking guys are being there
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: to stop the blitz or help tackles. They're only running
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: a flat route after that. So again, now you're having
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: you've got five eligible receivers. Two of the five now
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: are only relegated to flat routes. And the defense knows this.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: And so it's all about numbers and angles, and it's
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: all about out leveraging the other side defenders because they
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: don't usually defend the quarterback usually have that leverage. All right,
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: I know, We've talked about some of the base personnel
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: and what offenses are seeing depending on what's coming their
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: way with some of these blitzers. But when we come
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: back here, what defensive schemes are happening in the defensive secondary,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: we'll talk about that and what defensive using their scheme
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: to become the best in the league that's still become
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: here on the NFL Explained podcast. All right, we got
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: our mail bag episode right around the corner with love
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: for people to continue to fire off some of those questions.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: If you want to sign into the d m s,
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: keep getting them at Mike Underscore again, feel free and
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: Rob and I will take everyone through a special mail
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: bag episode right around the corner. But we've been talking
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: about defenses. The evolution of defense is what we're actually
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: seeing on that side of the field, and defenses, once again,
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: you're playing a little bit of catch up, right because
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: what they do is dictated on what the offense is doing.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: We talked a little bit about blitzing and how it
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: can wreak havoc on an offense, but what are the
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: dbs actually doing those defensive backs in defensive schemes, whether
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: it's a heavy run attack or heavy passing attack, and Rob,
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: I want you to take me through what some of
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: these defensive backs are doing. We hear terms like cover three,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: zone D, defense, man to man. How about this, how
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: about we just explain the coverage and then I'll go
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: through some of the numbers how often it's used. So
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: maybe we start cover zero alright, Cover zero, right, So
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: cover zero if you hurt me a little bit earlier,
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: I talked about if you're sending six guys or more, okay,
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: then you got man on man on the outside. You
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: got man on man all across the board. There's five
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: defensive backs. If you're sending six guys, there's only eleven
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: guys on the field. If you're sending six, you have
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: five defenders for the five eligible receivers. Right, being the
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: extra defender rushing the quarterback has to handle that, and
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: so zero coverage it just means no extra help. There's
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: man the man across the board, but the quarterback also
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: has the free defender. He has the free defender because
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: again he is the guy accounting in the number as well,
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: and the defense will always have an extra defender. Tell
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong here. Cover zero, no safeties, cover one.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: It's single high safety, cover two two safeties. Teas Is
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: that a good way of thinking of it, Well, that's
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: a group. That's a good way of thinking of it.
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: The reason why I don't say it that way because
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: there's still safeties on the field. Sure, they just they're
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: they're locked in man coverage. So I don't like to
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: say no safeties because that can kind of you know,
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: anybody listening. So we're at the safety, so they just
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: bring more corners on the field. No, the safeties are
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: still there, they're just in man where their positions. So
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: basically you're saying, based off of zero coverage, middle of
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: field is open, so to speak, and then single high
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: cover one, middle of the the field closed, but usually cover one. Again,
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: there's an extra defender either sending that extra defender or
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: that extra fenders playing what we call a rat or spy,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: or he's an extra guy in the middle of the
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: field where his other defensive backs can front or receivers too,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: which takes us to cover. How about we go cover
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: three because at that point and cover two once again,
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: two safeties up high, essentially getting half of the field
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: and that open space that covered two covered two basically
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: it's two safeties high. Both safeties have a half of
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: the field, okay, and you have five guys underneath. Okay.
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: You got your three linebackers in their hooks own coverages,
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: and then your corners they have the flats. Cover three
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: it's basically three deep, meaning there's a safety in the
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: middle field. He has the middle third, the outside corner
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: has one third, the other corner has another third okay,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: and then the underneath coverage, which usually consists of a
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: drop down safety, linebacker which is the will linebacker, the
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: mic linebacker, and the same linebacker. So three deep, four
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: cross underneath, and four Russian and again, really three deep
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: is not to give up the explosive plasure. Teams that
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: played three deep, their corners are playing looking at the
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: quarterback playing over top of the routes, knowing that they
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: have underneath coverage that's dropping to help him out. You know,
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: it's fascinating because people are listening to this podcast. You
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: used the term before he said spy, and right, I
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: haven't even heard of anyone say rat I A. Let's
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: think about it as spy. And it's funny because I'm
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: gonna ask you about cover four and I never I
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: know this sounds crazy. I don't. Maybe it's just the
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: people that I've been around. I never hear Cover four.
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: I only hear quarters, so like that's kind of how
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: I always associated with So. I mean you've been around
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: and usually in football circles, most guys are gonna say
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: quarters and quarters basically are is two safeties high. One
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: corner has a quarter of the field, one safety as
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: a quarter, the other safety as a quarter, and the
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: other corner has another quarter. Okay, and I think that's
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: three zones underneath that's focus through. That's seven plus the
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: other four. That's eleven. Okay, Yeah, with four rushers. I
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: always gotta do my math that way, man um. And
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: the special thing about cover four is your safeties are
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: reading the number two receiver. If the number two receiver blocks,
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: they are the run support. So they are the extra defenders.
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: They are the defenders that in Vic Fangio's defenses, those
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: support players gave Mike Robson problems. Yes, I've gone through
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: some of my notes here and it just dawned on me,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: like Cover six, like I've never even heard of someone
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: referencing cover no. And even there's no Cover five on
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: my list. Well, it's hard to have a Cover two
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: and a Cover three at the same damn time, you
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: know what I'm saying. But Cover six Cover six, you
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: know you can do that, right because both of those
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: coverages are middle of feel open, so you can combo
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: those coverages. So the Cover two side of things, usually
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: you put that into the boundary. Usually there's a corner
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: who's willing to tackle. Usually that's also a corner who
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: you can blitz in and be able to affect the quarterback.
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: And so it's covered two to one side where it's
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: a rolled up corner where a safety has that half
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: of the field, and then on the other side there's
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: a corner who has a quarter in the safety as
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: a quarter with again the same underneath coverage is going along.
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: That's a lot. Now, I hope people are are staying
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: with us, and there's a lot of football going on. Man,
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: we're talking. There's a lot of football. No here, here's
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: a bit of a podcast, right, or if you're scrolling
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: and watching on YouTube, you scroll back, you can do
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: little back, so you just give us a good snap
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: shot of the different coverages. I want to rows this
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: year way here in terms of what's being used most commonly,
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: Cover three, most commonly used coverage scheme through the first
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: seven weeks of the two seasons. It's about thirty five
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: percent of defensive plays. That's according to PFF. Following Cover
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: three the next most common scheme Cover one at pent
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: Cover four at thirteen percent, Cover two at thirteen percent,
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: and Cover six at eight percent. Now, according to Next
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Gen Stats, teams are using man defense on thirty one
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: percent of plays in two while using zone on sixty
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: percent of place. So the rates are basically the same
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: as twenty one featuring man seventy percent zone. You know,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: I'd be interested in seeing what that's that is from
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: the seventies because when you're talking about running backs being
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: the highlight of offenses, running games being the premier. I mean, hell,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: the wide receiver's gotten three point stance. Okay, So the
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: run game was it, and so the middle of the
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: field had to be closed to get the extra defender
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: in the box. You see what I'm saying. I believe
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: now you're seeing a lot of the zone coming up
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: now and a lot of the two safety high numbers
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: going up now because of the quality of the quarterbacks
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: were getting. That's the only way to defend these guys
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: with you there, and I think it screams to what
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: we discussed in our Evolution of Offenses podcast edition. Just
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: the game is just different than it was in the seventies. Um.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: Just one of the note by the way, on the
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: two high safety defenses, so cover two, that's actually steadily
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: increased over the past five or six years. And you're
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: kind of smiling knowing and not surprised because quarterbacks generally
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: performing a little worse against cover two this season compared
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: to what they did the prior to seasons. I don't
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: know what I would point to on that. It's this
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: so cover to pure covered two with only four rushers, okay,
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: you're dropping seven, there's more underneath defenders. Every time you
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: put an of the defender into coverage, think about the yams.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: The windows get smaller. You take a guy out of coverage,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: the windows get bigger. And so what's starting to happen
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: now is you're starting to force the quarterback to be
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: more precise. You're forcing the quarterback to be more of
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: a playmaker. You're forcing the quarterback to have more opportunities
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: for mistakes too. And so that's all because if the
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: game is played right, and defensive coordinators notice and how
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: the defense corners don't get mad at real mic rob
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: I didn't I didn't make the rules. Okay, I didn't
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: make the rules. I just played the game. Don't hate
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: the player, hate the game, you know what I'm saying.
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: But if offenses do what they're supposed to, they win
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: almost all the time. Like that's just how it is.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Like Bill, Like you hear Bill Belichick talk about defenses,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: He'll say, like, we're just gonna play right and they're
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: gonna mess up. When they mess up, we'll be in
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: the right position to take advantage of it. So yeah, man,
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: come on defense. Alright. So one other note here, because
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: I'm actually looking at some of the numbers, it's actually
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: really fascinating to me. Quarterbacks against cover t versus twenty
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: twenty one versus what we have so far in the
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: two season. Completion percentages in down to seventy percent in two.
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: The biggest difference in my mind is the because generally speaking,
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: the numbers actually are trending down, but the passing touchdowns
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: to interceptions, I mean, check this out. In touchdowns fifty
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: seven picks, thirty two touchdowns, sixty two picks it's almost
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: not fair. I'm not. I mean, I'll give the numbers
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: because you know, basically at the halfway point, but eight touchdowns,
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: twenty seven interceptions. So the point is, like the pick right, man,
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: it's it's going the wrong way for offense. It's going
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: the wrong way for offenses. And again, as much as
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: we talk about the evolutions of offenses and how you know,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: passing camps and quarterbacks are getting more reps, and well
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: obviously was doing this thing we we talked about our
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: own previous podcast. Well, these guys are running these routes,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: getst air, they're not playing like by themselves. The defenders
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: are getting these reps as well, and they're getting opportunities
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: the football a little bit more. They used to be
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: the difference you used to we always say in football,
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: the difference between a defensive back and the receiver is
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: the fact that a receiver can catch. They're the same guy.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: But what's starting to happen now with defenders, they're starting
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: to really be able to catch. I think that's why
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: we're starting to see interceptions come up. All right, So
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: defenses obviously create a ton of chaos with blitzing. We
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: love turnovers because turnovers go a long way to winning
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: the game. Positive turnover margin in a giving game give
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: you a better than seventy five percent chance of winning.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: The last five seasons, teams that have not forced to
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: turn over any giving game have lost greater than thirty
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: percent of the time in the past five seasons. So
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: I get it. Wins are always there. But m Rob,
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you, man, you see a team get a turnover,
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: you look at that sideline. Those dudes are going crazy.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: The whole game is about the ball. The whole game
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: is about the bar. Remember Mike Nolan bringing a football
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: into our team meeting room because we were sorry as
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: I'll get out in San Francisco for a little bit,
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: and we had a fumbling problem and turning the football
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: over problem, and we went around the room and we
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: all had to hold a football and we were just
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: talking about what the ball means to us, what this
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: game means to us. And he made the statement, like, guys,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: this ball is everybody's hopes and dreams. Don't use it carelessly,
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: don't handle it carelessly, and it's all about it defense.
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: If we get the ball off this offense more then
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: we give it away, we win the game that simple,
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: and so it was more of a focus about the
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: football to the point when I was in Seattle, let
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: me Pete. Pete designed the whole day around it. H
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: We call it no turnover Thursday because I'm offense, so
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: we don't turn the football over jams. But if you're
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: on the defense, you would call it turn over Thursday.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: We didn't turn the football over that much, so we
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: didn't have it. We didn't have a lot of turn
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: over Thursdays. But yeah, it's it's really all about the ball.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: It speaks to what you're saying. Because Melvin Gordon earlier
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: this season was having some fumbling issues, right whatever. The
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: numbers were like three or four fumbles in a two
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: three weeks spam and I was watching the broadcast to
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: grew up a Giants fan. Tiki Barber had some of
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: those same issues, right Yeah, and they were telling the story.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: I heard the story where t K at one point
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: that the fumbling got so bad, like he would walk
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: around the practice facility all the time with the ball,
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: like not even during like just always on him. So
• 39:16
  Speaker 1: it's that's subtle reminds mental mental every phone well I've
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: ever had in my life, yams A lot of you not.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: I thought about it ten seconds before it had stopped. Seriously,
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: I was playing the Giants. That was feeding me the ball.
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm finding I'm fitting get a touchdown in
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: New York State and Giants Stadium. And right before I
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: got it on the fourth time in a row inside
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: the two yard line, I said, Mike, just just hold
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: onto the ball. This would be really stupid if you
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: would fumble this close. You'll fallback. We don't get we
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: don't get an end zone. Dude. I took the belly,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: the ball hit my guards elbow, wasn't even a defender.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: Ball popped out. Last time I got the ball that season, Yeah,
• 39:55
  Speaker 1: and I think that was like week nine, bro. Yeah,
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: don't get me started. Bro. All right, the last question
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: I will ask you for this podcast. Last year and
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: I referenced it at the top, we did an episode
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: does defense win Championships? I ask you, my offensive fighter,
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: Does defense win championships? Um? Yes, offenses get you to
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: the show, But stopping the other team more than they
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: stop you wins the big game. I mean, that's going
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: to always be the truth in football, and it's also
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: a truth in life. I could go further. But okay,
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: I'm with you. I'm with you. I know you want
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: to talk offense and let's just throw it for more
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: points beyond the offensive. But even in boxing, what de
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: Floyd Mayweather teach us, he was all about defense of
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: the boxes ever play. I'd rather be great on both
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: sides of the ball if I had to choose. But
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: I know that's not always reality. But I'll tell you, man,
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: there is something to be said for in these critical moments,
• 40:51
  Speaker 1: can you execute at a high level. Like generally speaking,
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: maybe it comes down to one session. I'd rather be
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: the offensive team in that scenario, but I think big picture,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: in the course of a game in the postseason, You're
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: probably right, that's what I'm saying. It was in the
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: postseason for a champion in a championship, I'm rolling defense.
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: But man, man, week nine, Week ten, something like that,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: I'll no, I'm with you. Um. Look, I appreciate everyone
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: listening to this podcast, and it should be noted we dude,
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: you guys are awesome. Man. We get all these like
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: questions and d m s and feedback, and it's been
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: super gratifying to do this show next week here in
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: the States and I say in the States, because we've
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: got a lot of international d ms. In the States,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: we have Thanksgiving, and Thanksgiving comes I work because I'll
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: be in studio on Thanksgiving Day, we watch football. What
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: that means for us is there's not a brand new there. Well,
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: let me say this, there'll be a brand new episode, right,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: It'll be our mail bag episode. Keep firing off those
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: questions and we'll we'll get them all compiled for everyone.
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: We just want to have like a evolution of defense,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: like not a brand new, big picture topic. Just ask
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: those questions, man, and ask anything you know. I go there,
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: I go there anywhere. Uh. And Rob the Teacher uh
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: and and it's not just football, the life teacher as
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: well at Real Mike Rob. You can find him on
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: Twitter at Mike Underscore. Yeah, this is defensive schemes explained