I would choose Cover 2, but with drastic changes to the safeties. Russell gone. Grant is now your FS. With that you can put Jamar Adams as your SS and bring him along slowly in practices. The guy is smart, big, made 34 starts at Michigan at FS, but I think he can play SS in a system such as our Cover 2. The problem with that is well John Marshall and Brian Russell.

With our current situation at safety we can’t afford to ever run a cover 1 with Russell being the deep man. He just doesn’t have the speed to cover sideline to sideline. With Cover 2 we can at least somewhat hide him on the field.

I like Johns idea a while back of using Wilson as a safety because although he is small he is a tough tackler. But just like Bob Sanders would probably get hurt quite often from having to deliver so many hits.

I agree on bringing in a taller player (and our PS talent) into the mix. I have a hard time with abandoning Russell altogether. He has been strong in the past. It seems like last year he and Grant had excellent chemistry and success, but then the defense coaches made all kinds of statements in the off & pre-season about improving our coverage from last year.

Perhaps he is a victim of their system?

Why would the coaches choose to fix something that wasn’t broken anyhow? We allowed among the fewest passing TDs in the league.

What about the expanded use of the LBs & DEs in short-zone coverage? Bigger defenders can produce more forced fumbles and injuries.

The excessive use of man-to-man in the 5-15 yard range denied us many INTs and the receivers still got open on short routes and crossing patterns.

There certainly were at least two flushed pocket-QB scrambles which I was expecting someone from the secondary to come flying in from the side of the TV and smash O’Sullivan.

Both times I was sorely disappointed.

And he was wildly late on the play you describe. Thank god the refs didn’t flag him then.