Will our defense be subject to the counter?

[MadHatter]

I doubt the wild cat is going to be as effective this year... Henning and all his praise will be short lived...

I think you are absolutely correct. The Wildcat is a gimmick offense....with no staying power.

It was not even very successful late in the season last year once teams had tape and began preparing for it. Liek with the panthers, Henning will refuse to change and the Dolphin fans will be calling for his head before mid-season.

[carolinarolls]

all undisciplined defenses are subject to the counter

[bleys]

this place is unbearable without turning signatures off.

1st I'd heard of this from anyone... Guess you haven't been to other boards...

[panthers55]

this place is unbearable without turning signatures off.

at any rate, two things make a counter harder - smart play and good backside ends. Mike Rucker was fantastic at staying at home. He didn't overpursue, he didn't bite on the fake. He was there on reverses, counters, bootlegs.

We have good ends, hopefully they'll improve at discipline. Even Brayton, only an asset against the run compared to the others, struggles at this.

Cutbacks will be a minor concern, but to that end I'm more worried about power running games than anything else. If you can beat us to the LOS, and make a good block, we might not have a lot for you. Same for combo blocks if we can't make a pile.

Truthfully I have no concerns for our passing game issues (and we had a ton last year late). We have more rushers, we have new corners, and a good scheme for what we currently have to face. The c2 should see us bumping receivers more, and against the fairly slow NFCS receivers, I'll take that.

But there are some strong runners on the schedule, we have depth and potentially quality issues at DT, no backup with any run specialty, and an eagerness to get to the ball. It'll be like the 2004 run D problems...LBs losing gap integrity because they're trying to cover where they think the other guy won't be.

You could be talking about the last 5 years of Indy's defense and this would fit. Meek's defense is susceptible to good running attacks like against us last year in preseason. It will be interesting what happens this year since Fox emphasizes stopping the run while Meeks emphasizes stopping the pass. Hopefully Baker does a good job with the D line this year.

[Mr. Scot]

tCutbacks will be a minor concern, but to that end I'm more worried about power running games than anything else. If you can beat us to the LOS, and make a good block, we might not have a lot for you. Same for combo blocks if we can't make a pile.

Good comments overall.

I'd agree with being concerned about this given Meeks history with the Colts, but I think the personnel set here has a little more beef and strength than the Colts D had. Thus, I think concerns will be allayed there in time.

Good run support from the secondary also helps when defending against the counter, and I think we'll have that as well.

[CarolinaPanthers8789]

This is not neccesarily something to be worried about as long as Meeks does not have the two Outside Linebackers swarming to the ball. Let Jon Beason and maybe sometimes Dan Connor attack the ball carrier (unless they are droping back in coverage), while Thomas Davis/ James Anderson and Na'il Diggs/ Landon Johnson protect the outsides of the two defensive ends (except on blitzes). This would protect the Panthers from the counter.

[monstercat]

With the things I've been reading about Meeks and Baker, they should be more disciplined than last year, but I'm anxious to see it on the field.

I agree with Mr. Scot about the secondary though. I really like Marshall in run support, so they should be improved on the back end, at least.

[Mr. Scot]

In minicamp, Baker was teaching and drilling multiple defensive line techniques. Not really sure Sunseri was much of a guru in that department since his forte' was linebackers, not DL.

[CarolinaPanthers8789]

I think you are absolutely correct. The Wildcat is a gimmick offense....with no staying power.

It was not even very successful late in the season last year once teams had tape and began preparing for it. Liek with the panthers, Henning will refuse to change and the Dolphin fans will be calling for his head before mid-season.

I agree the Wildcat offense will only be susceptible to those that are not preparing for this offense. I think the Wildcat would be very succsesful against the Miami Dolphins. They spend so much time practicing it, where as I am guessing they never practice defending against the Wildcat.

[CarolinaPanthers8789]

The secondary will be fine, Godfrey has finally learned all he needs to know about playing Free Saftey, so no one will have to cover his ass like last year. Marshall is already a proven player and I predict a break out season for the kid since the plan is to line him up at the opposing teams second receiver this year. Chris Harris is an animal back there at Strong Saftey and one of the best ball hawk players in the league. I am a little worried about Chris Gamble since the plan is to line him up at the opposing teams number one reciever, but I believe he will rise to the challenge and show everyone he is a top five cornerback this year. These are the wide recievers that Chris Gamble will be lined up against this year: Kevin Curtis, Roddy White, Roy Williams, Santana Moss, Antonio Bryant, Terrell Owens, Lary Fitzgerald, Marques Colston, Ted Ginn Jr., Jerricho Cotchery, Randy Moss, Bernard Berrian, and Steve Smith. Richard Marshall will be matched up against: DeSean Jackson, Michael Jenkins, Patrick Crayton, Malcom Kelly, Michael Clayton, Lee Evans, Anquan Boldin, Lance Moore, Greg Camarillo, Chansi Stuckey, Wes Welker, Bobby Wade, and Domenik Hixon.

[Snake]

Our offense loves running the counter and the counter trap so Im sure our D will be well prepared for any of that.

[Snake]

With the things I've been reading about Meeks and Baker, they should be more disciplined than last year, but I'm anxious to see it on the field.

I agree with Mr. Scot about the secondary though. I really like Marshall in run support, so they should be improved on the back end, at least.

I have always felt we have had a very disciplined groop on D. I think what our D has always been missing was good coaching. Our LBs were horrible at blitzing the last few years and when I can see who's blitzing from my couch I know the QB knows.

[rippadonn]

The secondary will be fine, Godfrey has finally learned all he needs to know about playing Free Saftey, so no one will have to cover his ass like last year. Marshall is already a proven player and I predict a break out season for the kid since the plan is to line him up at the opposing teams second receiver this year. Chris Harris is an animal back there at Strong Saftey and one of the best ball hawk players in the league. I am a little worried about Chris Gamble since the plan is to line him up at the opposing teams number one reciever, but I believe he will rise to the challenge and show everyone he is a top five cornerback this year. These are the wide recievers that Chris Gamble will be lined up against this year: Kevin Curtis, Roddy White, Roy Williams, Santana Moss, Antonio Bryant, Terrell Owens, Lary Fitzgerald, Marques Colston, Ted Ginn Jr., Jerricho Cotchery, Randy Moss, Bernard Berrian, and Steve Smith. Richard Marshall will be matched up against: DeSean Jackson, Michael Jenkins, Patrick Crayton, Malcom Kelly, Michael Clayton, Lee Evans, Anquan Boldin, Lance Moore, Greg Camarillo, Chansi Stuckey, Wes Welker, Bobby Wade, and Domenik Hixon.

I agree with the fact that Gamble IS a shutdown corner. The evidence last year was our competitors throwing toward Godfrey and Lucas instead of Harris and Gamble. Anytime they threw near Gamble and Harris good things would happen for us (int, forced fumbles) so they stopped.

They chose Lucas as the lesser evil. I'm not going to worry about Gamble, but the D line?!?....

[dmo4455]

This will be a non issue....every NFL defense pretty much has speed and fly's to the ball...Meeks new defense is a cov 2 defense with 7 guys in the box, as long as the linebackers have good reads and footwork they will make that play...if it did start hurting us in a particular game then we just run some kind of 8 man front with the safety in the box which will then leave us more vulnerable against the pass...but we do have a good secondary so that would be a good option.