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(No Longer) Joe Woods’ Defense

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Agreed.

I was reading a post on a Chicago Bears forum where someone broke down every Justin Fields play and was showing how many of the issues were on Fields not making it to his 2nd read and hesitating on throws to his guys. There were guys open on most plays.

But that's what you do if you're Woods, right? You generate pressure, cause confusion, and disguise your coverages. It feels like I've seen more of it this game than I have his entire time so far as DC. Blitzing 5 (instead of just rushing 4) sometimes makes a HUGE difference. I think our base soft zone scheme is fine and we saw it plenty yesterday, it just can't be the only thing we do.
Yeah, I haven't got a chance to watch the full replay yet, but did watch some extended highlights...the defense was much more unpredictable yesterday. Just in the highlights alone I saw a good mix of our typical zone, man, and blitzing...obviously this paid off in spades. Credit to Woods for putting together a new/different gameplan and to the players for executing. This was the kind of defensive performance you dream for...got to be one of the best in Browns history, giving up only 47 yards the entire game.
 
So I’ve read upthread that… Fields was hesitating after his first read, but guys were open; and also that Fields did not play well but guys were rarely open.
Sounds like people spitting hot takes. The real answer is to go watch the all-22 and decide for yourself.

My take on those two different claims is that Burns's take likely holds more water than Bears fans in their subreddit. I personally didn't see Bears receivers running open in the secondary from the TV broadcast.

I haven't watched the all-22, so I don't know anything for sure.
 
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Sounds like people spitting hot takes. The real answer is to go watch the all-22 and decide for yourself.

My take on those two different claims is that Burns's take likely holds more water than Bears fans in their subreddit. I personally didn't see Bears receivers running open in the secondary from the TV broadcast.

I haven't watched the all-22, so I don't know anything for sure.
Completely agree that you have to watch the tape. It's extremely easy to show an open guy a QB "didn't read" but if Myles Garrett is on top of him already he can't make that throw safely. One reason pressure works is that a guy doesn't just need to get open, but he needs to be open quickly. If you float a ball over the head of a defender off balance into a team that is sitting 2 safeties back in zone you'll just turn it over. People want it to be like Madden, but real football is complicated. I have no doubt that Fields missed some guys, but I've seen a fans get mad about "open" guys in the past without understanding the range of NFL safeties in a zone or without accounting for the 6'4" 275 guy 6 inches from hitting the QB. You can't just tap X and make a perfect throw.

We can't expect results like this against an elite QB, obviously, but it's more complicated than "Fields can't make reads."
 
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Sounds like people spitting hot takes. The real answer is to go watch the all-22 and decide for yourself.

My take on those two different claims is that Burns's take likely holds more water than Bears fans in their subreddit. I personally didn't see Bears receivers running open in the secondary from the TV broadcast.

I haven't watched the all-22, so I don't know anything for sure.
Is NFL Game Pass the only way to get the the All-22 film?
 
Woods did well today, his game plan completely confounded Fields and the Bears.

But this was a rookie making his first NFL start, let's not get too carried away. His overall body of work still sucks. if this is the beginning of a trend in the right direction, then I'd be ecstatic. He has to prove that he's actually competent before I'll believe it, though. He may have had fuck all to work with last year, but he's had talent and a real off-season this year and he's at one good game and 2 bad ones. I'm hoping it's just that he needs some time for the new personnel to gel.

I want Woods to succeed because if he does, we're probably playing for a superb owl. But he hasn't shown me enough good to take away all the bad that's on tape since his been on our staff.
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