Fangio vs. Pagano Defense

Rory Sparrow

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Instead of blurry zone coverage he plays man-to-man, because almost any blitz in the NFL or any blitz at any level has man-to-man principles behind it. It has to.

Kind of a ridiculous statement. It's either too stupid to have any meaning, or too vague to have any meaning.

I remember years ago people were upset with the Fangio hire because Willie Young might be asked to start a play with his hand in the air instead of his hand on the ground. The biggest issue is that Fangio was arguably the best defensive play caller in the NFL, and that one year in which Pagano served as defensive play caller, he was facing QBs like Colt McCoy and Blaine Gabbert.
 

Chris Sojka

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I think Pagano will excel as a defensive playcaller. He isnt strictly a man to man. He mixes zones into the blitzes and man schemes to upset timing and force a bad throw. This stuff is ridiculous. Do you really think they will be giving up big plays on broken coverages. Some if you have no foresight.
 
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anotheridiot

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I just dont want to see the little 180 pound nickel blitzing while Mack and Floyd drop in coverage anymore and run away from the football. That has been mindblowing over the fangio years.
 

Bearly

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I've got a wait and see on this one but when it comes to play calling Fangio>Pagano. His D was more versatile with more looks etc. I doubt Pagano ever lined up 1\2 the team 15 yards away on 3rd and 15.
 
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legendxofxlink

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In 2017, Fangio blitzed 5+ 23.4% of the time. Pagano blitzed 5+ 21.1% of the time.

Here is Fangio's 2018 numbers, incredible stats with incredible talent...
https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stat-analysis/2019/pressure-number-pass-rushers-2018

Pagano is not going to come in here and blitz 40% of the time, nor is he going to run Fuller m2m 90% of the time knowing very well that's not his strength. This is all fabricated bullshit. He will be more aggressive than Fangio and he will challenge Fuller into trying to further develop his game, and I'm great with that. I expect the offense to put up more points this year, allowing the defense to take more risks than last year, but it's not going to be an asinine amount where Fuller is getting burnt twice a game.

From the man himself...

Pagano reiterated what he told reporters at his introductory press conference last Thursday; that he will mix elements from his scheme with what the Bears did under Fangio, who left the team to become head coach of the Denver Broncos.
“The terminology part of it, that’s always a challenge,” Pagano said. “I said I’d put it more on myself and the new coaches to adapt and try to merge the two schemes together the best we can. There’s some carryover, after watching last year’s tape.
“It’ll just be a matter of meshing the things—me learning some and I’ll challenge the defense and the new coaches and the guys that are returning from last year to learn some stuff. [But] I’ll try to take as much off the players’ plate as possible.”
 

DaGrizzler

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This article is stupid. It presumes Pagano is too egotistical and stupid to force the defense to play "his system" he used in the past. Sure there will be new wrinkles and adjustments, but wholesale forcing the D to play his old system ----?
 

vabearsfan15

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Interesting thoughts from the article as it articulates much more clearly what I've been concerned about. Not so much about Pagano, but with the departure of Fangio. Vic is a magician. He built the 49ers prolific defense that carried them to the Superbowl and he replicated the same here in Chicago. He has a knack in identifying talent that fits within his scheme and somehow always gets the best out of his secondary. We would continually have UDFA come in a play good in coverage. Whatever Fangio does, it has to be beneficial to our DBs!

Regardless, I think we were very fortunate to have a guy like Pagano come in. If anyone could keep this defense playing at the level Fangio got it, he is on the shortlist of guys to do it. I just hope that our players, particularly secondary, has more individual talent in man coverage skills than I give them credit for. I think they are talented, but just wonder how much Fangio's scheme, if at all, helped mask some of their deficiencies.
 

remydat

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The article confuses playing zone with playing off. Fuller was great because playing off allowed him to keep things in front of him and he is good breaking on the ball. So less a case of him playing exclusively zone and more a case that he played off which allowed him to play the ball more. He can still do that under Pagano but maybe will be a yard or so closer since blitzing will likely lead to quicker throws.

The article also ignores Prince played in tighter to the CB as he prefers to be a bit more physical and to and run with WRs. He will just have to do this with a little less safety help which should be fine provided the blitz does cause the ball to come out sooner.

So I think it is less about the CBs struggling playing man and more about Pagano allowing them to position themselves in a way that plays to their strengths.
 

NCChiFan

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I suppose all will depend upon Pagano's pure system adding actual pressure. If it works, the Bear's CB's will be fine.
 

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