DURING the beginning of 2016 our Safeties were making plays on the ball, because opposing QB’s were testing our entire Secondary looking for soft spots. Well they found those soft spots along the sidelines vs our CB’s. After that there was no reason to risk throwing at the Safeties much.
While some of the blame can be laid at the feet of players “getting comfortable in the new system”, most of it can be put on the Corners themselves. Too often they gave up huge cushions, and didn’t do a good job of leveraging their coverage to trap WR’s on the outside, to narrow the passing windows. They just didn’t get in anybody’s face last year, and that has to change in 2017.
Our CB’s have to be more physical and do a better job of disrupting timing routes. They have to not allow “Crosses”, “Drags”, and “Slants” to develop cleanly. Anything our Defense can do to throw off the rhythm of opposing offenses, forces those offenses to improvise. This gets away from what they practiced and so not everyone is on the same page. That will usually work in favor of our Defense. It will also force opposing QB’s to hold the ball a little longer, and that gives our pass rush time to get home.
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