Dean Pees talks about the dime

**bmoreravenous** · 08-15-2017, 07:10 AM

Originally Posted by Rxdoxx

Part of that is going to hinge on how well Bowser progresses defending the pass

To quote Ken from his article on the front 7 http://russellstreetreport.com/2017/...mothers-skins/

And from SportingNews on his college resume
http://www.sportingnews.com/nfl/news...u1mqrmemwplyu8

Not predicting anything just adding an athletic LB into the possible mix
What little coverage I saw, he looked a lot better than a number of LBs we have had in coverage, but a very small sample

Saw this too - I'm also okay if he plays primarily as a pass coverage/pressure specialist. Also, he and Judon offer a lot of speed on the outside. Way better than Smith, Suggs, and Dumervil.

**Filmstudy** · 08-15-2017, 07:37 AM

Originally Posted by TL24x7

Ken, for comparative purposes, do you have any idea what the league average is for overall % of dime snaps? What team uses it most often? Least often (I presume the Ravens are at or near the bottom)?

The best piece of comparative information I can give is from team history...

The 2000 defense, with that amazing front 7, played 34.5% of snaps in dime (29.1%) or quarter (5.3%). Since that time, the NFL has become more of a passing league, not less.

Of current NFL teams, the Cardinals used it as perhaps their most common defense in 2016, including 4 safeties (Matthieu, Swearinger, Buchanon, and Jefferson) with 2 corners frequently. The data are here:

http://nflgsis.com/GameStatsLive/LegacyReports

It would not be too difficult to parse the names in Excel and make counts, but I'm not going to take the time.

The reason Pees is often questioned about it is that Baltimore fans grew up watching a defense that used a mess of DBs on passing downs to disguise both coverages and pressure. While those schemes were being employed, the defense had one of the great 10+ year runs in league history under Lewis, Nolan, and Ryan. If you (generally, but now Pees specifically) change our (the fans') defense, it better damn well be an improvement.

**leachisabeast** · 08-15-2017, 07:42 AM

This is where I cannot and will not defend Pees. I think some of the stick he gets here is unfair, but in this case you have to wonder what the hell he is thinking?

**Ravenswintitle** · 08-15-2017, 07:56 AM

Great to hear they finally have the horses to run more dime. I don't think you can look at the 2000 defense and others and compare the % fairly because it's become so much more of a passing league now and nickle is the base. Just glad they have the players to be more flexible and matchup against these shifty RBs and small slot guys

**Filmstudy** · 08-15-2017, 08:05 AM

Originally Posted by Ravenswintitle

Great to hear they finally have the horses to run more dime. I don't think you can look at the 2000 defense and others and compare the % fairly because it's become so much more of a passing league now and nickle is the base. Just glad they have the players to be more flexible and matchup against these shifty RBs and small slot guys

I agree that comparisons to 2000 are not apples to apples, but would you not agree that, if anything, teams should have more DBs today with heavier emphasis on the pass?

**Ravenswintitle** · 08-15-2017, 08:16 AM

Originally Posted by Filmstudy

I agree that comparisons to 2000 are not apples to apples, but would you not agree that, if anything, teams should have more DBs today with heavier emphasis on the pass?

No doubt. There were times last year when they were caught with a heavy package in, and the opposing QB recognized it and went to hurry up. Not having time to sub, they wore down quickly.

**The Fanatic** · 08-15-2017, 08:33 AM

Originally Posted by Filmstudy

I agree that comparisons to 2000 are not apples to apples, but would you not agree that, if anything, teams should have more DBs today with heavier emphasis on the pass?

One would think!
This ain't rocket science but it seems to have been for Pees based off of what we've seen in games (collapses) and the percentages you showed above in this thread.
I suppose defenders of Pees could point to lack of DB talent to play heavy DB packages but not anymore.
There are no more excuses!!!

**The Fanatic** · 08-15-2017, 08:36 AM

Originally Posted by Ravenswintitle

No doubt. There were times last year when they were caught with a heavy package in, and the opposing QB recognized it and went to hurry up. Not having time to sub, they wore down quickly.

Opposing coordinators saw it and out coached Pees as well.
The good QBs like Brady, Ben, etc. just dice that shit up which is why we have those 4th quarter collapses.
There are no excuses now to have these collapses.
It's sink or swim for Pees now IMO.

**GreatWhiteNorthRaven** · 08-15-2017, 08:36 AM

Originally Posted by The Fanatic

One would think!
This ain't rocket science but it seems to have been for Pees based off of what we've seen in games (collapses) and the percentages you showed above in this thread.
I suppose defenders of Pees could point to lack of DB talent to play heavy DB packages but not anymore.
There are no more excuses!!!

Agreed. With Hill emerging it makes the excuse disappear (of the Young injury and lack of Canady). There isn't one. Your dime corners can be Smith, Carr, Humphrey and Hill/WEbb.

If you want to move Jefferson down to play man on a TE you can move Webb back to FS and have Jefferson lineup with a TE or RB.

If you want to defend the run Jefferson can play the LB spot and Levine drops back into a dime corner or you put in Hill.

The possibilities are endless.

**bravens23** · 08-15-2017, 08:41 AM

Originally Posted by leachisabeast

This is where I cannot and will not defend Pees. I think some of the stick he gets here is unfair, but in this case you have to wonder what the hell he is thinking?

I mean I suppose the case could be made in more recent years that we never really had an opportunity to get 6 DBs on the field. I mean look back at like 2014 or 2015... we barely even had 3 TOTAL DB's, including Safeties, that we were even comfortable putting on the field, let alone throwing six of them out there. That would have meant putting guys like Elam and Lewis out there in coverage frequently. Not ideal.

This year... no excuse.

**Ravenswintitle** · 08-15-2017, 08:58 AM

Having that 2nd solid safety is huge! Really hoping they can avoid the injury bug in the D this year so we can see what we can do with all the horses

**757RavensFan** · 08-15-2017, 09:07 AM

Originally Posted by Filmstudy

Dean got consecutive questions about the dime defense today:

You ran the dime package quite a bit. What do you like about that? You haven’t necessarily run it a ton in the past; you practiced it. But, what do you like about that package, and specifically, DB/LB Anthony Levine, Sr. being on the field in that package? (Luke Jones)

“Like anything, [when] you put more speed on the field, you’re going to play faster – it’s not rocket science. The thing about him was in the past, too, we kind of have been a little light at safety and felt like we needed to leave him at safety. So, this offseason, we made a little bit more commitment to try to maybe get him some work in there at the dime spot and be able to play it and be able to play it all the time – not necessarily having to get stuck in a situation where we can play it on any down and distance, rather than just on third down. Again, the more speed you put on the field, the faster the pressures are, the better the coverage is. We would like to do that in a lot of different ways.”

Levine played 104 total snaps (competitive, non-penalty) last season. Of those, 49 were dime and 47 of those came with Mosley injured. After being the team's MVP in the preseason, Pees used him as a big nickel in the opener vs. Buffalo. He played 42 snaps in the first 3 weeks, none of which were dime snaps despite practicing with the linebackers all camp. After 3 weeks, he played just 13 non-dime snaps the rest of the way. What's the point? Dean is offering a mildly revisionist interpretation of last season. The Ravens practiced the dime all camp, but chose to leave Albert McClellan (as joker) and Zach Orr (as the 2nd ILB) on the field in the preponderance of pass packages in lieu of Levine. They didn't choose to leave Levine at safety because they were "a little light" there, Pees chose McClellan and Orr over him for passing situations.

Can you talk a little more about DB/LB Anthony Levine? In baseball, you talk about utility players. Levine is probably as close to that as possible. How valuable is that? (Bo Smolka)

“It is great value. If you really think about it, we have several guys that have done that over the years. You have Anthony doing that at safety; he has played nickel for us. I think one game he might have even played corner for us. He has played dime. We have Albert McClellan, who has played inside linebacker, outside linebacker, RUSH and end in sub. He has done all of those things for us. You always need a couple of guys on your team that are just so smart like that, they go in there and plug in a hole, because you never know in a situation in a game, and all of a sudden you get a couple of injuries, it is not like you have a week to prepare to get another guy ready. All of a sudden, it is in the game, and you want to keep the flow going. When you have a couple of guys like that, it is just invaluable. I think sometimes that is overseen. A couple years ago, maybe it was when Ray [Lewis] was down – the Super Bowl year – we had a run there for some games where Albert went in there and played MIKE, and we won all three games. It is just stuff like that. If you are going to be a good defense and a good team, you have to have some guys that can do that. Those two guys really stand out, and we have some others, too.”

I am guessing Pees will finally have to change to predominantly dime this season, since it does not appear Correa should be more than a 2-down ILB. Levine should get some snaps if the team doesn't use another player in the role (Jefferson and Clark are both possibilities). But Dean Pees has called 3% dime snaps over 5 years as the DC (148 dime snaps in 5,528 total snaps including post season = 2.7%) with a variety of linebackers and safeties. You can't play that little dime without having a bias not to do so.

So you're projecting that Clark makes the final 53? A few of the final 53 predictions I've seen don't have him making the 53.

/Off-topic/
I'm praying that he does! He's a good friend of my son's and I used to coach both of them when they played pop warner.