Via FO, here’s a great story about the four man rush…and why it’s devestating. Lots of talk about the Colts here as the poster children for rushing four.
“A great pass-rush will help a young or less talented secondary,” says Jerry Reese. Indeed, Reese’s Giants are in Minnesota’s boat. They’ve invested over $140 million worth of total contracts in their current eight-man defensive line rotation and, in recent years, have thrived with one of the most inexperienced––and therefore inexpensive––secondaries in football. Bill Polian, the venerable GM of the Colts, has followed a similar model, sinking over $100 million worth of total contracts alone in his speedy defensive ends––Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis.
The defensive end is a premium position for 4-3 teams like the Giants; it’s especially significant for Cover 2 teams like the Vikings and Colts, for the simple reason that their system is passive in the back end and therefore reliant on generating big plays up front. “Tony Dungy’s philosophy (which has heavily influenced Cover 2 systems across the league) has always been ‘less is more,’” says Cosell. “That comes from Chuck Noll. The premise being, We will do the few things that we do exceptionally well and execute them properly snap after snap after snap, and we’ll do them better than the opponent will.”
Whenever I hear fans get too excited about a new ‘blitzing’ defense for the Colts, I get queasy. First I don’t believe they’ll really blitz that much more, but second, blitzing isn’t as necessary as getting to the QB with four.
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