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purplefaithful · 05-14-2023, 03:29 PM

Why did a bright man like KOC keep _onatell all year? Or not mandate a change in scheme at some point?

What am I missing?

Cause it doesnt add up in retrospect.

05-14-2023, 04:18 PM

That's my one criticism with KOC. Smart guy, but how can someone that smart be so dumb to bring in a guy who's been a failure to oversee a complete defensive overhaul? Donatell has never been good anywhere. I told everybody when he was hired that he was a shitty hire. So if I knew it, and anybody paying attention knew it, how did KOC and Kwesi miss the memo? It was the downfall of an otherwise successful season and its certainly fair to wonder why a change wasn't made after we went a month straight giving up 500+ yards a game. I know its probably tough to pull the plug when you are still winning football games, but still, everybody knew we were a paper tiger mainly because of the defense and thats exactly how the season played out.

I think Flores will be better (can't be any worse), but I still absolutely hate this 3-4 scheme.

05-14-2023, 04:20 PM

Trial and error. Maybe he weighed pros and cons. Maybe he second guessed. Who knows? You live and learn and then you move on

05-15-2023, 12:43 AM

I guess it matters what Flores is able to do with basically the same personal. Maybe there wasn’t much they could do with what they had?

05-15-2023, 10:14 AM

Quote: @AGRforever said:
I guess it matters what Flores is able to do with basically the same personal. Maybe there wasn’t much they could do with what they had?

Which still is back to KOC and KAM, we had plenty of posters questioning the move to the 34 from the begining,, saying we didn't have the people to run the scheme. Flores should be able to do more with what he's got, but I still expect a bottom 1/3 defense, they will bring more pressure, and get some wins that way, but good OLs and good QBs will be able to handle it often enough and make them pay.

05-15-2023, 10:55 AM

Quote: @supafreak84 said:
That's my one criticism with KOC. Smart guy, but how can someone that smart be so dumb to bring in a guy who's been a failure to oversee a complete defensive overhaul? Donatell has never been good anywhere. I told everybody when he was hired that he was a shitty hire. So if I knew it, and anybody paying attention knew it, how did KOC and Kwesi miss the memo? It was the downfall of an otherwise successful season and its certainly fair to wonder why a change wasn't made after we went a month straight giving up 500+ yards a game. I know its probably tough to pull the plug when you are still winning football games, but still, everybody knew we were a paper tiger mainly because of the defense and thats exactly how the season played out.

I think Flores will be better (can't be any worse), but I still absolutely hate this 3-4 scheme.

Maybe this is all excuses but I can at least couch it as explanation/justification - at least for keeping Donatell, not for hiring him.

Last year KOC was a first-year head coach whose background is and was strictly on offense. He installed a new offense and brought in Ed to install a new defense and really, a whole new system, switching from a 4-3 to a 3-4. He has to sell all of this to a lockerroom and have the players buy in. Basically, th message is "I know what I'm doing, we hired great coaches, trust us, this will work." And it kinda did. The defense was not good, but Ed says it is going to take time for the players to learn this new system. There will be growing pains.

And the Vikings won. A lot. Everyone could see that the defense was a problem, but your DC says it's coming along and will improve. And the HC is a bit overwhelmed running an entire team for the first time ever. He has his hands full and is happy to have an old, experienced coach running the D. And what happens if he tries to change horses in mid-stream? Is he really going to upset the apple cart with the success the team was having in year 1? Will he lose the players? Lose the ones on defense? Is the message that when things are not working right away we just throw it out and start over mid-season? KOC was in a tough spot. But it was one he helped create.

05-15-2023, 11:46 AM

I think he convinced himself that the bend but don't break philosophy was working, and sort of working well with his situational philosophy.

Halfway through the season we were 7-1. We were giving up a lot of yards, but not really a lot of points. 20 pts per game, which is roughly top 10. Kinda tough to fire a guy from a 7-1 team when his defense was doing exactly what it was billed to do.

Of course it all crashed in the 2nd half of the season when the defense started giving up not only yards but points as well, giving up an average of 30 pts per game, which was dead last, and historically bad.

Also, a playoff team couldn't change defenses halfway through the year, so even if he did fire Donatell, he would've had to replace him with someone on staff, running the same defense, accomplishing nothing.

05-15-2023, 11:51 AM

Would Pettine have done better? Because that was about the only option for an in-season replacement.

A rookie coach firing an assistant might make future hiring harder. Hard to say. I think KOC probably wanted to make the move but there were potential downsides and limited upside so they rode it out for better or worse

In the hiring process they were somewhat hampered by how late KOC got started due to his time in L.A. coaching in the SB.
But better due diligence might have prevented the bad hire in the first place.

05-15-2023, 12:16 PM

Man, I forgot this team was 7/1 at one point...

That was a gaudy regular season record that was kinda ruined (for me) with a 1 and done playoff.

05-15-2023, 12:17 PM

Quote: @JimmyinSD said:

@AGRforever said:
I guess it matters what Flores is able to do with basically the same personal. Maybe there wasn’t much they could do with what they had?
Which still is back to KOC and KAM, we had plenty of posters questioning the move to the 34 from the begining,, saying we didn't have the people to run the scheme. Flores should be able to do more with what he's got, but I still expect a bottom 1/3 defense, they will bring more pressure, and get some wins that way, but good OLs and good QBs will be able to handle it often enough and make them pay.

Well i hope not a bottom 1/3...

Flores' D's are known for different looks and a bunch of cover 0. I suspect we'll get much of the same

You know what they say about the blitz...