Chiefs Fans Want To Know - Defense

I’m not defensive expert but here’s my thoughts on Clancy. First, I think his biggest weakness is that he gets ‘too cute’ sometimes and he’ll simply out think himself. He can come up with some crazy defensive looks but he’s no Dick LeBeau or Jim Johnson.

- Base Defense and 3-4 vs. 4-3 – His ‘hybrid’ look, especially in 2008 when it became more defined, looked like a 3-4 on one side with a stand up OLB (Okeafor) and a big DE (A. Smith). On the other side though it looked exactly like a 4-3 with a smaller DE (Berry & LaBoy) and a more tradional DT (Dockett).

- As far as his effectivenss, if he does the same thing that he did here, there will be some games when you’re wanting him to sign a lifetime extension and other times when your hoping that they fire him at halftime. Overall though, I think by seasons end you’ll look back at the stats and be disapointed. Here’s how we summed up his career after his firing:

The ultimate black mark on his resume could be that after lowering the points allowed per game in 2004 to 20.1, his defenses gave up more points every year of his tenure.

The 3-4 is more of an attacking scheme vs. the 4-3 which is more of a reacting scheme. In the 3-4 sets he did a lot of reacting which helped put a lot of players out of position. He did however use a lot of crazy blitzes which at times were very hard to stop, but when a team was in the right set, there was no way for the defense to recover. The 4-3 under will be similar to a 3-4, but the predator LB will be basically an end that can drop into coverage when not blitzing the QB. The hybrid is a transitional defense used to move through the stages. Until your personnel is set for the 3-4, it may be your only chance to succeed. Personally, I’m not a fan of it. I think you bring in a whole new crop of players familiar with the scheme and go from there.

He pressures the offense the whole game and it works, then when the game’s on the line, he gets too conservative. Re-watch the Super Bowl to see what I mean.