Quote:
Originally Posted by Direckshun
That seems to make them even easier to run on, is what I'd think.
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My thought process is shift to a heavy nickel as your base.
That puts Sorensen down in the box and Thornhill in at FS. It then frees Mathieu up to play rover (as he's been playing about 50% of his snaps as a true FS this season).
It takes Nieman off the field, who's no better than Sorensen in run support, so you're about even there. Meanwhile you've now given Mathieu a little more run to go out there in support and maybe funnel things back to the middle where you at least have a couple of large bodies in Nnadi and Reed/Saunders.
Additionally, with Mathieu out there with a little more freedom, you don't have to sell out quite as badly to defend the flats. He's more capable of reading/reacting than Sorensen is. At that point he doesn't have to commit quite as quickly to still be involved in the play, so you're less prone to misdirection and backs breaking into the pattern late.
And most of all, it's a package you're going to stay in most of the time so they can't catch you mid-change and/or confuse your subs as they're trying to set up.
Essentially what you're doing is converting to a 4-2-5 base defense by swapping Niemann out for Sorensen and thus allowing Mathieu a bit more of a robber role. Is your run defense going to be better? Eh...maybe not...but I think it will be different. I think it will be less confused and I think it will be less susceptible to big plays. I don't think it will be appreciably worse between the tackles.