Post by MOnarchsRule on May 26, 2009 13:28:58 GMT -5
Leave it to Donnie to tinker with greatness......
Donnie Henderson's hire of Rod Marinelli as Defensive Co-ordinator may seem like a knock on Dennis Thurman, but Coach Henderson says, "Not so fast......"
In talking to Henderson, he noticed that the Monarchs started to tail off towards the end of the season on D the last few years, so he decided to 'spice it up'.
To Donnie Henderson, defensive football must be a game of deception played by 11 Mike Tysons. So it should come as no surprise that while preparing for the 2008 season, Ryan, the Ravens' defensive coordinator, became intrigued with a smallish Lineman from Houston named Philip Hunt. "As soon as I saw Hunt on the field," Donnie recalled, "I said, 'We have to have him.' He just destroyed that QB! My kind of guy! We don't chase the pretty girl. We chase the passionate, mean s.o.b. who loves football."
"Football's a game of controlled violence," Hunt said last week after practice, "and one of the most important things you do is inflict pain. But what you do here always has a smart idea behind it."
Spoken like a true Monarch. But drafting Hunt was only part of the change for this season. With Hunt and Connor Barwin from the draft, Cameron Wake from the CFL, and DT Antajj Hawthorne in free agency, the Monarchs have the personell to shift schemes quarter by quarter or even play by play. With Marinelli's hiring, the Monarchs now encorporate a 3-4 scheme, a 4-3 scheme, the 46 defense, and even Marinelli 's 'Tampa 2' defense. Marinelli may be the defensive co-ordinator, but form the day he arrived Donnie said, "Here, memorize this." It was Dennis Thurman's playbook. He did the same to Dennis, giving him Rod's playbook. So now both coaches study during the week how best to merge both books and both D's. During a typical week, the entire staff meets for long hours and concocts strange schemes that opponents have never seen.
In a 2008 game against Washington, Daunte Culpepper had no idea what hit him when four blitzers—so close to each other that their shoulders almost touched—plowed through the right tackle--guard hole. No one else rushed. Culpepper got up looking as if he had been hit by a Smart Car. Who rushes four men from the same spot and leaves the other lanes empty? "Henderson does a great job on the overload blitzes," says Jets defensive coordinator Bob Pettine. "It's hard for an offense to adjust to something like that when you don't leave other spots on the field uncovered."
Henderson, 46, learned from one of the masters of pressure D—his friend, Rex Ryan, current head coach of the NFL's New York Jets, who in turn learned from his father, Buddy Ryan. Buddy was all about mismatches and intimidation. Buddy Ryan brought the blitz-dominated 46 defense to the NFL as defensive coordinator of the Bears in the early '80s; cornerbacks were valued for their ability to blitz and play bump-and-run. "My dad was all about outnumbering the protection," Rex says. "If there was a six-man protection, he'd send seven. He had a Cover Zero philosophy." Buddy also taught sons Rex and Rob—the Raiders' defensive coordinator—to use their imagination to outsmart the offense. Rex's schemes seem as risky as Buddy's, but look closer. He never leaves the deep middle exposed.
In Kansas City, Donnie's creativity this preseason included taking pages from the Ryan zone-blitz book by dropping 325-pound tackle Hawthorne into a shallow zone and leaving the center to block no one, while a blitzer rushes through another gap. Often Donnie will mix zone and man coverage on the same play, using a Cover Two look deep while shadowing shallow receivers man-to-man. "We call it the Hydra defense. In Greek mythology, the Hydra was this three-headed beast that if you cut one of it's head off, 2 more would take its place. That's gonna be us this year. Just when you think you've figured us out, we'll flip it on you. I believe in this, our system will work," Donnie says, "Because on every play the offense is thinking, Here comes the blitz. And whether it is or not, the quarterback better have a clock in his head, because he's not going to have much time."
Donnie Henderson's hire of Rod Marinelli as Defensive Co-ordinator may seem like a knock on Dennis Thurman, but Coach Henderson says, "Not so fast......"
In talking to Henderson, he noticed that the Monarchs started to tail off towards the end of the season on D the last few years, so he decided to 'spice it up'.
To Donnie Henderson, defensive football must be a game of deception played by 11 Mike Tysons. So it should come as no surprise that while preparing for the 2008 season, Ryan, the Ravens' defensive coordinator, became intrigued with a smallish Lineman from Houston named Philip Hunt. "As soon as I saw Hunt on the field," Donnie recalled, "I said, 'We have to have him.' He just destroyed that QB! My kind of guy! We don't chase the pretty girl. We chase the passionate, mean s.o.b. who loves football."
"Football's a game of controlled violence," Hunt said last week after practice, "and one of the most important things you do is inflict pain. But what you do here always has a smart idea behind it."
Spoken like a true Monarch. But drafting Hunt was only part of the change for this season. With Hunt and Connor Barwin from the draft, Cameron Wake from the CFL, and DT Antajj Hawthorne in free agency, the Monarchs have the personell to shift schemes quarter by quarter or even play by play. With Marinelli's hiring, the Monarchs now encorporate a 3-4 scheme, a 4-3 scheme, the 46 defense, and even Marinelli 's 'Tampa 2' defense. Marinelli may be the defensive co-ordinator, but form the day he arrived Donnie said, "Here, memorize this." It was Dennis Thurman's playbook. He did the same to Dennis, giving him Rod's playbook. So now both coaches study during the week how best to merge both books and both D's. During a typical week, the entire staff meets for long hours and concocts strange schemes that opponents have never seen.
In a 2008 game against Washington, Daunte Culpepper had no idea what hit him when four blitzers—so close to each other that their shoulders almost touched—plowed through the right tackle--guard hole. No one else rushed. Culpepper got up looking as if he had been hit by a Smart Car. Who rushes four men from the same spot and leaves the other lanes empty? "Henderson does a great job on the overload blitzes," says Jets defensive coordinator Bob Pettine. "It's hard for an offense to adjust to something like that when you don't leave other spots on the field uncovered."
Henderson, 46, learned from one of the masters of pressure D—his friend, Rex Ryan, current head coach of the NFL's New York Jets, who in turn learned from his father, Buddy Ryan. Buddy was all about mismatches and intimidation. Buddy Ryan brought the blitz-dominated 46 defense to the NFL as defensive coordinator of the Bears in the early '80s; cornerbacks were valued for their ability to blitz and play bump-and-run. "My dad was all about outnumbering the protection," Rex says. "If there was a six-man protection, he'd send seven. He had a Cover Zero philosophy." Buddy also taught sons Rex and Rob—the Raiders' defensive coordinator—to use their imagination to outsmart the offense. Rex's schemes seem as risky as Buddy's, but look closer. He never leaves the deep middle exposed.
In Kansas City, Donnie's creativity this preseason included taking pages from the Ryan zone-blitz book by dropping 325-pound tackle Hawthorne into a shallow zone and leaving the center to block no one, while a blitzer rushes through another gap. Often Donnie will mix zone and man coverage on the same play, using a Cover Two look deep while shadowing shallow receivers man-to-man. "We call it the Hydra defense. In Greek mythology, the Hydra was this three-headed beast that if you cut one of it's head off, 2 more would take its place. That's gonna be us this year. Just when you think you've figured us out, we'll flip it on you. I believe in this, our system will work," Donnie says, "Because on every play the offense is thinking, Here comes the blitz. And whether it is or not, the quarterback better have a clock in his head, because he's not going to have much time."
