Clearing Up Confusion

That is the task for Juan Castillo and the new defensive coaches.  Too often mental mistakes led to breakdowns on defense in 2010.  Sean McDermott is a smart coach.  He had some smart players.  Somewhere there was a communication breakdown (and it did drive us insane).

One of the major themes for the offseason has been simplifying the defense.  We want players thinking less and playing faster.  Trust your eyes and go get the ball.  I mentioned in the previous post that Castillo may have been influenced by Iowa coach Norm Parker and the defense he runs because of its success and simplicity.

Some of you wondered how wise it would be for Castillo to be influenced by a college coach, if in fact that is what happened.  Other people wondered if Iowa’s lack of blitzing would carry over to our scheme.  Let’s talk about these issues.  Iowa does run a simple scheme.  It is basically the same as the Tampa 2.  I seem to recall Monte Kiffin and the Bucs doing okay with that.  And it isn’t that Iowa does anything brilliant or really unusual.  They do what they do really well.  The coaches do a very good job of getting the players ready and then the players execute the gameplan well.  What’s the point in designing a Belichick style gameplan if you can’t teach it to your players and they struggle to execute it?

I’m sure Castillo checked out the colleges that his son Greg was talking to during the recruiting process.  Castillo probably talked to a couple of assistant coaches to feel them out.  He may have watched some game tape.  Since Greg has been at Iowa you know Castillo has taken in every game.  It isn’t as if some light bulb went off and told Castillo that Norm Parker was a genius and this was the way to do things.  There are a lot fewer Eureka moments in football than fans think.  It is more likely that Castillo developed an admiration for how Parker did things and got good results.   When the situation arose that Castillo was a legitimate candidate for the Defensive Coordinator position he took a long look at the personnel in place.  Half of the defense might be new starters.  Many of those guys could be young players.  What is the best system for helping them to learn quickly?  Let’s simplify things and use some of the principles that Parker does at Iowa.  NFL coaches do these same things, but Castillo might know them best from Iowa because of how much he’s studied that program in the last few years.  We know Castillo has cited the Bears as a team to emulate in some ways.  They run a variation of the Tampa 2.

As for blitzing…Castillo learned a lot about blitzing from Jim Johnson.  I’m sure that won’t go away.  It will go down some.  Jim Washburn will coach the D-line and his system with the Titans didn’t call for as much blitzing as we did in recent years.  If the front four isn’t getting the job done, I’m sure we’ll turn the blitzers loose.   Castillo saw the impact that Antoine Winfield had in the Vikings debacle.  One player drove us crazy all night.  That kind of thing won’t be lost on Castillo.  The blitz will still be part of the Eagles defense.

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Sheil Kapadia put up a very good post where he examined the TD passes allowed by the Eagles defense last year.  There isn’t one glaring conclusion to draw, but you can see that team defense was as much a problem as RCB.  This ties into the theme of clearing up confusion.  We can’t have blown assignments and missed coverages like we did in 2010.  If the Red Zone defense can improve at all, some close wins become blowouts and maybe a loss or two becomes a win.

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There has been a lot of talk about DE Charles Johnson.  I’m not avoiding the topic.  I’ll get to him.  I’ve just been working in other areas.  I will watch tape and let you know what I think, but that will likely be next week.

A Simple Plan For The Eagles Defense

When I was in first grade any talk of KISS was based upon the “hottest band in the world” and their incredible guitar player Ace Frehley (still a favorite of mine to this day). In junior high I learned a new meaning for KISS…Keep It Simple Stupid. I think it was my math teacher, Mr. Baker, who first told me about the phrase and the concept behind it. Since then, I’ve heard it many times and from many people.

Juan Castillo has made it a point to tell people one of the changes to the defense will be to simplify it. As he points out, you can’t play fast if you are thinking. There is some truth to this. But what about Bill Belichick and his complex game plans? What about Jim Johnson and all the stuff he did?

I’m finishing up the book The Games That Changed The Game by Ron Jaworski. It’s a great read and I’ll write a review of it when I’m finished. A couple of chapters talk about defense. One of the interesting aspects is finding out what works schematically and philosophically.

Tony Dungy learned the basic ideas of his defense from Bud Carson. Dungy decided to simplify the system. He made it as player friendly as he could. Dick LeBeau came up with the complex zone blitz scheme. He was able to make this work because he is such a brilliant teacher.

Both coaches wanted their teams to play fast and be aggressive. Dungy stuck to the KISS principle. LeBeau was able to keep his defense complicated, but only because he was such an effective teacher that he could make his players feel like it was a simple defense.

I can’t stress enough that the biggest problem of the Sean McDermott era wasn’t a lack of talent or a lack of good gameplans, it was a lack of Sean’s ability to communicate well with his players. He came up with some really interesting gameplans and ideas, but did such a poor job of teaching them that players were confused in practice and in games.

A coach’s concepts are only good if he can teach them to his players and then get the players to correctly execute the ideas on the field. Jim Johnson was obviously a good teacher. He was able to get Eagles players to carry out some complex gameplans. McDermott couldn’t do this consistently. You’d see some weeks where the defense showed promise and others where the guys looked completely lost.

Castillo is still a curious choice as defensive coordinator, but give the man credit for instantly recognizing the biggest problem the players had…paralysis by analysis. Castillo will come up with a simplified scheme and go let the players play. He isn’t going to try and out-smart offenses. He understands that he’s not Buddy Ryan, Bill Belichick, or Bud Carson.

Young coaches want to prove themselves. They want recognition for the original ideas they come up with. They want to out-scheme opponents to build up a reputation for themselves. That’s just human nature. Castillo doesn’t have this burden. He’s been in the league. He knows winning games and playing well on your side of the ball is what keeps you employed. Brilliant concepts alone don’t mean squat. You need good players and you need the ability to get those players to understand your scheme so they can execute it.

Castillo has a reputation as being a good teacher.  He’s going to give his players less to think about and also will help them better understand what they are doing.  This should make the players more confident on the field.  It is better to know a simple gameplan through and through than to have a limited understanding of a complex one.  Again, the whole point is to get players to play faster.  Cut down on the information they have to process on each snap and let them go play.

Don’t take all this talk of simplifying things to mean the Eagles will be completely basic. Castillo spent a lot of time over the years discussing blitzes and how to attack pass protection schemes with Jim Johnson. Castillo will keep blitzing a part of the defense. Castillo is taking over a young defense. He needs to start simple and build upon that as he sees how the players handle his ideas.

I really am excited to see how the defense plays in 2011.  There is the possibility that Castillo will completely bomb and fall flat on his face, but there is also the possibility that he’ll fit right in running the defense and do a pretty good job.  One thing I do know…no matter what, the Red Zone defense won’t be any worse.

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Former NFL Safety Matt Bowen wrote an interesting column for the National Football Post where he supported Castillo’s focus on simplifying the defense.

Here is an article on Castillo and what he’s doing during the lockout to get prepared for when he does actually get to coach his players.