The coaches really had two choices. A) work on some of the new stuff they have put in going into year two, or 😎 work mainly out of the base and see where some of the guys are at.

I am sure what the coaches took from this is how the front line worked and that they got work out of the base defense, and, how some of these LB's could do out of the base.

While the #1 DL all played together last year they did not line up how they are lining up this year so they need the work. Plus there is a lot of raw talent behind those guys including Harrell in terms of where he is at physically so they were able to get more information IMO out of the base defense on the front line then had they run a lot of other stuff.

The bottom line is they are going to have to line up and play well out of the base so they might as well emphasis that aspect of the D early on. Granted, they aren't going to look overpowering that way but individual evaluations are important right now.

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You always blitz in the 3-4. I mean that's the point. To run an exotic defense capable of confusing QBs. How much heat do you bring? From what I saw, Green Bay sent three or four guys most of the time. That is being very easy going.

For me, I wasn't impressed with the front line getting a push and Brandon Chiller rushing from OLB. Those are the two things that have me worried, but then again, I've been saying for a while now that the pass rush is the achilles heel of this team.

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I agree that the defense's poor performance is a concern even though they may have run a vanilla scheme, but the vanilla scheme does mitigate the concern somewhat. The NFL has gotten so complex that if you take away parts of a scheme, the unit (whether offense or defense) just doesn't function in the way it is intended, and it can look worse than it really is, which makes the players look worse than they are. I'm not sure if that was the case in the Cleveland game. I do think that the players didn't play very well overall. The absence of Clay Matthews, and for the most part, Charles Woodson, also figure heavily into the mix.

I think your standard for a championship team doesn't really work for the NFL. It's not like college or high school football, where the best teams can physically dominate the weaker ones. In the NFL, the talent levels of each roster are not so far apart from each other, so coaching is more important. When the coaches are not using everything at their disposal it is harder to judge how good the teams really are.

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I think the biggest difference in regular season defensive game plans vs preseason ones.. is the regular season is geared to stop the opposition first.. in preseason it is to set particular players in particular sets and calls to see how they respond.

A good DC will use this time to gather information one the tools his has at his disposal.. which it turn helps shape his game plans in the regular season.

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