Mora said “4-3 Over,” and I can’t imagine us not putting both the SLB Curry (standard, the “Over”) and WLB Hill (proven pass rusher) on the line at varying times. But to be specific, Carroll is talking about the Under as a base, and seemingly ours is Over, and Carroll strictly (at least for the sake of discussion) adhered to a single gap approach, which isn’t necessarily the case for us, and I’d bet that they’ll decide through training camp, if they can count on one guy to be a two gap player, they’ll assign him to be (and if I had to guess further I’d guess their eye is already on Mebane).

So these tidbits easily could not seamlessly apply to us, since it’s Under and single-gap, and I have no clue nor the extent to which Over and Under differ on these matters, but here we go:

The Sam linebacker controls the D gap to his side of the field. He is in an inside-foot to outside-foot alignment on the tight end or what most coaches call a 9 technique spot. He can never get reach blocked by the tight end in this position. He is the force player for everything run to his side of the field and turns everything back inside to the pursuit.

This is Aaron Curry. With USC, Carroll would have the Sam man up on the TE or slot, which among other things keeps assignments very simple. It sounds like him and this position is a match made in heaven for us.

The prime spot on the defense to the weak side is the B gap player. He is an inside-foot to outside-foot alignment on the offensive guard to his side. He is a 3 technique player. He has B gap control but he can’t get reached or hooked by the defense due to the way we align him. The whole scheme of this defense is predicated upon not getting hooked.

This is Brandon Mebane. This scheme has our best players and the most important and impactful positions. Is it safe to say RG is the most frequently least talented spot on the line? Mebane could easily make Tommie Harris impact here.

The best pass rusher on the team is usually the defensive end to the open side of the field. That puts him on the quarterback’s blind side and makes him a C gap player in this defense. We often align him wider than this in order to give him a better angle of attack and allow him to play in space. We align him a yard outside of the offensive tackle most of the time. He has to play C gap run support but at the same time he is rushing the passer like it is third and ten. He has to be able to close down however if the tackle blocks down on him.

The open side is the opposite of the OLB who’s on the line. With us, that’d more be weak side, and TEs more often line up on the right. If Kerney returns to form it’s only good news, of course, but in a way, without being our best pass rusher, Tapp, nearly at his prime, if not a premier player, would seem to be put in a position that most maximizes his abilities and minimizes his liabilities. He can control a gap and make the play on runs very well. Providing containment on his side, as the end, though, has been a problem. Hill’s made up for quite a bit of that, but that only covers up what kind of a problem it’s been.

Assuming for a moment that Carroll’s assertions about the end’s responsibilities hold true when switching to an Over, and he’d stay on the defensive left and Kerney or Jackson/Atkins on the right, he’d more frequently not be the open side DE, but the strong side, with Curry directly next to him, responsible for providing containment, up against a TE, while Tapp just has C gap assignment and won’t be a liability. He was Encino Man when required to read power running plays against the Packers’ wishbone and the Dolphins’ Wild Cat, but having less responsibility and more direct objectives would help make him a better player. Is this sounding awesome or what.

The Will linebacker is aligned against the offensive guard to his side of the field. He is basically a protected player in this alignment and should make a lot of tackles. He has to control his weak-side A gap and play relative to the Mike linebacker and the Free Safety.

Leroy Hill. We need a guy who can make a lot of tackles. Yes, cover less and blitz more, but as a base formation, again our best players are put in the most impactful positions, and in ways that maximize their strengths and minimize their weaknesses.

The Free Safety is the force player to the open side or weak side of the ball. He works off the defensive end’s play. The Defensive End works for leverage and force. The Free Safety works off of the Defensive End and fills where he is needed on run plays for example. If we are playing Cover 3 behind him the Strong Safety is going to have the middle of the secondary behind him but also fills off the linebacker’s side as needed depending upon the play. If the Sam linebacker does get hooked for example the Strong Safety will then have to come up and make the play….The two Safeties are both fill where needed sort of players. The have to keep everything on their inside shoulder.

Let’s play worst case scenario and include Brian Russell. Is he worse as your post center in cover 3 with your CBs with Grant in the box? Or as your run supporting safety? He’s lost two steps, and can’t tackle on angle, or take reasonable angles against ball carriers. Against receivers on a route, before they get the ball, he still makes the right angles to keep containment. And, roughly head on with a ball carrier running north south, he’s made most of those tackles well. I could see him being average as our safety in the box, presuming this is substantially different in approach for run support than he or our conventional understanding of strong safety/run support constitutes.

I’ll leave it to your reading the article, long but amazing, to absorb the weakness of the scheme, the liability for longer, successful runs if the one guy at the point of attack doesn’t do his job. The pertinent stuff is scattered. What that would mean, with Russell in the box, is a guy like Frank Gore could be stuffed on 90% of his plays, but 4 go for a total of 120 yards, as he gets into the second level and evades Russell easily. While I think Russell’s strengths/weaknesses better match box safety, I think the weakness of the scheme would dictate him being post safety, and with all the Roy Williams and Bob Sanders coming out of college, a good, fast free safety figures to be harder to find.

I really don’t know how Jamar Adams scouts out. Since he’s tall I somehow had the idea that he wasn’t another LB/S hybrid type that is hard to make a true safety out of in the NFL, but then Terreal Berria was a tall safety, too. Maybe Curry & his assignments mean Babineaux is the first nickle in, in place of Russell. I don’t know. It’s definitely still the one concern on defense, regardless of scheme. That aside, though, this is sounding tremendously awesome.

looks like they were just broken when I viewed it last night, in Chrome. Using IE for the RTF features for posting, right now.