Vic Fangio's defense, from a 49ers perspective

[Wakacha]

I got a chance to do a podcast with Oscar Aparicio, from the Better Rivals podcast on NinersNation, to talk about Vic Fangio's defense in San Francisco. He clears up a lot of the confusion about the type of 3-4 the Bears could run, as well as breaking down the pattern-match, 2-read zone scheme he runs.

http://dabearsbeat.com/2015/02/16/episode-6-fangios-defense-with-oscar-aparicio/

The podcast is an hour long, but if you just want the meat of the Fangio analysis, Oscar is on for about 35 minutes, starting at the 2:22 mark. It's also on iTunes if that's easier.



It's innovation and creativity on defense. Can't wait to see it on the field.

 

[Midway Fields]

He is going to run a 3-4, correct? Many on here believe the Bears will still be running a 4-3 base.

 

[knoxville7]

I forsee a lot of blown coverages in our secondary unless we upgrade the talent back there based off of what I hear about his defense

 

[Wakacha]

He is going to run a 3-4, correct? Many on here believe the Bears will still be running a 4-3 base.

I'm expecting a 1-gapping 3-4 base with multiple fronts. So many downs will be in nickel, though, that we probably won't see 4 down linemen on the field at the same time very much. With versatile rushers like Houston, Washington, Bass, McClellin, and maybe the #7 pick, I imagine we'll see a lot of alignments where the edge rushers come out with their hand on the ground, then stand up and step outside the tackle before the ball is snapped, and vice versa. Lots of moving rushers and shifting linemen.

 

[Bear Pride]

I forsee a lot of blown coverages in our secondary unless we upgrade the talent back there based off of what I hear about his defense

Not me, I can't see the Bears 2ndary being any worse than Tucker's "cover who" approach. The Bears 2ndary will be much improved with Fangio and Donatell, imo.

 

[Enasic]

Not me, I can't see the Bears 2ndary being any worse than Tucker's "cover who" approach. The Bears 2ndary will be much improved with Fangio and Donatell, imo.

Especially if we get better players which we're going to do.

 

[gallagher]

Not me, I can't see the Bears 2ndary being any worse than Tucker's "cover who" approach. The Bears 2ndary will be much improved with Fangio and Donatell, imo.

Fangio brings a system that brings lots of pressure. Our DBs cant possibly look any worse than they did in Tucker's system

 

[Butkus34]

I'm expecting the defense to be improved solely on the fact that they will be organized and on the same page front to back unlike the the free lance free for all that Tucker had going on


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[Run the ball]

Let me be the first to say thanks man!

 

[botfly10]

He is going to run a 3-4, correct? Many on here believe the Bears will still be running a 4-3 base.

I have not seen anyone on here say they think the bears are for sure gon run a 43.

Most I have seen anyone say is that we can't assume they are going to a 34 just cause Fangio.

 

[botfly10]

I'm expecting a 1-gapping 3-4 base with multiple fronts. So many downs will be in nickel, though, that we probably won't see 4 down linemen on the field at the same time very much. With versatile rushers like Houston, Washington, Bass, McClellin, and maybe the #7 pick, I imagine we'll see a lot of alignments where the edge rushers come out with their hand on the ground, then stand up and step outside the tackle before the ball is snapped, and vice versa. Lots of moving rushers and shifting linemen.

Does Fangio ever run a 3-3-5?

 

[Wakacha]

Does Fangio ever run a 3-3-5?

It was almost exclusively a 2-4-5 in nickel this year, but he'll occasionally have one of the linebackers put a hand down right before the snap and rush from the 7 or 9 tech spots, making an nontraditional 3-3-5. But I don't they ran a nickel snap with 3 pure DL in 2014. They may have done it more when they had more of their DL healthy, but that was not the case this year. Their (rare) Dime sets were 2-3-6

 

[botfly10]

Wat about the dreaded 1-5-5?

 

[Wakacha]

Wat about the dreaded 1-5-5?

They actually ran a handful plays with a 1-4-6 dime this year, but never 5 LBs, unfortunately

 

[Run the ball]

With all the LBers they played, doesn't it clearly point the finger to our lack of depth at that position?

This is going to be interesting to watch this team develop and adapt to a new philosophy.

 

[dabears70]

He is going to run a 3-4, correct? Many on here believe the Bears will still be running a 4-3 base.

That's just because nobody has come out and clearly said which defense we will run but I think there's a big chance that we'll be going to the 3-4 and the move of C.Hurtt to coach OLB's which is a coaching position that we've never had a coach with that title says a lot and remember that Hurtt has coached in both the 4-3 and the 3-4.

 

[dabears70]

Fangio brings a system that brings lots of pressure. Our DBs cant possibly look any worse than they did in Tucker's system

Reading that gets me excited to realize that we will finally not have a boring defense that we've been accustomed to for what feels like forever. We're gonna be blitzing guys from our LBers to our safeties to our corners and I can't wait to get next season going. Now of course we will have a huge learning curve to overcome with the players that are coming back will need to learn the new defense and there's gonna be a lot of new guys so it will take time to learn to play with each other but I'm excited that we have Fangio and Fox.

 

[Bears1985defense]

I am really interested in seeing what personnel changes are made on defense once Fangio has an opportunity to evaluate. With Tucker it was difficult to determine how competent they were because he made everyone look shitty.

 

[Wakacha]

That's just because nobody has come out and clearly said which defense we will run but I think there's a big chance that we'll be going to the 3-4 and the move of C.Hurtt to coach OLB's which is a coaching position that we've never had a coach with that title says a lot and remember that Hurtt has coached in both the 4-3 and the 3-4.

Fox said it at his press conference - the difference between a 4-3 and 3-4 is minimal because either way, they will run a 1-gap defense, so players will be asked to do the same things regardless of how many linemen and linebackers are on the field. Fangio himself said that he likes to call his defense a 3-4-3 because it's really both.


There is a clear distinction between that and a "Hybrid" system. Hybrid is a mix of both 1-gapping and 2-gapping, whereas Fangio's is just mixing 3-4 and 4-3 looks. Fangio's defense might look the same as a "Hybrid" defense at times, but the players are doing very different things in these two types of systems.

 

[Wakacha]

I am really interested in seeing what personnel changes are made on defense once Fangio has an opportunity to evaluate. With Tucker it was difficult to determine how competent they were because he made everyone look shitty.

I don't think Fangio will play a huge role in personnel decisions. Pace and Fox will make the changes, and Fangio will work with what they give him. Obviuosly, he'll have some input, but Fangio's just going to make sure that the best 11 players are on the field, regardless of where they were drafted or what their contract is worth. That is what will be most refreshing.