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A Change in Defensive Philosophy

 

A key reason for the Texans sudden decline was its lowly performing defense.  The Texans biggest change on defense isn't a change in personnel or coaching, but a wholesale difference in philosophy.  The old coaching staff led by Bill O' Brian used a scheme that was based more on strength as opposed to speed.  That's not to say that both speed or strength should be discounted in any aspect of every sport played.

New Texans defensive coordinator, Lovie Smith, is known for helping develop a popular scheme now common in football called the Tampa-2.  From my understanding, it was a style of play actually developed by the Pittsburg Steelers of the 1970s but adapted much later by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.  Mr. Smith was a position coach over linebackers with Tampa Bay at the time.  The Buccaneer defensive coordinator of the late 1990s and early 2000s, Monte Kiffin, (father of current Old Miss head coach Lane Kiffin) is considered the chief author of the Tampa-2.  The highlight of the initial success of the Tampa-2 occurred in the 2002 postseason when the Buccaneers won Super Bowl XXXVII.  

So what exactly is the Tampa-2?  This scheme is based on a 4-3 defensive alignment where there are 4 defensive lineman and 3 linebackers.  Cornerbacks are used to jam the routes of receivers principally.  It emphasizes man-to-man coverage as opposed to zone coverage.  That is players are usually assigned to match up against a specific player rather than be responsible guarding one area of the open field during a play.  Thus the Tampa-2 is dependent on players who have exceptional speed but are somewhat considered physically undersized.  However, players are still expected to be skilled in tackling.  The scheme emphasizes hard hitting against opposing players to try to cause offensive turnovers which in turn provides additional scoring opportunities.    



A diagram illustrating employment of a Tampa-2 defense. 
Triangles represent defensive linemen. Squares represents linebackers.
Circles represent cornerbacks and safeties.  Outer circles are cornerbacks.



Why is this all a big deal you might ask?  The Texans defense were based on a 3-4 alignment.  That is these alignments were based on three defensive lineman and four linebackers.  This style of play was more dependent in employing zone as opposed to man-to-man coverage.  So this style of defense is more geared toward personnel who featured great strength and thus were not undersized.  The decision for defensive end JJ Watt to sign with the Arizona Cardinals after being released by the Texans was influenced by the fact that the Cardinals use a 3-4 alignment.  Even if the Texans were able to keep employing Watt, its unlikely he would have been as productive and certainly not as comfortable operating in a Tampa-2 system.  

My next post is essentially a Part II of this analysis.  I'm going to finally go into some detail of the overall team personnel picked up and that could be drafted by the Texans.  I'll talk about Lovie Smith's recent press conference where he discussed about his specific philosophy regarding the Tampa-2. 

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