Spotlight: Bill Sheridan
by Ed Valentine on May 26, 2009 7:00 AM EDT
in New York Giants News
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| Bill Sheridan |
It could be a long scoring drive for a touchdown. It could be one blown assignment resulting in a big play. It could be key pass completion given up without getting any pressure on the quarterback.
It doesn't really matter what it is. Honestly, it could be be just about anything. Every time something goes awry for the 2009 New York Giants' defense, just about every Giants' fan will have the same gut reaction.
"Would that have just happened if Steve Spagnuolo was still running the defense?"
You know it. I know it. Tom Coughlin and Jerry Reese probably know it. Bill Sheridan, the new defensive coordinator with the unenviable task of replacing the popular and amazingly successful Spagnuolo -- now head coach in St. Louis -- definitely knows it.
We have good players. There is no tip toeing around that, we have quality players. We have had them. And Jerry and Marc Ross and Dave Gettleman continue to bring them in and we have good players. Probably more comforting is that we have a fantastic coaching staff, a returning staff and add Jim Herrmann (linebackers) to the mix; I couldn’t have fallen into a better situation.
Sheridan coached the Giants' linebackers for Spagnuolo the past two seasons. He knows the story.
He knows Spagnuolo turned a passive, under-performing unit under the direction of Tim Lewis into an attacking, dominating unit that helped the Giants win a Super Bowl in 2007. He knows that last season Spagnuolo used his creativity to help a unit that lost Osi Umenyiora to injury and Michael Strahan to retirement remain among the league's best.
He knows Spagnuolo did it with a no holds barred, get after the quarterback at any price style. He knows he was hired because Coughlin expects his defense to continue that style, and to be built around pressuring quarterbacks from a variety of places and in a variety of ways.
He knows the Giants loaded up in the off-season, adding defensive linemen Chris Canty and Rocky Bernard, and linebackers Michael Boley and No. 2 draft pick Clint Sintim. He knows Umenyiora will be back this season, fully recovered from knee surgery.
He knows, in other words, that failure is not an option. He has the pieces to run a dominant, championship-caliber defense. He know that is what will be expected, and that is all that is acceptable.
Here is a great exchange in a recent Q&A with Sheridan.
Q: Is that additional pressure on you, like "I don’t want to screw this up" kind of pressure?
A: No, and I really don’t think like that. That is a fair question. I’m licking my chops; I can’t wait to get going in the fall. We have 10-15 really important practices coming up this spring with the OTAs and the mini camp. And those are very important. Anything we do is important. We don’t ever just do things to put time in. So that will all be important because we will have some new wrinkles. Each year you study other teams in the league and you modify some of the things you are doing. So we will add some new installation and the players will be fired up about that because it is new. And those practices are important. And we are developing players for the spring as well. But I don’t view it that way as far as additional pressure to screw it up. I just know that we are in a very good situation with good players and a fantastic, experienced coaching staff. And so I’m just licking my chops and can’t wait to get going. We are going to be good.
I think Sheridan is right. This Giants' defense should be very good -- provided its coordinator is up to the challenge in his first season ever in that capacity.
If this defense does not perform up to expectations, we all know where the finger will point.
Sheridan knows it, too.
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The next time
the Giant defense makes a stop on a key 3rd and 20 play, I know I’ll be thinking “Would that have just happened if Steve Spagnuolo was still running the defense?”
Yes, his dumbass blitz call on that 3rd and 20 in the playoff game against Philly still rankles. That was pretty much the point in time that I decided the defense would be able to carry on just fine without Spags’ playcalling provided, of course, that Osi returms healthy and Reese gets some more help at linebacker and safety.
Don’t get me wrong. I like Spags and what he brought to the table as the DC. I just think his “defensive genius” label was somewhat oversold. I doubt we’ll see much of a dropoff with Sheridan from an Xs and Os standpoint. To me, Spags’ strength was as the emotional leader of the defense; a coach who seemed to really mesh well with the players and have them playing at a high intensity level. From all accounts, Sheridan is not that kind of a coach. Hopefully, this defense is now mature enough to bring it every week without needing a fiery coach for its emotional motivation.
In recent years ...
the Giants’ D has been more notorius for being the best D in the league on 1st and 2nd downs, and then giving up way too many 3rd and longs (including 3rd and 20’s) by NOT applying enough pressure. I always went ballistic when they just rushed 3 on 3rd down.
Now late last year was a case of a lack of pressure due to a very thin D-line being worn out. Our offseason moves make that scenario unimaginable in ‘09. I will be highly shocked (and majorly frustrated) if we don’t see better pressure from our front 7 than we have seen in a long, long while. I’m actually optomistic that 2009 will show a Giants D capable of applying extreme pressure for 4 quarters, all season long. Whether or not Sheridan is the guy to get the most out of this talent is TBD.
I always thought
one thing Spags did well was not play ‘soft’ on third and long. Tim Lewis, yes. Spags, no.
by Ed Valentine on May 26, 2009 12:32 PM EDT up reply actions
At the end of the year
He would have to sell out with blitzing secondary and LBs, but if you look at the SB versus New England, the front four were doing the pushing on those 3rd downs, not the other players. Attacking is great and all, but sometimes on 3rd down you just need the front four to force the issue while the other 7 make sure to stop ’em short of that first down marker.
Spagnuolo
I think the best thing Spagnuolo did was implement “the best players on the field” philosophy, which meant sometimes lining up 3 defensive ends on the field at the same time.
I think Reese did a good thing by bolstering our D-line and I think Coach Sheridan, having spent time under Spagnuolo, will do a good job.
Too many corner blitzes
I’m with Ed. I don’t think Spags played it safe on third downs. I think, if anything ,he became too predictable with corner and safety blitzes on those downs, leaving our linebackers in coverage situations that they weren’t really all that equipped to handle. How many of those third down conversions came when somebody caught a ball over the middle and managed to run for just enough yards after the catch to get the first. Had the line not worn down, who knows, he might have remained more unpredictable, but those blitzes didn’t generate many sacks down the stretch because the other teams knew they were coming.
by Tucker Fredrickson on May 26, 2009 1:30 PM EDT reply actions
it wasn't so mucht the corner blitzes
as zone blitzes, which i believe Sheridan said he was going to dial back
I could be "mis-remembering" (like Andy Petite ...)
but it really seemed to me like we forced more than our share of 3rd and longs, and let over 50% be converted, mostly through lack of pressure, with the QB having way too much time to throw, and that the pass went past the dreaded yellow line …
I concur with Tucker F.
If you think back to that nightmarish 3rd and 20 play against Philly in the playoffs, the problem was that
Spags foolishly chose to blitz.
In that situation, I believed then (and still do today) that the defense should have been in a a dime package, flooding the zone, and used no more than five guys to pressure McNabb. The likely result would have been a throw underneath for a gain of less than the 20 yards needed, thereby forcing the Eagles to punt from their 25 into the wind. That blitz call was made even more egregious by the fact that the Giants had had very little success getting to the QB with anyone other than their front seven all year long. Despite that record of futility (as Tucker F. astutely points out) Spags was reluctant to abandon his love affair with the corner blitz resulting in a 3rd down defensive strategy that was not only predictable but largely ineffective for much of 2008.
So when did we all fall out of love with Stevie Defense?
6 months ago, everyone wanted to pay him buckets of money not to leave so he could be the next head coach, now he’s the ugly one night stand we just woke up next to with no cab fare?
He helped game plan the Giants to maybe the most improbable Super Bowl win of all time, I’m not going to criticize the guy for his play call on a 3rd and 20 against the Eagles.
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by Jim Schmiedeberg on May 26, 2009 2:31 PM EDT reply actions
For the record
I was never “in love” with Spags.
That’s not to say I didn’t like him as the Giants’ DC. Hardly. As I said upthread, I always thought it was a bit of a stretch to tag him with the “defensive genius” label after the 2007 Supe run. Yes, he came up with a brilliant scheme that made excellent use of the team’s personnel that year. But following the losses of Stra, Osi, Mitchell and Gibril, he didn’t really have the cast to run that scheme quite as effectively in 2008. By failing to adjust to the changes in personnel, Spags fell into a trap that ensnares far too many coaches, i.e. expecting your players to execute a scheme that they’re not well suited for rather than tailor the scheme to your players’ unique stengths and weaknesses. Spags unfortunate love affair with the corner blitz in 2008 predated the ill-fated 3rd and 20 blitz against Philly; it was a weak spot all year (remember the Browns game where the offense max protected against the blitz all game and Derek Anderson shredded the secondary who were left in single coverage.)
None of which is to say that I won’t miss Spags. Football Sundays just won’t be the same without the image of him wildly gesticulating to the defense from the sidelines. His passion was infectious and was a huge factor in the success of the defense. It will be hard to replace and I am admittedly a little concerned as to how the players will react to Sheridan’s more laid-back demeanor.
Spags
Have to agree with ‘jrs’ here. If you want to criticize Spags you have to do better than harping on one failed call in two years — years that included a Super Bowl victory against an 18-0 team and very good defense despite losing Osi Umenyiora and Michael Strahan in 2008.
Last season toward the end was a no-win situation. Giants could not get anywhere near a QB with a four-man rush, and I guarantee everyone would have been killing Spags if he didn’t try to create pressure with a variety of blitzes. Sometimes, other teams just make plays.
It’s actually pretty funny. All we have heard all off season is ‘I hope Sheridan doesn’t change the defensive philosophy.’ Now we’re killing the guy? Every coordinator occasionally makes a bad decision. Spags was tremendous, and he will be missed.
There's something to be said for both arguments here
I agree with Ed, that Spags was an excellent coach. He worked wonders both in installing an attacking spirit and in developing some good defensive schemes to get pressure on the quarterback. Worked like a charm in the superbowl. But let’s not canonize the guy just yet. I think Knickfan makes a really good point that Spags tried to run the same system without three key attacking players (let’s not forget how effective Kawika Mitchell was both as a blitzer and in zone coverage). I don’t think it was just that one play. We got burned on numerous corner blitzes down the stretch. The truly great coaches adjust their schemes to suit the strengths of their personnel, and when one package stops working, they develop another. I wonder if maybe the league just caught up to Spags. It’ll be interesting to see how he does in St. Louis.
by Tucker Fredrickson on May 26, 2009 3:22 PM EDT reply actions
Yes, it will
One thing I think we all can agree is that the Giants’ defensive personnel last season was not as good as it was during the Super Bowl year. If you turn the page and look ahead, that’s why it is exciting to think about how good the 2009 defense could be. It is loaded with weapons along the front seven.
by Ed Valentine on May 26, 2009 3:28 PM EDT up reply actions
Spags will be missed of course
he was light years better than Tim Lewis and his ‘prevent’ (you from winning) defense.
Spags had his downfalls on 3rd down, but this mainly is cuz of the fact the line didn’t get to the QB, that’s all.
I’ll also say that Spags had some instances where he used some form of “prevent”, Im pretty sure it was on many of those 3rd downs. I realyl hope the “prevent” is scrapped from the playbook altogether.
Id rather have the D be agressive and get burned than have them play prevent and get burned.
There has to be some middle ground where the blitz less, but enough. I really can’t stand when I see 7 guys in coverage, in prevent, then a completed pass.
This always happens it seems when the Giants were leading and it was towards the end of the quarter or even the game. It doesn’t make any sense.
Football is a game of aggression ...
While I can concur with most of the posters questioning a 3rd and 20 blitz, the buld of the 3rd and longs do call for increased pressure. Most pro QB’s can go through their progressions and find someone open if the pressure is not there. I just hope Sheridan realizes that having a talented front 4 does not mean rush the base guys and drop everyone else. Rushing 5 or 6 (especially if they are talented) will mean that very rarely does the QB complete multiple 3rd downs on a drive. Also, the amount of turnovers, and points off of turnovers could really climb in 2009 if we stay agressive.
Agree... to a point
With the right personnel, the kind of aggresive, blitz-heavy approach that Spags favors can be tremendously effective.
Hell, Giant fans don’t need to be told this. We all witnessed it firsthand during that magical stretch run in 2007. But one year later, we also got to see the limitations of this same approach when the Giants back seven accounted for a paltry five sacks for the entire year.
Nor was it for lack of trying, either. Spags was dialing up corner and safety blitzes with the same frequency that he had in ’07 but for some reason they just were not getting home. At a certain point, it behooves the coordinator to ask whether sending wave after wave of blitzers is really the best use of your secondary if those blitzes consistently fail to reach the opposing QB.
But I fully agree with Ed and those who think that should not be a problem this year. I fully believe with our amazing defensive line depth and upgrade at LB and corner (i.e. a full year of Terrell Thomas who looks to have very good pass rushing skills) we will see a successful return to the aggressive pass rush that Tom Brady must still have nightmares about.
let's not get carried away
Is been a while since my last post, but I think we should not get carried away. I like Spags a lot, and I think he deserves a lot credit for the Giants success, but all success goes with a bad call once an while. I don’t think there is a Head coach or coordinator who has not blown a call. I remember around 5 years ago when the iggles were the force in the NFC east and I think it was either divisional or NFC championship game, the iggles were hosting the packers and it was late in the fourth quarter, Green Bay leading and Mcnabb was facing a 4th and 29. The packers played preventing defense and McNabb converted (I still remember Favre’s face in disbelief) I could not believe it either, how could the iggles manage to convert 4th and 29. My point is that you can’t kill Spags for that 3rd and 20, either thing could have gone right or wrong. So I think he made the right call, we were (and are) and agreesive defense, he played what worked before, is a gamble. If not ask Favre about it.
Exactly
Everyone makes a bad call, bad play, bad decision every so often. Happens in sports, happens in life.
by Ed Valentine on May 26, 2009 7:57 PM EDT up reply actions
that was the 2nd round game, it was a 4th and 26
one of the worst moments of my sports-watching life, b/c I was watching the game with all Eagles fans. Thank God they lost to the Panthers the next week.
Also, makes you think maybe neither of these plays were terrible play calls, maybe Donovan McNabb is just one of the most elusive QB’s in the NFL with a knack for converting improbable plays.
To much emphasis on one bad game?
Hey guys, I’ve been reading the blog for a while(it’s great by the way) and just decided to throw in my two cents.
Don’t you think we are putting a little to much emphasis on one bad game? There was a lot of great play last year, but in that playoff game it seemed that all units played bad. There were dropped passes, we couldn’t convert on 3rd/4th and 1, we couldn’t pressure mcnabb, and our linebackers couldn’t cover anyone, yet we seem to blame each unit for losing the game single handedly.
I became
sorta disenchanted with spags last year.. His blitzing became predictable etc. We can’t forget.. Our G-Men gave up 80 points in Spags’ first two games.. And spags was also never a coordinator in the NFL before either. I think the transition is a bit of a non issue
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by Hoyadestroya85 on May 26, 2009 11:08 PM EDT reply actions
I wonder what the conversation was like in New England
when Romeo Crennel took the Browns job. Or when Eric Mangini took the Jets job. Or when…you get the point.
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