The Excoriation of John Marshall

My opinions on the Seahawks defensive coordinator has changed over the years. In 2005, his first year on the job, the Seahawks were all about simplicity, lots of young kids and solid veterans, the scheme was simple, a lot left over from the days of Ray Rhodes. Rhodes tampa two scheme was pure, for better or worse, there wasn't a lot of adjustments or attemps to trick the opposition. It was about discipline, gap control and quality tackling. Go back and watch those games, they were smart, not extremely talented, but very physical. After playing the Seahawks in 2005, Tiki Barber, having spent his life in the "Toughest division in the NFL", declared that it was the most physical game he'd ever played in. This coming from a guy who played the Eagles twice a year and went against the greatest defense of the last twenty years in the Super Bowl in 2000. Coincidentally the Seahawks took this solid defense and made its way to the Super Bowl. John Marshall's scheme in the NFC title game was nothing short of incredible, but, as I mentioned in my previous post, even the worst coaches have their moments.

2006, still the same scheme, a bit more aggressive, lots of injuries, trouble stopping the run, schematically I didn't have much of a problem with, the problem I always had was the personell.
Last year, the Seahawks had unquestionably their most talented defense of the decade. At times they were utterly dominating. At other times, utterly awful. This is when Marshall really started to mold his defense into his scheme. Lots of zone blitzing, crowding the line and all that jazz, brought a lot of pressure on third down. The gap control, base tampa 2 defense was only there in principle, now you will see the Seahawks run a great deal of cover 3, especially on third down, giving receivers free reign in the deep middle of the field(i'll get to that more later).
Given that this is Marshall's fourth year as the defensive coordinator, opposing coaches have film on Marshall's tendencies and style. His blitzes are not creative, and they remind me of a blitz my high school loved running called "bullets" in which three of the four linebackers hit the gaps as hard as they possibly could. No stunts, no twists, just a straight blitz. It is only successful against the very worst lines in the league (49ers, Rams), leading to inflated sack numbers and an inflated sense of the worth of the defense. Even worse is the lack of fundamentals. The Seahawks used to be a defense that could tackle, in the last three years, they've been anything but.
Some of the problem is the personell, but just as much is Marshall's use of the personell. Lofa Tatupu is far better in coverage than he is blitzing, so why do I see him blitzing frequently in passing situations? Leroy Hill is better blitzing off the edge, so why do I see him hitting the guard tackle gap?
My prime example of this poor scheming came yesterday, Patrick Kearney, the Seahawks chief sackmaster, made mincemeat of the Giants right tackle, sacked Eli Manning and forced a fumble leading to a 3rd and 16 play. Instead of rushing four defensive linemen on 3rd down and giving Kearney further opportunity to whip the tackle, Marshall employed a zone blitz with Tatupu hitting the center/guard gap and Kearney dropping 15 yards back into coverage. Of course he doesn't get to his spot in time and the secondary, running a lame duck cover 3 gets beat on a deep in where Manning snuck the ball between Kearney and the cornerback Josh Wilson.

What was Kearney doing in coverage on a prime pass rushing down? Why the need to try and fool an offensive line in a situation where a fundamental, base defense would've done the trick unless their was an assignment blown? Why not leave Tatupu in coverage and Kearney rushing the passer? Isn't coaching about putting your players in the best position for them to be successful?

John Marshall will be gone at the end of the season, Mora will get one of his guys in there and hopefully things will change, its too bad that Marshall is spoiling the prime years of an insanely talented linebacking corps and the last elite years of one the games premier pass rushers.