Arizona scortched the Bolts 1st team defense

[ZONA]

Don't know how many people watched that game but the Bolts had a very hard time dealing with the Cardinals passing game and got torched on several long passing plays. The Cardinals line actually did a good job of blocking and giving Matt time to go to 2nd and 3rd guys and they really moved the ball on SD.

Is SD going weak in the secondary or something or is the loss of Wade Phillips really starting to show now?

[bpc]

I think its a little bit of both. I've stated over the offseason and last year that if you are to beat SD, you are going to have to start through the air to soften up the front seven. Get them sitting on their heals. Their corners are by far their weakness. Eric Weddle will be helping them tremendously in the future but not this season.

Bottom line, we have to find a way to block Merriman and Phillips and give Cutler long enought to shred them.

[OrangeShadow]

cutler did lead denver to 17 unanswered points in one quarter last year against them

[azbroncfan]

How has Weddle looked in the preseason?

[bpc]

He's done fairly well from what i've heard. It will be different in the regular season. He'll be a playmaker for them though in the future.

Cutler can throw on them. He did show it last year in the second game and that was still under severe pressure. I think Merriman busted through Pears for a couple of sacks.

[Man-Goblin]

Preseason. SD has too much talent to not be good.

BTW, the NFC west is all of a sudden pretty good. I like San Fran, STL's offense, and Seattle will be Seattle. Also, Arizona could be good under a new coaching staff. It will be fun to watch those teams beat up on each other.

[azbroncfan]

SD's D will be very good. Not much different than last year.

[bpc]

I do however think they will take a hit from losing Wade. Wade IS the best 3-4 coach in the league as a DC.

[ZONA]

I know it's preseason but SD had their starters in alot and it's not like Arizona has the most dominating OL in the league, far from it. And Matt, still a very young QB. They really caught the Chargers off guard quite a bit in that game.

[wolf754life]

Brady Quinn SCORCHED out frist team D............shut up already...

[Rock Chalk]

Originally Posted by OrangeShadow

cutler did lead denver to 17 unanswered points in one quarter last year against them

I hate that bull****. SD was playing prevent at that point having a monster lead and homefield advantage. When we started to show signs of life they turned it back on in the 4th quarter and once again we could do nothing. Cutler didnt engineer **** in that game, no matter what the kool aid drinkers want to think, SD was playing soft in that third quarter.

[broncofan2438]

Originally Posted by ZONA

Don't know how many people watched that game but the Bolts had a very hard time dealing with the Cardinals passing game and got torched on several long passing plays. The Cardinals line actually did a good job of blocking and giving Matt time to go to 2nd and 3rd guys and they really moved the ball on SD.

Is SD going weak in the secondary or something or is the loss of Wade Phillips really starting to show now?

I definately watched the game, only because I had to being that i am in socal, but yes i agree with you, they got worked

[Watchthemiddle]

SD hasn't been too good in teh secondary for a few years now. They still have one of the best front 7's in the NFL though.

I hope AZ puts their 1st offense on the field this week against our 1st D. They have some good talent on offense at QB, RB, and one of the best WR tandoms in the NFL. It would be a good test for our D going into week one and if the D actually performed well, a good confidence builder for Buffalo.

[400HZ]

Originally Posted by ZONA

Don't know how many people watched that game but the Bolts had a very hard time dealing with the Cardinals passing game and got torched on several long passing plays. The Cardinals line actually did a good job of blocking and giving Matt time to go to 2nd and 3rd guys and they really moved the ball on SD.

Is SD going weak in the secondary or something or is the loss of Wade Phillips really starting to show now?

You haven't REALLY seen the San Diego Chargers yet. The Chargers bread and butter is pounding with the run game and blitzing like crazy on defense. The preseason gameplans so far have been almost entirely geared away from that. Michael Turner was tearing up the 49ers and St Louis, but Norv stayed away from that and concentrated on plays that featured our wide receivers ie the weak area of our offense last year. Same type of plan on defense. Merriman and Phillips are playing a lot of coverage and Cottrell is only sending 4 and every once in a while 5 guys after the QB. Merriman and Phillips are even using vanilla pass rush moves. The focus really seems to be on evaluating our coverage schemes which have unfortunately sucked so far for the most part. Clinton Hart is fighting Weddle for the SS spot, and despite a very good game against St Louis he completely shat himself against Arizona. McCree has been invisible and Florence has pretty much been worthless. On the flip side, Phillip Rivers and the Charger WRs have been outstanding.

I honestly think that Weddle is our best safety right now, and undoubtedly has more upside than either of our current starters. He's gotten enough time with the 1st string to prove that the game isn't too big for him. Actually, all our rookies except Oliver and Waters (who hasn't played much) have looked really good. You guys could probably poach some good players off our practice squad this year if you can beat Miami and New England to the punch.

[Los Broncos]

I watched the highlights, Matt looked good, the wr's made some great plays.

[400HZ]

Originally Posted by Man-Goblin

Preseason. SD has too much talent to not be good.

BTW, the NFC west is all of a sudden pretty good. I like San Fran, STL's offense, and Seattle will be Seattle. Also, Arizona could be good under a new coaching staff. It will be fun to watch those teams beat up on each other.

I thought Seattle and Arizona were solid so far, but I'm not buying any of the St Louis hype this year. They run D still sucks, even with Carriker. Analysts are slobbing on Mark Bulger left and right, but he didn't play especially well against the Chargers even with no blitzes in his face. Hasselbeck and Leinart looked a lot better to me.

[Atlas]

Originally Posted by ZONA

Don't know how many people watched that game but the Bolts had a very hard time dealing with the Cardinals passing game and got torched on several long passing plays. The Cardinals line actually did a good job of blocking and giving Matt time to go to 2nd and 3rd guys and they really moved the ball on SD.

Is SD going weak in the secondary or something or is the loss of Wade Phillips really starting to show now?

It doesn't mean anything. You know how Wade blitzed Denver on every play well, the Chargers hardly blitzed at all. They just played vanilla. SD secondary isn't great so they need to put pressure on the QB which they do very well when they blitz. This game meant nothing.

[400HZ]

Originally Posted by bpc

I do however think they will take a hit from losing Wade. Wade IS the best 3-4 coach in the league as a DC.

Lebeau is pretty good too. Right up there with Wade. I was really hoping that Tomlin would cut Lebeau loose this year so Tomlin could implement his lame ass cover 2. I'd take Lebeau over Cotrell, even if his scheme is different.

[ZONA]

Originally Posted by Atlas

It doesn't mean anything. You know how Wade blitzed Denver on every play well, the Chargers hardly blitzed at all. They just played vanilla. SD secondary isn't great so they need to put pressure on the QB which they do very well when they blitz. This game meant nothing.

So what are you saying? SD needs to blitz every play to be good and if they don't, and play a base defense, they will get torched through the air? Vanilla is just another word for not blitzing. You still put your corners on their WR's and try to cover them. I saw Merriman and Phillips rushing the QB and didn't get alot of pressure. Plus, I think Matt just moved well in the pocket and moved through his progressions well. One thing I notice about Matt over these past few games is he really favors lofting the ball in rather then trying to zip it there. I'm not saying AZ is better then SD, just that SD corners and secondary really lost track of their coverages more then a few times.

[boltaneer]

SD is playing the vaunted "vanilla" defense, dropping Merriman in coverage quite a bit and letting him work on that part of his game. Plus they have a couple of starters out with injury at the moment. The Chargers have been blitzing very little in the preseason as well.

However, the secondary has looked very bad, McCree in particular. It sounds like Hart is going to win the SS job over Weddle so the safties really concern me. Weddle has been tearing it up in camp but I think they're going to go with the experienced guy in Hart for now.

Jammer, Florence and Cromartie haven't looked well either.

I hope it's mostly because of the preseason vanilla but we'll see against Chicago.

[boltaneer]

Originally Posted by ZONA

So what are you saying? SD needs to blitz every play to be good and if they don't, and play a base defense, they will get torched through the air? Vanilla is just another word for not blitzing. You still put your corners on their WR's and try to cover them. I saw Merriman and Phillips rushing the QB and didn't get alot of pressure. Plus, I think Matt just moved well in the pocket and moved through his progressions well. One thing I notice about Matt over these past few games is he really favors lofting the ball in rather then trying to zip it there. I'm not saying AZ is better then SD, just that SD corners and secondary really lost track of their coverages more then a few times.

The two or three real big plays Arizona got were on busted plays where Leinart used his mobility and made some good plays. Those plays are going to happen. I'm not too concerned with those.

As for Merriman, you can tell they're not turning him loose. Also, I have noticed that teams are already scheming their blocking towards him. Unless Cottrell is a complete idiot, I think the pass rush and aggressiveness should be fine once the real games start.

But I have noticed some mental breakdowns with the secondary. Those need to be fixed regardless of going vanilla or not.

[bpc]

Originally Posted by 400HZ

Lebeau is pretty good too. Right up there with Wade. I was really hoping that Tomlin would cut Lebeau loose this year so Tomlin could implement his lame ass cover 2. I'd take Lebeau over Cotrell, even if his scheme is different.

I'd probably rank the all-time 3-4 coordinators:

1. BB
2. Wade
3. Capers
4. Lebeau

I'm not sure where Cotrell will be in the mix as I haven't really studied him. You will lose some creativity losing Wade though, that much is a given. He is just a great tutor in that role. SD's players are getting better though so maybe Cotrell will get more despite the change.

SD is going to be very tough this year. We'll see though. We need to play a lot better than we have to keep from getting swept again this year. I think Cutler will be up to the task... we'll see about the players around him.

[BroncoBuff]

Originally Posted by bpc

I'd probably rank the all-time 3-4 coordinators:
1. BB
2. Wade
3. Capers
4. Lebeau
I'm not sure where Cotrell will be in the mix as I haven't really studied him.

"Studied him"? I thought you had irritated me with those lengthy O-Line grades from the Dallas game ... but this? Dude, that post is one whole lotta don't know WTF you're talking about. You must be a pup, because Joe Collier practically invented the 3-4, and he tops every one you listed. He taught Bill Belichick everything he knows during that one year BB was his assistant in Denver ... BB has said as much. 1979 I think.

Kids these days....

[ColoradoDarin]

Originally Posted by boltaneer

The two or three real big plays Arizona got were on busted plays where Leinart used his mobility and made some good plays. Those plays are going to happen. I'm not too concerned with those.

As for Merriman, you can tell they're not turning him loose. Also, I have noticed that teams are already scheming their blocking towards him. Unless Cottrell is a complete idiot, I think the pass rush and aggressiveness should be fine once the real games start.

But I have noticed some mental breakdowns with the secondary. Those need to be fixed regardless of going vanilla or not.

As for Merriman... I wonder if this is how he'll perform now that he's been off the 'roids for a year.....

[boltaneer]

Originally Posted by ColoradoDarin

As for Merriman... I wonder if this is how he'll perform now that he's been off the 'roids for a year.....

If he stays healthy, I think he has a shot at 20 sacks this year.