It's like in chess, when you have to sacrifice a bishop or rook to break the defense open.
In this case. A player like price doesn't just step up and stand there. He, and most 330 pounders alike will bull rush and pressure the qb by squeezing the pocket. Not allowing him to step up, and such, until the oline doubles him.....
A player like Price doesn't literally stand there, but he might as well. Without some quickness, a interior rusher will be reliably shutdown by a competent guard. A typical NT isn't going to get much of any push, regardless of how good he is against the run.
Also, in chess--if you sacrifice a bishop or rook without a clear plan and a purpose, you've just made a blunder. A gambit at best. Trading a rook or minor for a pawn (I assume you took a piece to more strongly suggest your opponent take your piece back) is beyond foolish. Even a low-level D-ranked player can turn a single pawn advantage into victory. But I digress...
Price isn't a pass rusher. He doesn't collapse the pocket. He's got about zero value on anything other than 1st and 10.
It's what I considered the corner stone of the 3-4. A nose who forces the double. Without that, I believe the 3-4, or 2-4 or anything in between, is simply complicating things without reaping the rewards of adding another lb to diversify blitz options.
A NT is a foundation piece to a 3-4, but again, IN THE RUN GAME.
To put it another way. Why replace a dlineman with a lb, if that lb is certain to have a olineman on him, since there isn't a dlineman in front to take the blocks...
At that point, you might as well bring a 300 pounded to go against the 300 pounder?
Again. Run game vs. Pass. There are no blocks to eat up on a passing play! Your premise is fundamentally flawed.
The OLBs in our scheme, their job is to defeat OTs one on one. Let's break down how:
1) Win around the corner. This is accomplished with speed and quick hands. If you're not fast enough to beat the OT around the corner, you're basically worthless.
2) Off of speed, you need enough strength to cross the face/counter move to an inside rush. Once the OT is worried about the outside rush, you expose him. Think like how Spriggs has been looking bad against inside moves. That's what basically every EDGE player is trying to get to happen.
3) Quick hands. The OT is looking to get his hands on you and lock out his arms. If he does so, it doesn't matter if you're Atlas. He's going to steer you out of the play. You need fast hands to knock his away from your body.
4) If you have it, the occasional bull rush works, but if the T doesn't have to worry about one of the others (1 or 2) you're not going to scare him with a bull rush.
5) Oh yeah, and just for fun, they've got outside contain if the offense happens to run.
It all basically starts with speed. There are a handful of players who are complete rushers who don't start their approach without speed or attacking the edge. JJ Watt comes to mind. However, even he is plenty fast enough to beat you around the edge. He just does more Inside to Setup The Outside, rather than the reverse.
Even Daniels, easily our best inside rusher (though I'm getting cautiously excited about Clark) Wins by first stressing the outside shoulder of the guard.
We get too caught up in scheme, and we end up abandoning the trenches to cover... the good offenses beat us because we can't go toe to toe.
A great nose tackle brings the fight to them. And that's what this defense is missing.
Ah, trenches, it makes for a good football analogy, doesn't it? The muck, the back and forth. The ridiculous manliness of it all. What an odd thing it was, The War to End All Wars. We learned our lessons and perfected trench warfare.
Problem is, the Nazis showed up with an air force and their blitzkrieg. The perfectly dug trench was rendered worthless because it was ignored. And so most of Europe fell, because they were too busy fighting the last war.
To put a blunt point on it, in case you missed it: The hulking NT is the last war, where the game was won and lost on the ground. The 3 receiver set is the air force, the hurry up offense/no-huddle the blitzkrieg. Stop fighting the last war, fight this one.
