Quote:No, the scheme isn't working, because Gus is a typical football coach, he thinks he already has the answer before he finds out what the question is.

 

I think of a scheme as the answer to the question "What are the things my defensive personnel can do well." Gus doesn't ask the question, he just gives the answer.

 

In Gus's world 1+1 = 2, but so does 1324325+254235623. Everything equals two in his world, and if it turns out that 1324325+254235623=255559948 then in Gus's world the real problem is that we didn't ask him what 1+1 is, not that he didn't bother to do any thinking about what the problem is.

 

I will say that Gus isn't particularly alone in his failings, most coaches seem to have his problem, they really really need a great GM that can find guys that will make his question be 1+1, but that really doesn't dismiss Gus's failings, it simply means he's in good company in them.

'Even a broken clock is right twice a day'.

Seriously, we all pretty much realize that the defensive 'scheme' Gus has instituted here isn't, in itself, the problem. The core issue is that we've lacked the base talent (aka- gifted pass rushers) to be able to make this type defense effective. 'Leo'... 'otto'... just different names for basic positions and not worthy of any of us getting our collective panties in a bind over.

 

In football, as in many other team sports, it boils down to individual match-ups of one player against another. The team that realizes the greatest number of victories in those individual match-ups is invariably the winner of the game. Regrettably, we've not had the talent on our defense for some time to consistently effect the outcome of a game in our favor. That weakness, and a few other factors like missing field goals and extra point attempts, has proven to be our demise more often than not. Even with Fowler starting this season, we don't yet know if he will prove to be the dominate player he was in college. Certainly, we hope so, but even if he is, he is only one. We still have a ways to go to either fix this defense or to change the defense to something different.

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