I had a love/hate relationship with Brown. Loved it when we played a team with lesser talent and hated the idea of playing a team with equal or better talent. Brown had several teams that ranked in the top ten in defense even though a couple games each year ballooned the final numbers at the end of the year. Just emphasized how good he was against the lesser teams on the schedule. Brown seemed incapable of making halftime adjustments because he believed in winning games with aggressive one on one pass coverage and blitzing to pressure the QB. What stood out to me was how his defense played against teams that relied on running the ball (see any service academy). We might have won those games but few were gimmies. The game of football changed over the course of his career and he seemed to fall behind in the X's and O's. My opinion of Brown (not based on any fact) is that he ran the defense and if you coached for him you did exactly as he wanted.
Along comes a young coach who got his first coordinator gig but was a student of the game as it's played today. The NFL defensive philosophy has changed the last few years since the addition of the young mobile quarterbacks have entered the league that thrive in a spread offense. MacDonald practiced every day against one such quarterback. MacDonald was blessed with young assistants that seemed to have the freedom to do their thing within the framework of MacDonald's defense. MacDonald was also blessed with two defensive ends that could allow him to pass rush with three or four and drop 7 or 8 into coverage. Where Brown wanted to defense the opponent with aggression, MacDonald wanted to defense the opponent with confusion (got burned a few times but that part of the way he plays). MacDonald seems to not be married to man to man or zone, He plays to the down and distance.
Give me MacDonald all day and like Gattis in my previous thread he is a head coach in waiting.
Along comes a young coach who got his first coordinator gig but was a student of the game as it's played today. The NFL defensive philosophy has changed the last few years since the addition of the young mobile quarterbacks have entered the league that thrive in a spread offense. MacDonald practiced every day against one such quarterback. MacDonald was blessed with young assistants that seemed to have the freedom to do their thing within the framework of MacDonald's defense. MacDonald was also blessed with two defensive ends that could allow him to pass rush with three or four and drop 7 or 8 into coverage. Where Brown wanted to defense the opponent with aggression, MacDonald wanted to defense the opponent with confusion (got burned a few times but that part of the way he plays). MacDonald seems to not be married to man to man or zone, He plays to the down and distance.
Give me MacDonald all day and like Gattis in my previous thread he is a head coach in waiting.
