How One Man Ruined Defense In The NFL 

This video has aged well, every single one of these guys has been fired since this video has been released

Marcus at it again teaching me more about football in 25 minutes than a lifetime of watching ESPN

I love how you and Brett kollman both watched the Vikings play the lions and thought "well someone has got to put a stop to this"

These 25 minutes perfectly put into words the months of frustrations I’ve been subjected to watching Seattle play lifeless and toothless defense for the most part

14:35 the amount of times Donatell has asked Z and Hunter to cover this year is absolutely infuriating - thanks for making this video, great analysis!

I love more defensive analysis. So much content on RU-vid is Offense and QB specific. Inject this into my VEINS.

This video has been one of my favorite videos this football season. As a broncos fan I have seen the success of the fangio defense. With fangio and ejiro eviro who both run fangio system. I think Eviro has been so good this year has been because he adapted this system but adapted it in a way that isn't afraid to rush the qb.

Love this! Are these scheme analyses and more in-depth videos, explaining schemes, concepts etc. something that one gets as a Patreon? If so, I'm on the hook! I love the explanations, helps me (I live in Germany) understand the game much better and go more into detail.

Holy heck, this is so accurate😂, MN fans refer to our DC as DonaShell because he sits there with his dbs back 8-10 yards in shell coverage and gets massacred underneath, whenever DonaShell wakes up for 30 seconds and sends a blitz with some tight coverage it’s like a miracle and we start playing decent defense again

This video should win a Grammy

Great video! I think it’s a good thing to mention how the scheme worked well in LA for Staley because of Donald and Ramsey. He was able to stop the run with basically Donald by himself and Ramsey shut down half the field playing man on their best guy. Freed up alot of their other players to perform well. And cover the rest of the field

My favorite part of this video is how Vic went to a 6-1 to box McVay and the Rams offense in 2018. Bill used the blueprint that Vic wrote to box the Rams in the SB. Anyone that thinks about 11 personnel thinks about McVay…. So even Fangio knew he had to change it against the 11

It is pretty amazing how many d-coordinators don't adjust to the personell they have. I definitely saw that with Joe Barry in Washington.

love to see you branching out with your content!! learned something new about defensive schemes today, thanks for that!

Honestly this might be the best video you've ever made. The stats at the end showing the teams that use the scheme correctly vs the Packers et all was super eye opening

As a Broncos fan and football nerd...this video couldn't be more accurate. Nailed it with the importance of safety play in that system and the concepts/ responsibilities. Its also known to be a very difficult system to learn and usually takes 2-3 years to have everyone on the same page. Most coordinators are fired by then in the league so you never get to see it to fruition.

I was hoping you’d start with how when Vangio coached defense for the Bears how dominant the scheme was to how it is now Otherwise, great video

As a chargers fan, this perfectly encapsulates what the chargers season has been on defense. Staley being directly from Fangios tree clearly explains the defense and explains the awful run defense. It’s crazy because watching this team, they don’t really seem like the worst rushing defense, but all those 10 and 20 yards runs add up, and usually would let up one huge TD resulting in a crazy YPC for them

This video explains the repeated failures of the Eagles Defense in the 2023 season almost perfectly.....led by (drum roll please)..... Sean Desai. Thanks for concisely explain what I have been seeing and have not been able to understand completely.

Always good see guys cover this - great stuff. I've gotten into the weeds on this a bit before. But the real crux of the issue with the Fangio defense is it requires some special talent to successfully execute at a high level. His Cover-6 and Match Quarters stuff requires not just good players but well-rounded and smart players all over the back 7 and DL players who can successfully control gaps gaps vs the run and pass rushers who can get home without much help from blitzing. Fangio's last team in Chicago had success running his system with Akiem Hicks inside supplemented with Eddie Goldman at NT. Then he had Khalil Mack and Leonard Floyd on the edges. LBs were Roquan and Trevathan. Safeties were Adrian Amos and Eddie Jackson. CBs included Kyle Fuller, Amukamara, and Bryce Callahan. That is a stacked defense front to back. They were the #1 D both overall and against the pass and allowed the fewest points. He had most of those guys the year before, but it was really the additions of Mack and Roquan that springboarded the defense to truly ridiculous levels, and it's what propelled him to that Denver job. His 2019 Broncos team had some good safeties (Justin Simmons, Kareem Jackson) and good pass rushers (Von Miller, Bradley Chubb), but the LBs were more of run defenders and the interior DL was lacking in playmakers. But the real issue was the CBs - outside of an aging Chris Harris (his last season in Denver) they had zero talent at the position. Unsurprisingly without that elite talent in Chicago this system only produced middle of the road results. The 2020 team was even worse, but that's what happens when Von Miller gets hurt. They had the same safeties, LBs, and most of the same IDL, but Bouye was a flop at CB and without Harris they only had Callahan. The 2021 team also had most of the same guys back, but wound up trading Von Miller midseason to the Rams. They did try drafting a CB early (Surtain) and tried to resurrect past success by bringing in Kyle Fuller. But he still didn't have the talent he had at IDL, LB, or CB that he had in Chicago, and thus ended his tenure in Denver. Brandon Staley was Fangio's LB Coach in Denver in 2019, and left to take the Rams DC job in 2020. His arc is similar to Fangio's and I won't go into as much depth. But the Rams #1 overall defense that season didn't have the same top-to-bottom roster strength Chicago had, but they had enough superstar talent to pull off the Fangio scheme. Aaron Donald inside allowed them to play the run despite being in 2-deep all the time. Jalen Ramsey was able to shut down an entire half of the field in their Match Quarters looks. John Johnson and Jordan Fuller played that smart swiss-army knife safety role so well. This defense springboarded Staley to his HC job with the Chargers, but he forgot one key ingredient - to bring the talent from the Rams across town. He left behind Donald and Ramsey, whom the Rams supplemented with by trading for Von Miller to shore up their one weakness - edge rush. That Rams defense had enough talent to win the Super Bowl. Staley's defense with the Chargers though, didn't have those types of playmakers. He didn't have an Aaron Donald inside or a Jalen Ramsey to shut down an entire half of the field. IDL was a wasteland that season, as was CB where he tried to pull a Fangio and resurrect a former playmaker with Chris Harris (it didn't work). They had some good pieces (Bosa, Derwin) but not at the right positions to have a real impact on this scheme. And he had those same issues for the rest of his tenure with the Chargers. I will also say, I can't find a coaching connection for Lou Anarumo's Bengals D looks exactly the same as described in the video. Off coverage, mix of Cover-6 and Match Quarters with some Cover-3 sprinkled in. Not a lot of blitzing. Relies on the IDL (NT Reader, 3T Hill) to play gap sound and specifically with Reader to do what Aaron Donald did and control 2 gaps to help keep the LBs free to headhunt the ball. Except Lou doesn't quite have that same level of talent that Fangio had in Chicago or Staley had in LA. The pass rush is very subpar outside of Trey. The LBs are..."good" but not great like Roquan and Trevathan. The CBs were better when Chido was healthy prior to 2023, but still not on the level of Fuller, Prince, and Callahan. The other key to Lou's defense was Jessie Bates, who became PFF's #1 overall safety once he got out of Cincy and into a defense that let him freelance and make plays. But he was the key ingredient on the back end, the Jalen Ramsey of Lou's defense. Without Bates Lou's defense regressed mightily in 2023 and probably doesn't improve unless they get an upgrade at safety (maybe move Dax back to the slot). So the bottom line tl;dr here is, this scheme takes some great talent to succeed. I liken it to option routes for the offense. Option routes let SMART WRs and TEs (and some RBs) recognize coverages and alignments and make the correct read, which also matches the read the QB made. Hence these option route offenses rely heavily on smart players and chemistry between receivers and QBs etc. Defenses that use these Match Quarters systems are basically option defenses. Line up 2 deep but in off coverage and any of those 4 defenders can carry a vertical route if needed, or they can all stay underneath if that's where the routes go. That "2-high" pre-snap look can put as many guys deep or short as needed, and puts guys in plus-leverage situations. But the bottom line is you needed talented SMART players who can all make the same reads (chemistry) and have good communication to pass off everything correctly. OTHERWISE you run into busted coverages, which you see ALL THE TIME from teams trying to run these schemes without smart players. Guys make mistakes, and it only takes 1 to result in a huge play for the offense. A perfect example was the long completion to Rice in KC's last game vs Cincy. Lined up single-high pre-snap, the Bengals roll coverage at the snap with the near-side CB dropping into a deep-half role. The intent was to have the FS (Dax) roll to his left and be the other deep-half player. But instead Dax read the opposite and rolled to his right, so now there were 2 deep-half players on the same side of the field and ZERO help over-top of the CB on the other side (CTB). So you wind up in a situation where the CB is playing cloud press underneath and expecting safety help...and even though 10 players did their jobs on this snap it only took 1 guy messing up to botch the whole play. I'm not an expert on the Ravens defensive scheme, but I'm pretty sure I saw them running a bunch of Match Quarters in our games vs them this year. But they have the personnel to execute it. Pierce and Madubuike inside. Roquan and Queen. Humphrey. But most importantly THREE good smart safeties in Williams, Hamilton, and Stone. That's how you get a #1 defense out of a Quarters system. Anyway, rant over. Loved the vid, as usual. Keep it up.

This makes so much sense. It explains why, for years, TEs and routes underneath have been the bane of the Broncos existence

You just earned a sub for the obvious effort you put into this video. You made it accessible and more importantly easy to follow and watch which is a big mistake people make. They think people know as much as they do so they think it's not important to make the VIDEO easy and fun to watch and follow

Great video. I had seen you refer to this video in a couple other videos. It was very informative.

This is one of the best film breakdowns I've seen from you. You didn't list them, but the Eagles and Gannon's scheme was definitely influenced by Fangio (he's been hanging around Eagles camp this offseason) and Eberflus. We run a lot of cover 4/6/8. We wanted to be able to remain in 2 high which we got taken out of a lot cause of our run defense last year. A big reason we took Jordan Davis and why he's so crucial to making the scheme work. I already knew a good amount of this stuff on Fangio's scheme as its been a hot topic like you mentioned for the past couple years, but I still learned some new things and I think you broke this down in a concise and simple manner that even the average or new football fan can grasp.

On behalf of Minnesota and Vikings fans around the world, thank you. Seriously. It’s not that the problems with our defense between the whistles are unapparent. The value here comes from the rigorous correlation between scheme and on-field effect, including the elimination of possible sub-scheme variables toward the end. It’s smart, and as scientific as can be expected in such an organic field with limited available datapoints. I appreciate the good work. I know the pros see way more than we see, but I hope a few players and coaches get to see this, even if only so that their perceptions can be validated a bit.

Lol every name on that list... FIRED

Great video! This is the first time I have run across your channel. Subscribed right away. You do a great job of breaking things down and make it easy to understand. I look forward to binging a bunch of your videos! Thanks so much!

Really nice, and well done vid. You explained the issues very well. Thank you. 👍🏼

I rarely bother to comment, but I'm trying to increase engagement to get the algorithm to push this video more to make up for me not being able to afford to give this man the cash I truly wish I could give for all his hard work and the educational entertainment he has given me over the years. Easily one of the people who has helped me the most survive through being bed ridden so much the past couple of years! Thank you Marcus!

Great content as always, Marcus! I do think this type of defense can work, but only if: - Front 4 is deep and elite; - Starting LBs are great in tackling, coverage and reads Meaning that there will be a WHOLE lot of resources invested in the front 6 in order to have a good D. So it can be done successfully, but definitely not the best resources management, IMO.

Excellent, thank you. Would you please make more videos like this? On tactics and also, if possible, on players evaluations (e.g. what do you look for in a FS)? Thanks!!!

Loved every minute of this video (esp as a Vikings fan who's been watching our defense get burned by mediocre quarterbacks), thanks Marcus!

I love to see how well this is doing for you Marcus. 166k views in 2 weeks? That's the best you've ever done. So glad to see you doing so well.

Amazing video, have been looking for something like this for a while. Love the content!

Great content as always, definetly watching this to see what impact it has on head coaching positions moving forward, being mostly where I feel Ben Johnson shines and would hate to see him go as a Lions fan.

Watching the vikings defense this year has been exhausting, between dropping Hunter and Z Smith in coverage, to the wide open checkdowns and short passes for easy 1st downs, to the constantly bad coverage by our dbacks, to the huge amounts of yardage per game, and the worst of all, the lack of adjustments or accountability by donatell, it has been nauseating to watch this team play defense, fire donatell immediately this defense will easily cost us come playoff time. Edit: yep this take aged like fine wine, the defense did indeed cost us against the giants, thanks for nothing donashell you useless bastard.

I love this style of video. You are truly such a unique and incredible creator in the football space. Single handedly increased by football knowledge by leaps and bounds

I love this. I know with everything else you have going on it might be hard to do, but I definitely wouldn't mind seeing a lot more of these types of vids, maybe for offseason content or something

As an eagles fan this video was absolutely jaw dropping. Just crazy!!

Marcus- I’ve been watching you since the inception of your channel. I have watched litterly every single video you have uploaded for years. This is the best video you’ve EVER made!

Marcus this is one of the best videos you’ve put out, excellent work!

Amazing video. You took what I had been feeling this nfl season and explained it and put words and stats to it. My first instinct is to say that these guys need to learn to be more adaptive. Instead of running what you run and accepting the results you need to throw in come cover 1, cover 2 man and man blitzes when the situation calls for it.

I enjoyed you and zach's sitdown, 2 of my favorite independent football youtubers. You all should do more

Great vid Marcus, a little bit confused why Ejiro Evro wasn’t outlined in this video as a staley descendent. What he’s done with so many injuries at edge, IDL and Saftey all year is insanely understated

Been waiting for this since you brought it up on the podcast a month or so back 🙏 Didn’t disappoint, very interesting stuff

Great video marcus. And do you think you could do a video on the important of phantom pressure

Great video. Off the heels of Kollman's review on the Vikings defense underperforming and you open the whole book as to why Fangio's disciples and THEIR take on their philosophy has overall been disappointing. Part of it is the personnel where you need dem dawgs in key specific positions in the secondary/trenches. Staley's defense has struggled with injuries but he fell prey like the other guys being too predictable with their application of the scheme. Though he IS the better defensive game planner/adjuster of that group when he has to step up. He did it with the Rams (with some top grade talent of course) and as you mentioned, have done so in recent weeks along with a really smart executed gameplan vs the Dolphins pass game and knowing when to put bodies against the run. Without those talents you can see how lackluster the tackling is. The defenses are exploited in mismatches and already are trying to stop a playmaker on the move when the defenders are already in bad positions.

Really awesome video, I’m new to football and the video was still really easy to follow and interesting.

This is really great! I learned a lot about defensive scheme and it was super interesting.

As a broncos fan, i was told how genius fangio was when we hired him. Never once did his defense impress me, it was actually one of the least clutch defenses I’ve ever watched in the 30 years I’ve watch the nfl. When we needed pressure we couldn’t get it, when we needed to stop the run we couldn’t, needed a turnover, not happening, needed anything the defense would just shit the bed. If the defense did anything, it was solely because of the talent of the player and not because of the scheme

These essay style videos are S tier

I was always wondering why we saw many more explosive run plays this season. Your analysis here is spot on. Earned a sub.

This is a great analysis video, keep doing more like them.

Without a doubt your best edited and most put together video. Good job Marcus

Great vid. Being a broncos fan, Fangio knew how to adapt but it didn’t always work. Over the past 3 years the big name running backs have done very little to this team however it’s those who are t expected to break loose that do. This outlines the problem, either commit to the run or the explosion of mahomes or Allen

This is a brilliant video, Marcus. Well done. Let's hope Staley continues to show adaptability this season. He is on the hot seat but has it in him (as you mention towards the end). Scheme flexibility is key. Keep up the great work.

Great video. Seahawks fan and it’s frustrating to watch out Defense. When Pete came here, he used the talent he had with the knowledge he brought to make a decent defense. Each year it would improve as he got more of the players he wanted. Right now it feels like none of that is happening. We don’t have the players for this 2 high scheme and they won’t adapt either. It’s awful to see. I hope they get back to a base defense soon. That’s what we were known for and we had a solid D because of it.

Should be called “Packers fan criticises Vikings defence”

Love these videos! Always putting out, intelligent, fun and constructive videos that help further my understanding and love for the game. Keep it up, Marcus!

great work, would love to see more video essay-ish film breakdowns like this

Fangio is really good at communicating schemes and giving players simple keys and progressions to run his schemes. Great communication skills are not all that common. Fangio has also said it's critically important to have an offense that doesn't get off the field quickly and tire out the DBs and DL. He wants a good running game or a ball possession passing offense that is not in a hurry.

Thank you! I’ve been watching the Joe Woods defense and wonder what in the ______ is he doing and why can’t the players figure this out! Everything you showed is exactly what we’ve seen the past two years. Now I have to dive into your other videos!!!

This vid was even better than I expected

It all comes down to pass rush. Look at the team's where Fangio had his best seasons: Harbaugh's 49ers who had Justin Smith and Aldon Smith, Matt Nagy's Bears with Kahlil Mack and Akeem Hicks, and then with the Broncos when they had Von Miller and Bradley Chubb. As any pass play progresses, the longer it takes for the pass rush to get home the bigger the windows in the zone becomes. It all starts up front.

Great video. Very informative. I gotta ask though: Why is scoring down across the league this year?

Great analysis Marcus, keep it up! Support from Detroit

The one thing I will say is that the 49ers have been running the Fangio six to near perfection this year. Demeco Ryans has been absolutely crucial in executing it and will likely be an NFL head coach next year. It also helps to have arguably the perfect person to run the Fangio six, however, I think if run correctly with the correct personnel, the Fangio six can be absolutely devastating to high-powered passing offenses.

So accessible yet informative. Subscribed

When I saw the title 😩 I screamed, "FINALLY THE PROMISED VID" Idk if you realised how much you've hinted at this vid coming in your recent vids and you got me hyped for it 😂

Beautifully crafted video

This was such a brilliant high quality video you should be very proud!

Great video. This was actually something I found incredible interesting - I noticed that while watching the Dolphins @ Chargers game the Chargers' defense looked significantly better when they were daring Tua to make contested throws and his accuracy suffered badly. They didn't have Derwin James on the field, and it made me wonder if they were relying on him to do way too many things in coverage (the star studded safety type who can take up multiple roles you mentioned). Chargers' run defense is still bad but we're showing signs of life. Hopefully our defense continues to look good in the playoffs

I’m super excited as a Dolphins fan to see what Vic Fangio has been cooking up during his sabbatical. He said he just spent the season studying the game. I can’t wait to see what new developments take place for his defensive scheme in 2023.

your videos are amazing, keep the good content coming

Amazing video TFG! It feels like teams like my browns and your packers are trying to fit a square peg in a round hole by forcing players who are better in man coverage into a zone heavy system, great analysis and explanation!!

Great video, would love to see in depth video on how bill belicheck adjusts his defenses

Spot on. You need the right personnel. And you need time to teach it or its busted coverage waiting to happen. It can be very good in the right situation because i do think guarding grass will kill a defense. I also think a big problem with this scheme is late matching. By the time they recognize they need to carry or pass off a route, they are already out leveraged even if they make the proper decision.

Been looking forward to this one, as always thanks for the spicy content! 🙏🏻

Fantastic work Marcus! Some of your best for sure!

Great video. Much better than anything on ESPN

Very interesting video and breakdown. You can be the best play caller in the world but you still need the dudes to make it happen. The chart with the 10% 4-2 from was very telling. All have elite/really good front 7s. The bad ones don’t

Great video and super informative.

As a Seahawks fan…thank you for this. I’m tired of this pansy as* defense. Football is not fun without defense

Great video! This is why we come to this channel!

There's loads of buzz around Fangio coming to the Niners. We have elite LB's that can cover #1 receivers, much less slots. We have fast safeties than are beasts against the run AND defend the pass lights out. We have solid down linemen and Nick Bosa. I thought Fangio would be a terrible fit but maybe not. Might be awesome. Thx. Great breakdown.

Buddy what a class. I always loved american football, but this last year i ve been learning the strategy, you explained the best way possible. Really good video

Hell of a breakdown man! Thanks for your hard work!!

Great! Could u do something like that about that shannahan offense?

Awesome video and very informative of why these defenses have underperformed.

Good video Marcus. What you're describing at the end of this video is the difference between good and bad coaches. Good coaches continuously adapt, bad coaches are egocentric and stagnant, afraid to make a mistake.

This is a master peice how is this free on youtube love the content you are fantastic

very interesting clear on point thank you

This is absolutely amazing. Thank you for putting this together!

Absolutely spot on, coming from a Charger's fan! I feel all the pains, the getting run all over pains, the easy 20yard daggers pains, the short stuff pains, all the pains....

there were a few minutes where u kept saying “joe staley” cause of the other joe coordinators lmaoo shit funny but yea im happy chargers are adjusting, just in time, great video!

Great video I really enjoyed watching it.

Simple explanation: classic 4-2-5 defensive scheme designed to bring a base 4 man rush while in nickel. Georgia Bulldogs have been running it for years, and that's part of the reason why they've been so dominant (they force teams to beat them on the ground, where they have a physical advantage). 4-2-5 blitzes in passing situations are outright DEADLY because they can bring pressure from multiple creative angles, while the 5 DB look prevents easy reads for the Quarterback. The counter to a 4-2-5 is to NOT run a spread offense. Motioning for a 1 TE set or even a 1 TE + a lead/trap blocker set creates a massive advantage where a big man is blocking a defensive back, and it is extremely easy for the RB to get into the secondary and break off a good run.

Hope this goes viral. Amazing video.

One of my favorite videos you’ve ever done! 10/10

Bills fan but clueless when it comes to schemes here. Would you describe the Bills D *with a healthy tre white, Hyde and poyer* a similar style of D? Listening to your description of needs, the players absolutely meet the requirements. I just don’t know if that’s what McDermott and Fraizer implement.