Page 21 - ARUBA TODAY
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SPORTS A21
Friday 5 January 2018
Copycat
Continued from Page 18 defense — right up there In this Sept. 22, 2013, file photo, Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll, left, and Jacksonville
with the 1985 Chicago
The 49ers finished 25th at Bears and the 2000 Balti- Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley talk in the rain before an NFL football game in Seattle.
23.9 points a game, but more Ravens — with a 43-8
were considerably better drubbing of Denver in the Associated Press
over the final five weeks of Super Bowl. The Broncos
the regular season. They shattered an NFL record which defensive backs split otic (and create) paralysis Jackson and budding star
allowed 19.9 points dur- with 606 points during the
ing a five-game winning regular season but were coverage areas into three by analysis; guys are over- Yannick Ngakoue. Corner-
streak that included victo- overmatched on the NFL’s
ries against three playoff biggest stage. sections). Cornerbacks thinking on the field. That’s backs Jalen Ramsey and
teams. That same season, thou-
Los Angeles Chargers de- sands of miles away, Brad- play a lot of aggressive, part of what you see in this A.J. Bouye also were the
fensive coordinator Gus ley and Wash were building
Bradley, Atlanta defensive the foundation for Jack- bump-and-run coverage defense. I guarantee you in league’s top coverage
coordinator Marquand sonville’s current defense.
Manuel, San Francisco de- Two years later, Quinn that works best when the each one of these (Seattle- tandem, and lineback-
fensive coordinator Robert was implementing it in At-
Saleh, Atlanta head coach lanta with some help from four defensive linemen are influenced) defenses, guys ers Myles Jack and Telvin
Dan Quinn and Jackson- Manuel. Quinn’s offensive
ville defensive coordinator coordinator at the time pressuring quarterbacks. are flying around and play- Smith are two of the fastest
Todd Wash all spent time in was Kyle Shanahan, who
Seattle under Carroll. saw the defense every day Linebackers are usually un- ing fast because they’re around.
Bradley, Manuel, Saleh and in practice and knew he
Wash were on the same wanted it to be part of his dersized and fast. not thinking.” The Falcons are built
staff in 2012. Former Oak- rebuild with the 49ers this
land defensive coordinator season. He hired Saleh. It’s a 4-3 base defense that Regardless of the schemat- around linebackers Vic
Ken Norton also was there And former Jaguars head
and had the Raiders play- coach Bradley resurfaced incorporates many ele- ics and subtleties, the com- Beasley and Deion Jones,
ing the Seattle scheme un- with the Chargers.
til he was fired in late No- “It’s a very sound scheme ments of the popular 3-4. mon thread is solid — more defensive end Adrian Clay-
vember. that starts with stopping
“It’s good. It’s nice,” Carroll the run,” Shanahan said. “We are all different in our like star — players. born, cornerback Robert
said. “I love that the guys “It makes you work all the
are getting the opportu- way down the field, so it’s own ways,” Manuel said. Seattle has Wagner, cor- Alford and safety Keanu
nities and they are doing extremely tough to get ex-
stuff.” plosives on. It’s tough to go “But ... just the understand- nerback Richard Sherman, Neal.
Seattle players don’t seem against. They make you
as ready to credit anyone work for everything, and it’s ing of methodically mak- free safety Earl Thomas and “It’s a difficult scheme to
for doing it as well as they something that you don’t
did while picking up the have to reinvent the wheel ing a team have to go 13, strong safety Kam Chan- go against because it limits
“Legion of Boom” nick- every week. It’s something
name in 2012. that if you just do over and 14 plays to score and play cellor, among others. you on some of the things
“There is only one Seattle over and over again, it’s
Seahawks,” linebacker hard not to get better at it.” with great red-zone de- The Chargers boast disrup- you can do. They specifi-
Bobby Wagner said. The premise of the Seattle
Maybe so. Seattle allowed defense is that it uses an fense and understand that tive pass-rushers Melvin In- cally take certain things
the fewest points (14.4) eight-man box to stop the
and yards (273.6) in the run (one safety positioned taking the ball away is the gram and Joey Bosa, line- away. You just have to be
NFL during the 2013 season close to the line of scrim-
and forced a league-high mage) and a single-high most important thing. backer Denzel Perryman creative and find some of
39 turnovers. The Seahawks safety who can get sideline
emphatically stated their to sideline in “cover three” Plays are going to hap- and cornerback Casey those basic things and be
case as a generational (a three-deep zone in
pen that are big, but if you Hayward. They tied for fifth OK with some easy check-
eliminate the ones that you in the NFL with 43 sacks. downs and some easy,
know are about to hap- The Jaguars had the sec- quick 5-yard completions
pen, offenses have to do ond-most sacks (55) in the because that’s what you
something else. league thanks partly to Pro have a chance for,” Jag-
“You call plays that guys un- Bowl defensive linemen uars offensive coordinator
derstand. You can get ex- Calais Campbell and Malik Nathaniel Hackett said.q
