3-4 def vs 4-3

[NAS]

It seems we’re much better at pass defense with the new 3-4 look, but very porous agains the run.   We were generally much better against the run but poor against the pass with the 4-3. 

Didn’t Ron say we would toggle between them based on opponent and situation. If so, why didn’t we do it against the 49ers? 

[jfra78]

I think it's more our personnel.  We have a lot of lighter fast guys.  

[The Lobo]

1 minute ago, jfra78 said:

I think it's more our personnel.  We have a lot of lighter fast guys.  

This. There was a great breakdown on Twitter (sorry don’t recall who posted it) saying that an offense isn’t more successful/worse against coverages or schemes, it’s all about personnel and matchups. 

[t96]

If we can’t be great at both I’d much rather be great at stopping the pass than the run in today’s NFL. But yeah the run D has been suspect in the 3-4. Personnel is definitely a factor, but from my eye test when we’ve been in 4-3 packages this season with the same personnel our run D has been better than when we’re in the 3-4. Against the Niners especially, it was all gap control and missed assignments, not really our players being small and bullied. It’s something that theoretically can be fixed, but it’s been a constant all year so Ron’s running out of time to figure it out.

[bababoey]

If you go back and watch the 49ers game, against base packages, we played 4-3 the whole game.

[LinvilleGorge]

4 hours ago, jfra78 said:

I think it's more our personnel.  We have a lot of lighter fast guys.  

This. We really don't have any prototype 3-4 DEs and only two prototype 4-3 DEs, both of whom are previous UDFAs. We have a bunch of 3-4 OLB types. We traded size/strength for speed on the edges.

[BrianS]

Honestly, given this is our first year in the new system, it hasn't been a complete disaster outside the SF game.  We have to expect this until we have time to really draft / recruit a good 3-4 roster.  We're "ok" right now, but if we continue to build the roster for a 3-4, we'll be a lot better in a couple years.