Why is the slot WR always open? They cover him with a LB and slow safety, he finds the seam and gets good yards, play after play, game after game. When they go nickel and have a DB man on man it messes up the QB and what they want to do. Why not try something like playing with 1 safety and 3 CBs, or play with 2 LBs and 5 DBs? Whats it going to hurt? Its not like this D can can stop anyone.
i cant speak for bolt's philosophies, but i would imagine that he and chizik have similar philosophies, otherwise chizik probably wouldnt have brought him in. chizik comes from the tony dungy- monte kiffin- lovie smith tampa 2 lineage. the defense can be highly effective, and it has been proven so. we simply do not have the right personnel to run it. we need faster dl's to get a better pass rush, like former players bolt has coached such as demarcus ware or osi umenyiora. the tampa 2 is predicated on qb pressure which is why the bears' d has been good, but is not so much this year. tommie harris is not doing well and there is a big hole as that 3-technique DL is important, possibly even more so for the run. the db's can only cover for so long.
back to not having the personnel. our safties are marginal, but our corners have the ability to be shut-down corners. i think bolt has to scheme around jesse smith some because, maybe this can be said about any defense, but LB's that can play sideline to sideline are a must. jesse is good keeping the middle of the field locked down, but he is no brian urlacher. he is more of a hunter hillenmeyer, who plays strong side and is helped out alot by having the rangy urlacher in the middle. the safties dont have to be the best at coverage, and ours arent, but they should be able to scare any wr's who come into their zone into dropping the ball, ex mike brown and adam archuletta when he played for the rams, not the bears.
the reason why those deep posts kept working, is because one of the major flaws in the base cover 2 is that there are two spots on the field that are wide open in certain situations. the middle between the safeties is a soft spot, and the corners have flats (outside shallow area) so behind the corner but underneath the safety. deep outs are particularly effective, against this, as was illustrated by the falcons game winning late drive against the bears. i didnt see the whole play each time, but i would almost bet that aTm ran some sort of smash corner route (hitches on the outside, corners on the inside) and then a deep post down the seam. its called a seam for a reason, because it is the ambiguous area in between deep zones, where it could be either man's responsibility. anyway, this smash corner with the deep post forces the saftey's hand. the safety must chose the post or the corner, and a good safety will take the corner route because he has help towards the middle of the field. the MLB must drop into a deep deep zone to cover the post, or the olb has to run with it, either way usually leads to a mismatch. corners obviously cover the shallow route, such as the zig out or the hitch.
as for the original post, you cant change defensive philosophies mid season. going to a 4-2-5 multiple D isnt going to help much, especillay because the players have had the 4-3 pounded into their heads. with that said, they will play it some as in a nickel package.
i know this is kind of all over the place, because i have so many things to think about this. i could write a paper.
