This guy will throw 90% of his passes in Nick Harper's direction. Can we stop him?

ladies and gentleman we've officially gone from bad to worse. :barf:

 

You guys are forgetting the fact that the Chargers also have Antonio Gates and the Titans are down to backup OLBs who probably don't have a prayer when it comes to covering him.

It won't all be on Harper.

 

I am worried about your cheap shot coach ordering a "hit" on Rivers than your D stopping him. We probably won't be able to stop Johnson either so it should be a good game. Too bad for you the Chargers haven't clinched home field and that they hate your team for cheap shotting Merriman in 2007.

 

Yea, I am scared for our secondary vs. the Chargers. Nick is probably a more complete corner than Rod, but he can't run or cover at all. And maybe its just me, but aren't CB's first and second job to cover and be able to make up lost ground?

Our best chance to win is to eat up the clock with C.J.'s "chop wood" running style when he cant hit the edge for 50.

 

The problems...

Rivers has been chewing up cover 2 zone coverage all season and we play 80+% cover 2 zone coverage.

Bulluck is our best coverage LB...errr...WAS.

Hope is playing like a rookie who's lost half the time. Normally you can cover a slow cb by putting a S over the top. When Hope is over the top he never gets there. When we play man and Harper gives up the completion, Hope should be crushing the WR and dislodging the ball or at the very worst be tackling him right there. But somehow he's several steps too late AND takes a bad angle so he can't even touch the guy. Hope blew the last Fish TD as everyone covered their guy (didn't bit on playaction) except for...HOPE! If you're a deep half field S, you need to be able to get to the fade down the sideline.

Griffin has been improving at not biting on playaction...but he may be asked to cover Gates at time...leaving our deep coverage to...?

Solutions...

The 3 players to play deep coverage are Finnegan, Griffin, and Fuller. Let Hope play in the shorter zone or left him chase Gates around. Do NOT play much cover 2 zone or if you do, invert cb and S so Finny is deep with Grif on the other side OR invert Fuller and Hope so Hope is the short inside zone defender and Fuller is the other deep half S. Role the coverage to Harper's side so Harper is pressing and playing short zone with Hope in a deep 3rd right over the top of him with Grif in the middle and either Finny in man with a S down the middle or have Finny play deep 3rd with a LB as the underneath zone defender.

MIX coverages a lot but NEVER, NEVER, NEVER align Griff down the middle with VJ aligned on Harper and no help nearby in man coverage look. We did that once against Houston with AJ on Harper in man coverage with a single S down the middle...result was what you'd expect...TD. NEVER allow them that easy of a mismatch...especially in the red zone. And frankly...frequently DOUBLE cover VJ and Gates without using Finnegan. When he aligns over Harper, let Harper try to press him and then trail him with Griff staying over the top of him. They like to run vertical routes with him and this will help us slow him down and perhaps get a pick. With Gates, have a McGrath run with him and keep Hope over the top. Finny gets their next best WR man to man. Mix up personel and see if we can entice them to run. We have plenty of DL to rotate. I would also at times do what we did vs the Fish...5 man line with Ford, KVB, Brown, Vickerson, and Hayes!

TACKLE TACKLE TACKLE. Keglar, McGrath and Hope better bring their A game in the pursuit, angles, and tackling dept or we're in big trouble. Keep Tulloch clean and he'll make the tackle. Tulloch is a keeper...especially against the run!

We need to run some overload blitzes from one side as well as some of those Fire X blitzes up the middle. We need to try and overpower one side or up the middle without bringing 7 guys. Our normal stunting 4 man with the occassional 5man exotics should get the job done.

Squib kick and keep the ball away from Sproles.

VY needs to look at this game as the Super Bowl/National Championship game. CJ needs his best game and the O needs to score and sustain drives.

If we don't make the SB, this is our test to see how good we are. The Colts and Chargers are clearly the best AFC teams right now. Let's give them a little Shock (VY) and Awe (CJ) and see if we are as close as we hope we are from being back as contenders!

Gut

 

I expect to see alot of nickel on Friday...we dont have someone to match up with Gates so I expect Vinny to get ALOT of playing time.

Also, after what we did against covering Ginn, I say we let Bironas kick it deep and trust our coverage. They did a great job against the Fins.

 

Because of what you've just pointed out, we need to stagger our secondary's talent. I'd flip our two starting safeties. That's the quickest and easiest way to get Harper some help. And I like your idea to have Hope track Gates.

 

Oh please. Merriman is the one that first brought up the whole "ordering a hit" thing. Is he really a very reliable source considering he's the one that was injured? Geez Bolt fans, get over it already. This is football. People get injured. Yes, sometimes even by illegal or questionable plays. But all this nonsense about Fisher ordering his team to injure Merriman is ridiculous.