Quote:Regardless of anyone's feelings or evaluation of Poz, that first bolded statement is a gross over-simplification of the issue.  Your point is still valid, it's just not as all-encompassing and widespread as you suggest.  Poz was  not able to affect completions to TEs in his zone as frequently as you would like to see happen from a highly paid MLB.  That was true on at least a dozen occasions over therapist two seasons by my estimation.  And it is an issue. However- 

"Many of the big gains happening right over the middle" is way too broad a stroke and includes many more players screwing up.  Especially the safeties. 

 

In regard to the second bolded statement (well,both statements really) -  Did you notice where New England targeted the Seahawks defense heavily in their Super Bowl win?  

Right over the middle. It's a weakness in this Bradley/Carroll scheme.  The teams that have played Seattle well in the past couple of years have figured that out -  and last year we saw more teams at least try to do it. Dallas did it very well also. 

Obviously - it's easier to capitalize upon such a weakness when facing the '14  Jags LB rotation and safeties than Seattles finely tuned machine.  

 

Poz isn't going to pass cover like Bobby Wagner, but he can do a good job for the Jags until they find their own Bobby Wagner. Lord knows they don't grow on trees. 

While I don't presume to have the 'football savy' to argue about the middle being a weakness of the Bradley/Carroll scheme, I do think that any given professional scheme relies far more heavily on the proper execution by the players than on the inherit strength of the scheme for it to work; actually, I guess that's kind'a true of pretty much all of team competition. The greatest plans of the greatest generals will not work if their soldiers can't shoot straight. 

 

So I won't/can't argue the validity of your point. I do agree that my statement that Poz is the reason the middle was targeted so much, could have been more lucid. The fact is, football is a team sport and no one individual is the sole cause of success or failure. That being said (I had thought it understood prior to it being pointed out)... I stand by my assertion that Poz is a primary (not the sole) impetus for the success the last couple of seasons of our opponents passing in the middle. 

 

Obviously, we could do worse than Poz for a linebacker; nevertheless, I hope we can do better (especially in obvious passing situations). Maybe we'll pick someone up in the draft who can handle this particular situation better than Poz has been doing right away. Maybe not. Either way, I surely wasn't suggesting that we throw Poz under the bus; rather, I'm hoping that we do a better job of game planning our defense knowing what our strengths... and weaknesses... are. 

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