I Don’t Want to Hear About Dom Capers’ Defense being too Complicated
Dom Capers
The debate about whether Packers defensive coordinator Dom Capers should be fired has been swirling for over two seasons and won’t go away until Capers himself goes away or the Packers defense improves.
Now, another narrative has emerged to push back against those who want Capers canned: Dom’s defense is just too complicated for young players to understand.
Capers’ defense might very well be complicated — maybe even too complicated for young players to fully grasp. If that is, indeed, the case, then it’s yet another reason why Capers should be fired, not an excuse to keep him around and forgive the Packers defensive shortcomings.
If Capers’ defense is too complicated, then he needs to make the appropriate adjustments and simplify things as necessary to help his young, injury-ravaged defense. We’ve seen the same mistakes occur over and over again in the Packers secondary under Capers watch: big passing plays downfield as two Packers defensive backs point at each other and argue about who was supposed to be where.
I understand that you can’t just overhaul and make drastic changes to a defense on the fly, but the same breakdowns have been happening for a long time now. There has been plenty of time to make adjustments to try and cover some of the Packers inexperience. Instead, it seems like Capers tried to fit the square peg of his young players into the round of hole of his complicated scheme.
The issue of Capers’ defense being too complicated for young players also raises questions about his fit for the Packers. If Capers’ defense requires veterans to grasp and execute it, then why is he the defensive coordinator on a team that doesn’t sign veteran free agents and relies heavily on rookies every season, some of which aren’t even drafted?
I’m non entirely on the fire Capers bandwagon. I agree that the Packers problems on defense go beyond the coordinator. But the new talking point about the Packers defense being too young to understand Capers’ scheme is maddening.
If Capers’ players on defense just aren’t getting the scheme, he needs to make adjustments. Youth is not a valid excuse for the underperformance of Capers’ defense the last three seasons.
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The inherent contradiction between the Packers organizational philosophy of “draft and develop” and Capers scheme that skews to vets is reason enough to fire Capers all by itself.
Today’s NFL requires a scheme that can assimilate rookies reasonably quickly. At the very least to cover injuries to projected veteran starters. That is especially true of the Packers, who generally follow the rule that all things being equal, a younger guy is preferable to an older guy.
Been saying it for weeks. If your going to fire Capers the reason is that his defensive philosophy of relying on experienced vets doesn’t work w/ the Packers draft and develop model. If Capers stays then he needs to simplify the D so rookies and other inexperienced players can execute and succeed in it.
That the philosophies don’t align is evident. If us idiots here can see it, one can only hope folks within the organization aren’t so obtuse it escapes them.
TT has responsibility for all football operations. DC has the defensive unit. I can’t see Capers pulling a junta and TT being shown the door as part of a fix. Packers D&D model is here to stay as long as TT sits in the big chair, so as they say, ‘somethings gotta give’.
I don’t think TT pulls the rug out from under MM’s feet and makes a move on Capers unilaterally, but I would submit that Teddy might be strongly suggesting it’s time for MM to ‘go all Bob Sanders’ on Capers.
Sanders and his crew got the ax after the D gave up 291 and 380 points in his last two seasons. The 2012 and 2013 Packers D? 336 and 428 points.
Isn’t Dom’s contract up for renewal? Packers could always “step away” without actively canning him…
Pitts makes it work. They too are a draft and develop team who rarely signs FA. A lot of the problems had to do w/ losing a lot of players in really quick succession. Including a few that were playmakers. Jenkins became a high priced FA, Collins to career ending injury, Bishop to basically a career ending injury, Jolly to drugs, and Woodson to age/salary. If we were able to replace those players gradually instead of all at once the Defense wouldn’t be in the predicament it is now.
I’m sure the HC and GM realize that as well.
Interesting take on the twist from “too complicated” to meaning “skews to vets”.
Good article, Adam. Would’ve been better had you posted wonderlic scores for all of the defensive players listed for the year. Quantification type of thing….maybe.
So, dumbing down a defense is the way to success? There has to be a reason to justify the pitchforks. This is the latest one. It’s one of the most laughable.
Young, inexperienced players get confused? Shocking. Sometimes experienced ones do to, like Bush cutting inside instead of outside.
They came within a hair’s breadth of upsetting the 49ers with safeties who suck and a UDFA on a bad leg trying to chase down Kaepernick. Does anyone remember the start of the season, before AR went down and the D got gassed every game because the O couldn’t stay on the field for more than 3 downs? Nevermind all that. Find a reason to fire Capers.
By the way, how do you internet sleuths know that Capers hasn’t made adjustments? Do you have a plant inside the locker room and a tap on Capers’ communications setup? And did anyone notice that two impact playmakers were out and the Packers got down to one OLB at one point? Even a horse could see that.
One year of bad football is a fluke, two years of bad football is a problem next year is 3 years if the packers have a bad defense for the third year he has to go so I guess that would put him on notice. Injured players are a part of the equation, that’s why you develop back ups not to just come in and play poorly. If The organization can’t do that they need to be removed no matter who it is or for what reason.
Sure, absolutely. Keep things simple. And do the simple things well. It would be a big step in the right direction for this team.
My view of the Packers defense is that they don’t do enough of the simple things well to succeed. And nothing else really matters until they get the simple things right.
They don’t tackle well.
They don’t contain the outside in the run game well.
They don’t consistently make sure every guy in the pass pattern is covered.
All have been ongoing issues for much of the duration for Capers in GB. The players have come and gone. The coaches have not.
They can try to turn over 3/4 of their defense….again. That seems like trying the same thing and expecting different results since this is about the 3rd or 4th time they’ve needed an offseason defensive makeover under Capers. Or they can try attacking the problem from a different direction…that maybe the system and the coaches are a bigger issue than the players.
I don’t know if Capers spends too much time teaching advanced concepts before getting the little ones right. I don’t know how much time he’s spent on the little things. I do know I’ve been seeing the same ongoing issues for years now. And I know I’ve become pessimistic that anything will change until the defensive approach changes.
Hank, I think you hit on something important, here. Something we see in all areas of teaching: fundamentals. It’s much easier as a teacher (and presumably as a coach) to assume that your students come to you trained in fundamentals.
How often, when you watch a team that plays good solid defense or has a very efficient offense, do you hear an analyst (or groups of analysts) say: that’s a sound, fundamental football team? When was the last time we heard that applied to the Packers? Even to their offense?
There’s no glamor or cache in teaching fundamentals…but there are wins in it.
Hank has suggested in the past of switching to a 4-3 defense with Matthews in the Middle. Personally I think that’s a great idea. Matthews would be more effective because he’s the one LB the Packers have that can move sideline to sideline, tackle, cover, and he could still blitz. A bright D-Cord would find ways to make him successful. Could Jones, Lattimore, Hawk, Palmer, and Barrington fill in the other spots is another question.
The debate to Hanks suggestion is that it requires a complete overhaul. I don’t think it would require as much of a overhaul as people think. Daniels, Datone Jones, Worthy, Boyd, and Perry would all be just fine in a 4-3. Hell Perry may turn into the player they thought he was at USC as a DE.
Something has to be done, maybe a healthy D will be the difference. I’m just tired of watching the Packers seem helpless to stop someone when they have to.
In reality, teams play so many sub packages and so little base defense anymore that it makes me wonder whether the 3-4 vs. 4-3 thing should be an issue at all with personnel.
Good point, and I think Capers is here to stay, at least through next year. How about adding just a Safety, and maybe a ILB in FA. Lots to pick from that would be cost effective and upgrades. Maybe that’s what Rodgers was referring to when he said there would be changes this offseason.
Draft a LB, sign an experienced S (if you can find one). I think a rookie LB could get you by, but you’d want an experienced S to both upgrade your personnel and quarterback your D.
The Packers play nickel/dime almost 70% of the time. WHen they do they are in essence a 43 D, w/ 2 DT and Matthews and Perry as standup DE’s.
Good article Adam, although it makes the case for why we should be hearing more about it, and why we should fire DC, This been happening time and time again.
I don’t know anything about this – Only thing I have to offer is that the defense has worked well before, in spite of injuries. Take 2010, they had a pile of defensive injuries that year as I recall, but the D got better down the stretch when the fill -ins were put in. They have had lots of injuries and turn overs. Did they simplify things appropriately then? Forgetting to dumb things down a little for the replacement is a lesson we seem to have to re-learn both on offense and defense.
What do I know? Maybe the problem is the weak link(s) being at the key leadership or play calling positions. Or just lack of leadership. Maybe other teams just have figured the packers out.
Hope they make an honest assessment of this, and make some moves. The bad news for Dom Capers is just about any scenario – scheme, inability to adjust, coaching, not designing to the talent they have… other than just chalking it up to injury looks bad for him.
>Maybe other teams just have figured the packers out.
That was last year’s reason to fire Capers. This year it’s that his D is too complex.
The defense has been bad long enough. If DC is doing a bad job, or if TT isn’t and won’t be giving DC the players he needs to get the job done, then, it’s time to cut bait. The horse is dead, stop riding it.
Forgot to say I really liked your article, Adam. 🙂
Although I have said many many times I want Capers gone. Packers have very little talent of D. Did you see the Seahawks game yesterday. Now that is a defense with talent. Some came from free agency. Did you hear that TT. Everyone can tackle, including the corners. If Packers had that D nobody could beat them!
How about dump Capers AND get some free agent talent?
All we have to do is get the Packers players to start juicing more, and they can be just like the Seahawks!
IF you want to be like the sea chickens your going to have to find owners that get upset when the team goes 8 and 8. Your going to have to find a Head Coach that has some you know what’s and is willing to do whatever it takes to win. Your going to have to find a GM that knows he must win or loose his job. The Packers attitude has been OK, we have Rodgers now were on our way to hell with everything else.
Do we think that Seattle would be where they are with Taveras Jackson at QB? Pete Carroll was an enigmatic coach there for two years until he got Russell Wilson. Then a guy who was up and down at NYJ, NE on the NFL level suddenly becomes a 12+ win coach. I recognize it’s more than just adding that one piece, but the coincidence is hard to ignore…
It’s more than the coach with his chutzpah going on there…
It turned around when they got John Schneider. He’s done a excellent job of drafting his own talent, hitting on several picks, and signing some key FA. BUT once he has to pay Wilson, Thomas, Chancellor, and Sherman to name a few lets see what happens. Can’t keep them all as the Packers have/are finding out.
Pete Carroll wasn’t given much of an oppertunity at NE or the Jets. Are you forgetting he won how many national chasmpionships at USC? They were a perennial power. Granted Carroll is a cheater and win at all costs coach. He is a great coach however. I don’t like him but I respect what he has done.
No I live in Los Angeles and agree he’s a excellent coach. I also agree he’d do anything he could to win a game, including having his players juice. But I think Scheider has done a excellent job drafting, especially in the mid rounds. Sherman and Chancellor we’re later round picks. C.J. Wright was a 3rd rounder I think. With that said, no one saw Russell Wilson coming, at least this quickly and neither did the Seahawks. Just ask Matt Flynn the $10 million man.
Someone asked Barry Alvarez who Russel Wilson reminded him of during his last year at Wisconsin. Alvarez replied Drew Brees…apparently not enough people believed but now he may be better suited to today’s game than Brees because of his athletic ability.
You think the front office is content with the Packers losing in the playoffs?
Talk about arrogance…
YES!
I’ve thought it, but you said it, Congrats Chad! He wins, but controversy seems to follow Pete Carroll, doesn’t it?
Would really like to see Carolina win today because I have no desire to see either San Fran or Seattle in the SB…and that’s almost exclusively a function of a strong dislike of their HC’s.
They have talent…they have “debatable training practices”…but they attack. That’s the thing I like about Seattle’s defense: they are always trying to dictate play. There’s a mindset that goes with that. An energy. That’s what I want to see with the Packers.
Yep.
Hard to play w/ that energy/aggressiveness when you have to think about where and what you should be doing. Packers were just fine on D when it had veteran experience at almost every position in ’09 and ’10.
Capers 3-4 is a read and react style as opposed to perhaps the Baltimore style of 3-4. Makes some sense since it takes veterans to be effective once they can think quickly on their feet. Hard to be an attacking defense with the read and react style.
It all comes down to money Dave. While I agree with your idea, there’s only so much money. What happens when those guys all have to be paid? In a year or two that team will most likely look completely different. Lets hope TT signs just two FA. There’s plenty of Mid-Level FA Safeties and ILB available.
The Packers need a coach, D-Cord, someone to teach them how to tackle. Everytime I watched a Seattle player make a tackle, I thought of the Packers defense and just how bad they tackle. Just this offseason MM said the defense was learning the fundamentals, tackling, stripping the ball, fundamentals. What happened? I know injuries, but this has been a long standing issue.
I think one FA signing would be enough. Get one Safety in FA that can assimilate the defense and get the coverage mistakes cleaned up and the secondary woes are a thing of the past. Get an ILB in the draft to come in and make plays. There’s a couple ILB that would be ideal in GB IMO.
I agree one good safety, a leader, haven’t really had that since Collins !
I wish I’d read this post before I posted above. I would’ve just liked this one.
I appreciate you giving me the credit for saying it first. 🙂
You can’t fire the team. MM and TT are the problem. You can see the look on 12’s face about play calling. Get rid of the laminated book and get in the missed tackle guy’s face. When Rodgers ask for Marshawn Lynch, he was right. We’d have another Lombardi trophy.
One more observation before I turn off rant mode.
Dom doesn’t teach players what angles to take when tackling or how to tackle or how to cover or what to look for against specific players. That’s why the position coaches are there.
Great, so who hires the position coaches and who is responsible for their results? If the Packers have a good defense who get the credit? The same person should answer for the failures.
Do you want to fix it or just fire somebody and believe that the problem is solved?
If you’re responsible and continue to fail to get the job done, you should be fired. ACCOUNTABILITY. MM talks the talk about it, but doesn’t seem to want to walk the walk.
You can’t build a 10 story building if you only have materials enough for 8.
Then you should redesign the building to be 8 stories, if you cannot wait to acquire more materials.
But only a 10 story building will satisfy the demands.
Maybe you dig a little more basement and rely on a deeper foundation to meet your needs…
A player that has made it to the pro level should not need to be taught how to tackle, should he?
Most college kids don’t tackle well, and absolutely not HS kids. Where do they learn? They think that if they run fast and put a shoulder into someone that they’re going to just fall down.
Given the rule-changes that are being made to protect “defenseless players”, tackling fundamentals should always be reinforced.
How do you know he doesn’t teach angles? If you have a player thinking too much he is slow to react, which then makes the angle he takes different. If the player is reacting and not thinking then he gets there quicker and the angle is right. Its just a matter of the players being able to play fast and not have to think too much. Just react…
I don’t know yet if Capers will be retained or not. The Packers may be waiting for someone from one or more of the contending playoff teams. In any case, every aspect of our defense needs to be closely scrutinized; coaching, scheme, playcalling, coverages, player performance etc… There are just too many players out of position on the edge and too many blown coverages. Maybe, it’s inexperience and complexity I don’t know but it hasn’t been effective for 3 seasons now and that’s too long. In the NFL now, your QB gets you into the playoffs and your defense (assuming that the offense does not self-destruct with turnovers and penalties) determines how far you go. Look at NYG in 2007 and 2011. Our own Packers during the 2010 SB run, the Ravens in 2012. All of these teams had strong defensive play during the playoffs while their QB and offense continued to play well. We have arguably the best group of offensive skill players in the league, especially now with Lacy. MM and staff need to figure out the defensive side, whether it’s the DC, the scheme, the players or all of the above. At this point, I don’t see how making some changes will make things any worse. Seattle, SF, Carolina and others teams have figured this out, we should be able to as well. Thanks, Since ’61
They all also had years of suckage giving them advantages in the draft. GB has made postseason 16 out of 21 seasons.
Excuses, excuses. You must love mediocrity.
You call being in the playoffs 16 of 21 years mediocrity? Every team in the NFL would call that OUTSTANDING!
With how many one & dones?
I hate comparing to the bottom. To be successful, you set your sights high.
“MM and staff need to figure out the defensive side, whether it’s the DC, the scheme, the players or all of the above. At this point, I don’t see how making some changes will make things any worse. ”
Well-stated. It doesn’t take a house-cleaning to improve the quality of your house.
Coaching is more than scheme. Capers scheme may be too complicated and if so he needs to adjust to the personnel available. Regardless,he is responsible for the defense to consistently play with passion and attitude. Too often the defense seems to lack urgency and attitude. To me the biggest indictment of Capers and the defensive coaching staff is how well they played in the second half of the Dallas game, the first half of the last Bears game and for the most part the 49ers game. Personnel was the same. Coaching has to explain the lack of similar production inn other games.
Its hard to play w/ passion and attitude when your constantly having to think where and what your supposed to be doing. It doesn’t allow you to attack as decisively or react as quickly. That all goes by the wayside when your having to think about things before you do them.
For those critical of internet sleuths speculating as to the reason their defense failed miserably time and again, you’re right, at least in my case, I don’t know the reason why. Only my simple thoughts based on limited knowledge. Maybe you are more knowledgeable as to what is happening, and I wish you could share that. The thing about football, its a year round thing, at least for me, and that enthuasism for winning turns to next year, and a desire to do what it takes to get it right. To my untrained eye, a disturbing trend is going on with the D over several years. Some (including me) live and breath green and gold, and are ready to exchange views as to why at the drop of a hat. All taken with a grain of salt. Sorry, but its in the nature of fans. Glad to hear your view.
“Never under-estimate your opponent…Expect the un-expected”!
If the schematics of the defense need to be thumbed down to a high degree to fit the mental and physical levels of the players,the phrases above will never be shouted by an opposing offense.
We are never ‘over-estimated for and certainly never un-expected’.
I agree that his complex defense doesn’t match with Green Bays draft and develop plans. He also runs a two gap 3-4 and that puts less guys attacking the QB.
#1 – TT sucks at drafting defensive talent – hence our defense has always sucked under TT – remember first defensive coaching was canned for same reason – non-performance.
#2 – DC is rigid. His scheme is sound if you have the right players for it, mentally and physically. Obviously, that Pack does not (see #1).
#3 – There is more to coaching than scheme. We seem to be an F at those things.
This, I conclude, for reasons #2 & #3, that we should get a new DC. However, reason #1 trumps all, telling me no DC will be successful under the ass-clown know as Ted Thompson.
Yesterday, while watching THE BEAST-MODE run behind Gaicomini I couldn’t help but think:
Rather than trade a #3 pick for M Lynch and get and OL coach that could develop Giacomini and use the pick we spent on Bulaga for Dez Bryant or Demarius Thomas the ass-clown did the following:
drafted Alex Green (bust)
cut Giacomini
drafted Bulaga (oft-injured OK OL)
vs
Marshawn Lynch
Giacomini
Bryant/Thomas
one scenario (that of the ass-clown) nets an oft injured OL.
the other scenario nets a HOF RB, a super bowl bound starting RT and one of the top 5 WRS in the game today (size, speed and hands).
Bob McGinn gave the Pack some much deserved criticism today (though he deserves even more for saying it would be next man up if #12 went down to injury) but even he still clings to the false notion that drafting is a strength of Ted Thompson. It simply isn’t. Every team experiences injuries. Pats had 17 on IR including at least three super-stars. As McGinn quoted one scout, a franchise QB is worth 8 wins all by himself. What was the Pack this year? 8-7-1 or 8-8-1 counting the playoffs. Heck, I like our offense. OL is OK (depth should return in 2014) and our skill positions are very good to great with exception we need a 1st class TE and a HR threat at WR. But on defense, oh God, where to begin?! And the ass-clown wants to give Raji $8MM to stay?! Shields and Matthews are the only two defensive players we have that are quality starters. The rest are either:(1) just guys; (2) misplaced position-wise; or, (3) don’t belong on an NFL roster. And we have a tendency to over-pay for non-production!
Had GB not lucked out on the AROD pick, this pack of ass-clowns would have been swept out of GB long ago. GB will never catch lightning in a bottle again with this pack of ass-clowns and make a SB with them. It is maddening to me that all you are tearing the walls down and demanding change from Mark Murphy. Is it really going to take you another 5 years of failure to figure it out?
Hell, I’d take any player before Dez Bryant. If fishes were wishes and horse turds were biscuits, we’d all be rich.
Archie displaying his fetish for ass-clowns.
Here’s the thing. This isn’t a new development at all. Capers/LeBeau schemes have always relied on experience players to execute the scheme. When Capers arrived he had an experienced group on D. Collins, Woodson, Harris/Williams in the secondary. Hawk, Bishop/Barnett at ILB. OLB not so much but Matthews was a natural fit for the 34 that made the transition easier for him. DL consisted of Pickett, Jolly, Jenkins. That’s a very good experienced group of players.
After the ’09 and ’10 seasons we lost a lot of those players and playmakers quickly. Jenkins became a big time FA, Collins lost to career ending injury, Woodson to age, Harris to age/injury. Bishop lost to basically career ending injury. Jolly to drugs.
After all that there wasn’t enough experience to step into all those spots. Which has led to where the Packers are now. Ideally they would have been replacing all those players one or 2 a year, instead all of them came up at about the same time. The Defense is suffering for it now. It sucks this is happening now, but it is what it is.
Capers should dummy down the scheme to allow the young inexperienced players to assimilate more quickly. Either way the Packers have been drafting defense heavy the past couple years and should again this year. That young talent will be better next year and even better the next year. We do need one or two of them to turn into a playmakers tho.
Thompson and Capers has been
It is not too complicated for any of the offenses that we have gone against the past three years. Think of one team and one week that we have had good defense. Not one int. for a safety this year. Do you think it’s going to change? We need a new D coordinator.
More a matter of the Packers players making mistakes than it is offenses beating the scheme. Coverage mistakes and miscommunication, lack of gap disciple and containment isn’t the offense beating the D, its the D beating itself.
I’m not quite sure about Capers yet, but it seems clear to me that in general coaches aren’t held responsible here. We only rarely saw the right play-calling adjustments needed to win ball games (see Cowboys game), it can’t be that hard to have the safeties stay in their proper quadrant in a cover-2 scheme (Perry), and I don’t think anyone can say with a straight face that they’d rather have Shawn Slocum coaching their special teams. How long before we find better coaching?
The Packers disappointing defense these last few years is a great subject for discussion among fans. However, all we hear from Mike McCarthy is how “professional” he thinks the defensive coaching has been.
In order to fix a problem, one has to acknowledge there is a problem. Unfortunately, McCarthy hasn’t done that and unless we hear something different coming from him in the offseason I’m afraid we’ll once again see an underperforming defense in 2014.
“However, all we hear from Mike McCarthy is how “professional” he thinks the defensive coaching has been.”
Is this akin to going to your kid’s parent-teacher conference and the nicest thing the teacher can say is: Your kid comes to class almost every day.
Yeah, I guess it is. Although I think of it as “professional” meaning getting paid to do a job. It doesn’t necessarily mean you’re effective at doing the job, it just means you’re getting paid to do it!
I completely agree. My concern is that they don’t even realize there is a problem. I wasn’t too upset by backup QB situation this year as by cutting Harrell and Coleman it at least told me they recognized they had a problem. McCarthy has yet to publicly acknowledge the defense has been a consistent problem.
Replace Capers for what all he can do is line the players up he can’t make plays for them and this is the same defensive coordinator who we won the SUPERBOWL under because he had a team of role players and Rodgers was healthy, am I saying that Capers doesn’t deserve some of the slack no I’m not but with the talent he had a safety and injuries it’s suprising it didn’t get much worse this season Packers fan need to understand we were doomed to start the season with no solid safety and no backup who at least knew the basics if anyone needs to go it TT cheap ass!
Unfortunately, Capers’ guys don’t get lined up correctly with the proper knowledge of their assignments all too often. So he’s failing at “all he can do”. And he has been for a while now. Which follows the established pattern of his defenses getting progressively worse.
Anybody else miss Woodson. With nobody in the backfield to direct young players they fail!!!
I think not trying to get Woodson back at a smaller cap number was the biggest mistake of the last offseason. And that falls solely at TT’s feet. I get there is a cap and it must be managed primarily with Rodgers & Matthews in mind. But there was to be an eye on the entire roster and last year was among the most dead FA markets in years. If ever there was a time to look for cheap veteran help that wasn’t a big cap risk, last year was it.
Those efforts might have failed. Pride can be an issue in taking less from the same team. But they might have worked. And the Packers defense would have been much better with him in place of McJenjoson, ie McMillian/Jennings/Banjo/Richardson.
Woodson’s career is near the end.
That’s been true for 3 years, Jim. And he still would have been much better that the collection of 4 marginal NFL players (much less starters) they ran out alongside Burnett this year.
The most amazing stat of the year is that there were zero turnovers created by Packer safeties. None. All year. Do you think if Woodson was back there that would have been true? I sure don’t. Even near the end, Woodson is a savvy playmaker.
I can’t argue with you, Hank. Our safeties are embarrassing. It’s amazing that they stand out against the rest of our poor defense, but they do. Very sad.
i don’t care if capers stays or goes.
we’re not getting the job done.our defense sucks. fix it or we will all be blogging the same things next year.
enough already!!!
Our players on defense aren’t very good. As one respected Packers columnist pointed out, ‘Ask yourself how many packers would start for the 49ers defense?’ I would add the Carolina defense and the Seattle defense to that question. My answer is one, Mathews, and he can’t stay on the field.
ask yourself what you would give for seattle’s safeties. they hit, they are in the right place. they make plays. forget their excellent cover guys, just think of their safeties. wonder what their wonderlic score was. burnett’s is low and always seems to be in the wrong place, collins’ was super low and he just made plays… so what what does that mean? but when you have to teach an athlete at that level what angle to take, is trying to teach something that should come natural to any athlete.
The players we have are just too slow and too undersized. Our linemen are too short. Our safeties are too small and too slow. Our linebackers are either injured or way too slow. Our corners are short. No matter what scheme or coach you have this won’t work. TT needs to consider measurables when putting together a roster.