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The Evolution and Constant Changing of Football
Tequilla
Member Posts: 19,954
One of the things that I find the most interesting about football is how defenses are constantly evolving to stop offenses. And the fundamental method that gets used to stop teams is the decision of using the 3-4 or the 4-3 defense.
If you go back and watch a lot of games from the 60s into the early to mid 70s, most running games were primarily straight ahead between the tackles and everybody ran a 4-3 defense.
By the time you got to the 80s, you found more teams running to the outside and using RBs more in the passing game as the West Coast Offense became more en vogue. As a result, you found teams moving more to a 3-4 defense to be able to get more speed on the field as offenses were built to be more mobile and not tied into being straight ahead plowers.
As you get into the 90s, you found more and more teams finding bigger backs and defenses starting to go back to more 4-3 plays.
Now, you get the spread offenses that are looking to run mostly at the tackles and outside. As you see that move more and more into the NFL, you are finding that the blueprint to success on this is to have LBs that are able to match the speed/strength combination of the QB/RBs while having a DL that can absorb blockers and keep the LBs free. You're starting to find more and more teams going with hybrid combinations of 3-4 and 4-3 defenses so that they can create looks to confuse QBs.
What's the point of this besides a TL, DR post?
If you look at the LB class that Petersen is bringing in, you're finding players that are going to be well positioned to take on spread teams in future years. In 2 of our last 3 games, we played spread teams in Arizona and the Cougs. Keep in mind that we were playing these teams with very limited depth in the secondary yet it didn't seem to matter. And the key to our success in these games defensively was a combination of having a DL that was able to hold their own, but just as importantly, having LBs that are able to make plays in both the run and pass games.
We've heard UW coaches talk about finding ways to beat Oregon. You haven't heard anything about that from Petersen. Instead, you're seeing it in action. He's recruiting players that are going to be able to play with spread teams but also be physically tough enough to play teams like Stanford that want to line up and run straight down your throats.
TL, DR Version: Game evolves, Petersen gets it. Fuck off.
If you go back and watch a lot of games from the 60s into the early to mid 70s, most running games were primarily straight ahead between the tackles and everybody ran a 4-3 defense.
By the time you got to the 80s, you found more teams running to the outside and using RBs more in the passing game as the West Coast Offense became more en vogue. As a result, you found teams moving more to a 3-4 defense to be able to get more speed on the field as offenses were built to be more mobile and not tied into being straight ahead plowers.
As you get into the 90s, you found more and more teams finding bigger backs and defenses starting to go back to more 4-3 plays.
Now, you get the spread offenses that are looking to run mostly at the tackles and outside. As you see that move more and more into the NFL, you are finding that the blueprint to success on this is to have LBs that are able to match the speed/strength combination of the QB/RBs while having a DL that can absorb blockers and keep the LBs free. You're starting to find more and more teams going with hybrid combinations of 3-4 and 4-3 defenses so that they can create looks to confuse QBs.
What's the point of this besides a TL, DR post?
If you look at the LB class that Petersen is bringing in, you're finding players that are going to be well positioned to take on spread teams in future years. In 2 of our last 3 games, we played spread teams in Arizona and the Cougs. Keep in mind that we were playing these teams with very limited depth in the secondary yet it didn't seem to matter. And the key to our success in these games defensively was a combination of having a DL that was able to hold their own, but just as importantly, having LBs that are able to make plays in both the run and pass games.
We've heard UW coaches talk about finding ways to beat Oregon. You haven't heard anything about that from Petersen. Instead, you're seeing it in action. He's recruiting players that are going to be able to play with spread teams but also be physically tough enough to play teams like Stanford that want to line up and run straight down your throats.
TL, DR Version: Game evolves, Petersen gets it. Fuck off.
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