There is something very telling in Schiano's responses to the local media when he is pressed to explain the use of stunts and zone coverage. During the first half of the season when the hot button was "why did we trade for Revis and put him in zone" Schiano hinted that the scheme was in place due to personnel. Reading between the lines and having an understanding of the situation we come to the conclusion that Revis was not healthy enough to go man to man, and the scheme was used to ease him back into playing shape. Fast forward to the latest media hot button. "Why are we running all these stunts". Schiano gave yet another hidden message in his response to Booger and Rich, unfortunately Booger is to much of a meathead to pick it up. Simplified, Schiano's response was the same for Zone coverage....personnel. "Booger, there is nothing I would love to do more, than put our hands in the dirt 4 wide and go straight for the ball and QB, but we just aren't there yet." With both our edge rushers returning from injuries and a void of experience behind them, it's understandable that perhaps the scheme is a result of masking deficiencies. In both cases I do applaud the Coach for delicately tip toeing around the fact that guys aren't able. He has taken a beating all year and if health concerns or lack if ability from the players were the cause, he did a damn good job of deflecting. With Revis now almost 100% I haven't heard a peep about the secondary or what scene they are running, and I'd be willing to bet that if we add a legit healthy edge rusher the whining about stunts might stop too.
"He has taken a beating all year "...well he is the coach, he put together the roster, we are 4-9, so it's pretty fair to say that it's deserved.
Except that our DLINE has proven time and time again when they're allowed to rush, they can get there. The stunts help with blitzing though and allow lanes for guys like David to get through.
Stunts are NOT bad. They can help a ton at times, but used too often, they become ineffective. My problem is when the Bucs run a Quick TEX game with McCoy and Clayborn in which McCoy goes from the B gap to the C gap and Clayborn tries to loop around to the B or A gap. It completely takes McCoy (far and away the team's best pass rusher) out of the play and often causes a lack of contain to that side.
As 449 said the problem with using the stunts is that they not only do not unleash our edge guys AND they take our best pass rusher out of the mix.
For those of us who are in the play well but lose camp, this is the exact reason. Need to pick top 5 or being willing to trade up.
The point of the post was that I think stunts and zone have less to do with philosophy and more to do with the health and skill level of the roster. Not the value or success of the schemes.
Why didn't the team re-sign it's best pass rusher from a year ago, then? Either way it's the fault of the coaching staff and front office.
Stunts are NOT bad. They can help a ton at times, but used too often, they become ineffective. My problem is when the Bucs run a Quick TEX game with McCoy and Clayborn in which McCoy goes from the B gap to the C gap and Clayborn tries to loop around to the B or A gap. It completely takes McCoy (far and away the team's best pass rusher) out of the play and often causes a lack of contain to that side.
I think that it'd work if our DEs were a bit quicker. Clayborn sometimes has a wide open lane but he's a bit too far away to get any pressure. We should try it with our quickest guys like Means and Bowers. Clayborn has better short yardage times than Means and Gholston but he doesn't play as fast imo.
