Phil Parker 4/11 Presser Transcript

[olddude]

I still hear everyone IS concerned about the d-line. The gist of responses here is discussing / debating how the entire theme of PP's presser was "How do we help the DL?" Namely, the risk / reward of being more aggressive with the DB's both in coverage and run support.

The DL is going to struggle. Then again, it's been 3 years (Clayborn's jr season) since the DL has gotten consistent, significant pressure, so, it's not like 2012 is going to be a huge drop off from what we've seen recently. It's just encouraging that PP is acknowledging this weakness and actually making some strategical adjustments to maximize the strength of the defense -- the back 4. That is something that DID NOT get done enough the past 2 seasons.

Again, seems to me that if you build from the trenches, back and your premise is that W's depend on trenches but the trenches are weak, you aren't out any W's by trying to bolster the trenches. There's an element of risk in this "tweak" but there's also more reward than relying solely on the trenches. It's simply the lesser of 2 evils this year.

I agree. Also he never said we were going to do it all the time. Infact he said some guys are not good enough at it (press). I think the whole idea is to keep the other teams O's guessing a little bit more, by giving different looks. We all know those 3rd and longs just killed any D we had and the other teams new exactly how to convert (with a qwick out). Without a 4 man front that can get fast enough pressure, we have to do something. Like Jon said, we have the best passer in the B10, so getting beat on a 50 yarder is going to be tough for most of the qb's in the B10. I just dont see to many that can thread the needle at any distance. It is those 5-15 yarders that are killing us and that is where adding a guy to the box to make sure they have to get rid of it fast and playing more press, just may work out well. Risk, yes. What else do you do?