What is Zimmer up to?

[greediron]

Reading the NE Defense thread, thinking about the Detroit game where they put up a ton of yards and Zimmer taking the blame for that.
One has to wonder, what is Zimmer cooking?  Consider:

• other than Detroit, we haven't faced a great offense recently.  Giants without Barkley, Philly isn't right.
• Hughes is back and playing very well.
• CBs are rotating quite a bit.  Hughes was at LCB for the one TD.  Matched up on Golladay for the PAT try.
• Zimmer admitted he could have done things different against Detroit.
• AND our schedule gets harder against better QBs going forward.

So is Zimmer cooking something up coverage wise?  I like the rotation, keeps the guys fresh, offenses don't know who they are going to get in coverage.   Maybe he is being creative and working some kinks out.  We haven't seen to many blitzes recently.  Looking forward to watching the D keep getting better now that the offense is on a roll.

[Guest]

The one new wrinkle lately has been Grif in the A gap on third downs...

[Guest]

@"BarrNone55" said:
The one new wrinkle lately has been Grif in the A gap on third downs...

I wish he would be more aggressive like this.  We did a lot of faking A gap blitzes in the past.  Sometimes you have to bring the heat.  

[Guest]

He needs to do something to manufacture more pressure on the QB.  Give Stafford time to throw and you give up 3 TDs in one half. If Stafford can do that, so can Rodgers, Mahomes, Rivers, Wilson, Dak, ...

[Guest]

 

Rhodes
Waynes
Alexander
Hughes 

And now Hill?  

 Add Harris, Kearse and Smith 

 8 players that could conceivably be on  the field at the same time, and none of them are scrubs. Add Matafa, Hunter and Griffen 


If Zim is "cookin something up"  seems like he has the personnel to draw up some pretty weird exotic  stuff. 

 

[Guest]

His defenses were more aggressive in 2017. He seems to play a lot less man press coverage, and that was one of the defenses strengths. I don't think they are anything special in zone coverage.
Is he compensating for a deterioration in man press coverage skills? 
He seems to bring the heat on third and long only. Has he become predictable?
I don't know. I did hear it mentioned today that New England plays more man coverage than any other team. I think it allows their defense to be very creative.
If Zim can get it back together this team would be very difficult to beat.

[Guest]

I was puzzled Sunday. No stunts no disguised blitzes. Line up and rush 4 against a very accurate QB who only thrives on not being pressured. 2 sacks?? One of them was all Griff not giving up.  Not by any exotic design. I thought going into this one he would have to be aggressive. Well they were aggressive, on offense. Right down till the final 2:00. Defense stayed vanilla the whole game. Come to think of was is not the right word. I'm STILL puzzled.

[Guest]

I think Zimmer is closer than ever about realizing if you aren't aggressive on BOTH sides of the ball, you can't win it all in this league. He's so close.....

[Guest]

Zimmer tried some exotic things early in the season last year and it didn't work well...  he ended up dialing things back to get the defense playing well again and then mixed it up later in the season.

Maybe he decided this season that he wants to start basic, establish some consistency, and then when teams think he's doing this...  he'll start mixing in the exotic looks in the 2nd half of the season to throw teams off?  I mean we just saw the Everson Double A gap look...  that's certainly different and we didn't use it at the beginning of the year.

Just something to think about...

[Guest]

I think there are QBs you blitz and QBs you don't. Seems like the Vikings always did best against Rodgers, for example, when they rushed their front four and dropped everyone in coverage. It was so satisfying watching that douchebag sit back there and find not a single person to throw to...as the front four closes in. 

For a lot of games, I actually found myself rooting for them not to blitz. I'm not sure if that's changed now that Rhodes is seemingly in decline.