(01-15-2025, 11:51 AM)JagFan81 Wrote: I like this debate about D's and my answer is still the same it's been for the last 5 years. D's that can get consistent pressure by just rushing 4 will always have success. It makes it so much easier for the D as they can drop extra guys in coverage, it makes O's play a lot more short, quick passes which again helps the D.

We're seeing a lot of teams just play 2 high safeties all game long to try and take away deep balls and if your getting pressure with 4, it becomes a matchup between CB's and LB's and slot WR's, TE's, RB's. Now a DB may make a mistake or a WR makes a great play but usually an O will have to put a 9-12 play drive together with short to medium passes. What makes this an advantage for the D is that the O needs to get positive yards on nearly every play to put a drive together and stay out of 3rd and long whereas the D just needs one or two good plays to kill a drive or force a turnover. It basically puts all the pressure of a mistake on the O

Watching the Wildcard games, it's no surprise the teams that advanced all had strong run games they could lean on and that starts making the D adjust and change it's style and then suddenly it's the D who have all the pressure now

Also of course how a teams O plays also defines a lot about how the D plays. If you've got a high scoring O then opponents will probably have to be more aggressive to keep up but if your O can only score 17 a game then that D needs to be able to do a lot of different things well.