You know who Luke reminds me of these days?

[Jeremy Igo]

Luke reminds me of rookie Luke at WLB. Beason started at MLB for a minute Luke's rookie year. 

[Mr. Scot]

Basically a guy playing out of position.

A lot of people would agree with that.

[Jon Snow]

The entire defense looks like rookies.  Looks an awful lot like they did under Washingtons direction last season.

[WarPanthers89]

Look at the play and comments from Ray Lewis when they switched to a 3-4 and had issues at DT, same thing. I hope our next coach puts him in a much better position next year and “just doesn’t screw it up” as Rivera said 

[Khyber53]

Honestly, I think the 3-4 defense experiment was just wrong in the end.

The best player on our defense, possibly our team, was the prototype for a 4-3 MLB. Our defensive tackles were sized for a 4-3 but could not play a NT in a 3-4 and were just not up to par as tackles in a 3-4. Shaq has shown out, but honestly, I think he was also better in the 4-3.

You can certainly make a case that we have spent most of the season in the 4-3 alignment, but there's something about the build that doesn't seem to fit our personnel. Luke just hasn't been himself in this and it shows. 

We have done better in the secondary, somewhat, but I think that has a lot to do with experience and bringing along Cockerell and Boston -- both who have played way beyond what I was expecting.

Let's get Luke back into place and get this all straightened out.

[BrianS]

8 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

 

You can certainly make a case that we have spent most of the season in the 4-3 alignment, but there's something about the build that doesn't seem to fit our personnel. Luke just hasn't been himself in this and it shows. 

 

I think the problem with Luke this season hasn't been Luke, but the line in front of him.  He's nearly always being asked to fight off a lineman to get to his gap, where in the past, he was very free to roam and be . . . Luke.  I realize we've had some injuries on our line, but still, our D line hasn't done ANYTHING this year.

 

[Waldo]

Im not convienced it's the 3-4 but the hybrid 3-4 that was built thats the problem. We play out of a weak 4-3 cluster too much and neither work. The transition looks to have been very poorly done and if this was the vision duing conception, its a huge failure before they ever hit the field. Also, the situational player subs seems to also be terrible. Top down, this defense is just a mess regardless of its parts.

[BurnHurnBurn]

Is this thread in the future?  It reads like you guys are watching a game?  Its Friday right?  Did I fall in to a time warp?

[Icege]

Is it the alignment that is causing Luke issues, or is it that our DL gapes open like Veronica Avluv?

[SOJA]

We really just desperately need a good ole NT a true 1 technique. Scheme is important but if you don't have the players for either scheme it ain't going to mean poo 

[ncfan]

Or the Luke before he had Star and KK in front of him.

 

The Luke that had the Fua etc in front of him?

 

Scheme aint the problem.  Lose talent and injuries are the problem.

When you have interior DL being successfully blocked 1 on 1 by Jimmy Graham.  You're setting up your MLBs for failure

[SetfreexX]

Poe is a true 3-4 NT

McCoy / Short - are fits at 3-4 DE

We are a little undersized at the OLB positions. 

Factor in we lost Short early, and now our NT anchor in Poe it we were going to see poor run defense, we have yet to see this defense fully complimented, and this is the first year of the switch there were bound to  be some growing pains as the depth isn't there yet. 

The pressure we have been able to generate / the blitz looks were a thing of beauty early on while guys were healthy, Burns looks like Addison's replacement (unless he re-signs a friendly deal)

A swap back to 4-3 makes 0 sense, all of our LBs on the edge are better 3-4 fits, and Luke / Shaq when the DL takes up blocks have looked good, the consistency up front just isn't there. 

Add in the fact that the F-150's chosen one is not good and we can't score on offense, teams wear us down and the run defense gets even worse as the game goes on because we can't score points to make OTHER teams one dimensional like us, and being in more obvious passing situations. 

[SOJA]

20 minutes ago, SetfreexX said:

Poe is a true 3-4 NT

McCoy / Short - are fits at 3-4 DE

We are a little undersized at the OLB positions. 

Factor in we lost Short early, and now our NT anchor in Poe it we were going to see poor run defense, we have yet to see this defense fully complimented, and this is the first year of the switch there were bound to  be some growing pains as the depth isn't there yet. 

The pressure we have been able to generate / the blitz looks were a thing of beauty early on while guys were healthy, Burns looks like Addison's replacement (unless he re-signs a friendly deal)

A swap back to 4-3 makes 0 sense, all of our LBs on the edge are better 3-4 fits, and Luke / Shaq when the DL takes up blocks have looked good, the consistency up front just isn't there. 

Add in the fact that the F-150's chosen one is not good and we can't score on offense, teams wear us down and the run defense gets even worse as the game goes on because we can't score points to make OTHER teams one dimensional like us, and being in more obvious passing situations. 

the problem is poe has been inconsistent at best for us even when healthy- i'm ready to move on 

[Mr. Scot]

The 3-4 definitely doesn't work for Luke. Many of us believed it wouldn't but we were hoping to be wrong.

Now we have a roster with several players who are more suited to that alignment but we look terrible running it.