PJ Davis on Permanent Blitz Duty?

Longestday

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I would like to know what the down side of placing PJ Davis on permanent blitz duty.

He is fast, relentless, and seems to have incredible ability to find the ball. You can blitz him from anywhere on the field.
 

Northeast Stinger

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That is a fascinating idea -line him up all over the field but kind of have it obvious that wherever he is he is going to come after the quarterback. My first thought was that this leaves us vulnerable to being schemed against not to mention passes thrown into the zone he vacated. But my other thought was that maybe this would be like how it was way back in the day when blitzes were not disguised quite as much as they are now. Blitzes were effective back then even if the blitzer did not get to the quarterback because it caused offensive linemen to lose focus on the player in front of them as well as causing quarterbacks to get careless in the exchange with the center. Any of those things can mess up the timing of a play just enough that the play is not successful, even if the guy blitzing only gets to the quarterback 10% of the time.
 

vamosjackets

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PJ is #2 in the ACC in total tackles...FYI...
which is the best argument for not blitzing him. If we do, who's going to make the tackle when the play isn't toward him? From his LB position he can run plays down. But, yeah, it's still a good idea. The problem with PJ is there's only one of him.

Maybe you could just play him at rush DE and move Freeman over to strong DE (though it would make our DL smaller). And, then you could play Harrell and/or Marcordes more who are both pretty good players. That might be another way of trying to get your best 11 on the field.

The least you could do is move PJ down to rush end on passing downs and bring in better cover guy in the back 7. Dropping into coverage is one of PJ's weaknesses anyway. I even like the idea of a dollar package where you actually just have 3 DL (make those 3 be fast, relentless players rather than actual DL), so we could send less people and get more coverage and probably still get just as much pressure (could hardly get less). Then you could also be creative with that package and send 1, 2, or 3 blitzers from different places and still have enough guys back to play zone rather than man. That's a Tenuta thing.
 

alaguy

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which is the best argument for not blitzing him. If we do, who's going to make the tackle when the play isn't toward him? From his LB position he can run plays down. But, yeah, it's still a good idea. The problem with PJ is there's only one of him.

Maybe you could just play him at rush DE and move Freeman over to strong DE (though it would make our DL smaller). And, then you could play Harrell and/or Marcordes more who are both pretty good players. That might be another way of trying to get your best 11 on the field.

The least you could do is move PJ down to rush end on passing downs and bring in better cover guy in the back 7. Dropping into coverage is one of PJ's weaknesses anyway. I even like the idea of a dollar package where you actually just have 3 DL (make those 3 be fast, relentless players rather than actual DL), so we could send less people and get more coverage and probably still get just as much pressure (could hardly get less). Then you could also be creative with that package and send 1, 2, or 3 blitzers from different places and still have enough guys back to play zone rather than man. That's a Tenuta thing.

I had thought about the same, put the FASTEST guy on def at rush end on passing down(, heck,maybe even Snoddy)---see if he can get around corner on OT,----- almost anything is an improvement
 

Oldgoldandwhite

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One thing I noticed when we blitz. We give the receivers too big a cushion. All you have to do is cover for 3 seconds, but it is one thousand one - completion.
 

dhbartlett12

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play at 3-3-5. Davis as roaming blitzer. You can drop him back and use Nealy to change things up. Marcordes can stop the run on a semi permanent basis.

Gostis, Green, Freeman up front.
 

Techster

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One thing I noticed when we blitz. We give the receivers too big a cushion. All you have to do is cover for 3 seconds, but it is one thousand one - completion.

I think CPJ got on DJ White towards the end for giving up too big of a cushion on a 3rd down play. You could see him go after White after the play ended. Had the pass not been bad, the WR would have converted. DJ was still backpedaling when the WR broke his route...and the WR was like 2 yards beyond the first down marker. That's just terrible awareness.

Our players need to be better at situational awareness. On the other side of the ball, Waller broke his route short on a 3rd and 10...he caught the ball, but was like 2 yards short of the first down. Waller needed to go beyond the first down mark before breaking his route.

If I'm playing against our defense, I would just have WRs do 5-8 yard stops or 5-8 yard in routes/curls all day given how far our CBs play back and they make it worse by backpedaling AFTER the snap! Still can't fathom why offenses haven't caught on to that yet.
 

AE 87

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I think CPJ got on DJ White towards the end for giving up too big of a cushion on a 3rd down play. You could see him go after White after the play ended. Had the pass not been bad, the WR would have converted. DJ was still backpedaling when the WR broke his route...and the WR was like 2 yards beyond the first down marker. That's just terrible awareness.

Our players need to be better at situational awareness. On the other side of the ball, Waller broke his route short on a 3rd and 10...he caught the ball, but was like 2 yards short of the first down. Waller needed to go beyond the first down mark before breaking his route.

If I'm playing against our defense, I would just have WRs do 5-8 yard stops or 5-8 yard in routes/curls all day given how far our CBs play back and they make it worse by backpedaling AFTER the snap! Still can't fathom why offenses haven't caught on to that yet.

Either on the radio show or the interview last week, CPJ complained about DJ being in man with his eyes on the QB instead of on the Rx. The play that got CPJ animated against DJ was the same sort of deal, imo.
 
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