HaasBear04;842091357 said:
Lewis wasn't in position to do what I advocate: hit Kaep right after the mesh point whether he has the ball or not. That would be the Defensive End or OLB, not the ILB.
Watch the game again... Because he wiffed twice when in position to hit Kap at that "mesh point" on run blitzes. Second, the quote "...It's been crazy, watching the tape and not seeing him get hit," defensive tackle Haloti Ngata told the San Francisco Chronicle. "If we get a shot, we have to take it. You have to slow him down, make him think about not wanting to get hit."
"I've been surprised," insider linebacker Dannell Ellerbe said. "You want to hit the quarterback anyway, and now you get a chance to take shots because he is out in the open and not protected."
Along with several others from most of the defense and coaches is pretty telling...
THE SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS (ie the best team in the country, with several of the best players) WANTED TO HIT HIM, and when the time came, they reacted just like everyone else... flat footed and reacting. Ray Lewis is just the most glaring example, if you rewatch the game. With all his preparation, focus, and desire to hit him, when the time came to do it, he froze and didnt hit anyone... at LEAST twice.
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His 37 year old legs took him out of the game before it even began. Even the Lord Above couldn't change that fact.
He was within arms reach of a stationary Kaepernick and (iirc) a moving Gore and hit no one. That was not his legs, it was that when the chips are down, you try to make the play on the ball, not go after a guy who does not have the ball in the hopes that your body shot might pay off next year.
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The defense can't avoid the numbers trap unless they run some sort of risky blitz. If the olb/DE is going to be neutralized by the zone read, you might as well pop the qb every single time.
In an ideal world where people are single minded and not worried about winning or losing, this is a good idea. The issue is that football does not actually work like this. The VAST majority of the time, there are a good number of steps taken before the defense gets close enough to make a play. At that point the defender can hit the QB anyway (as you think everyone should/will, and the Ravens claimed they would) - leading to a VERY likely penalty given the amount of time that has passed between the play and the hitting of the NFL QB (just like with ANY play-action type play), taking himself out of the play completely (this is a big one because usually their mind thinks they are still close enough to make a play on the ball after the see what happened) all for the trade off of POSSIBLY making him think twice in another game or after several times doing in in this game, compounding the risk of penalties...
Not going to happen. And is EXACTLY why something called "play action" (the same idea as the Pistol) still works now. Free shots are not as common as you seem to think. Watch possibly the best defenses in the game play the 49ers last year... MAYBE an opportunity to get a free significant hit came a once a game. In those, Kap is still moving and the hit is not the kind that makes a 230lb guy worry.
The rest of the time the play has developed so significantly, that either the "hit" would be superficial or superficial
and a 15 yard penalty on the end of a run.
Basically: the play where you and the ravens seem to think there is opportunity to take a free shot is very rare.
You can see this in a super bowl where the defensive PLAN was to hit Kap when he did not have the ball, and he was almost never even TOUCHED after he let go of the ball.
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Big time shots can pay immediate dividends.
Big shots against players without the ball very often pay immediate dividends to the offense, and rarely pay off by in the way you are claiming.
For it to work you have to adjust the way NFL players THINK, not for one game, but entirely, because plays happen to fast. You have to change the midset of the defense from trying to stop the offense to running down people without the ball.
You also have to change that the NFL is trying to PREVENT hitting players who dont have the ball, defenseless players and QB's.
The first might be possible if more teams run the pistol as a major part of their playbook (even they 49ers run it a minor part)...the second will
never happen.
Here is a simple mental exercise that will help you think about how likely your idea is.
1. We KNOW that hitting Kap every play would slow him down, make him hesitate and potentially take him completely out of the game (per conventional wisdom)
2. We know defenses are aware of this and have been trying to do just that (per the quotes above)
3. We know that it has not happened and he seems to be getting babied by defenses he sees (per your own recollections)
Answer these questions:
Why is he not being hit as you think he should be?
Why have defenses not started hitting QB's on runs based on the Play Action?
What is fundamentally different between a QB pretending to hand off on a play action and pretending to throw on a run and the pistol?
Why have defenses not "adjusted" after decades of running QB's?
What needs to happen for QBs to be hit more?
