Sunday's game vs Vikes

[fredp45]

My brother and I have a disagreement...please help settle

1) Was there any difference in the defensive scheme we ran against the Vikes vs what we ran against the Cowboys? Please elaborate a little.

2) When thinking about how a defense plays, what percentage is due to coaching/schemes versus the players on the field?

Thanks

[Kilmer72]

If I remember correctly we safety blitzed a lot against the Pukes but we were getting to him and they couldn't figure out where we would come from next. We were in man defense. Problem is we can't do that and not pay for it, so we did the opposite against the Vikes. Without better safety play and TOs we might be peaking. So to answer your question all of the above.

[Countertrey]

Frankly, I think that someone had identified a "tell" that identified how, on any given play, Romo would identify where and when a blitz was coming. The also identified that Romo could be overwhelmed by defensive feints... In other words, lots of presnap motion that would draw his attention, and disrupt his thinking. This allowed Haslett to use an extremely aggressive game plan at the Line of scrimmage, with huge success.

They clearly felt that they could sit back, and force the Vikes to beat them with the pass... the problem was, the Vikes were able to move the ball on the ground enough to short circuit that plan. End of story. As I've said a few times, IMO, this game was lost on Nose Tackle play... the Vikes OWNED ours.