Aseahawkfan wrote:Pete instills aggression in this defense. You don't maintain that by hammering on the players to work harder on not getting offsides penalties rather than pushing it to the edge to come off that line as fast as possible or jam that receiver at the line or put the hit on someone. You live with some mistimed defensive plays to maintain the aggression that has them going after the ball and whoever has it.
We have one player, Michael Bennett, that is the main culprit for our pre snap defensive penalties, and there's no excuse for it. You can't justify it by saying that he plays on the edge or playing aggressively, because the top sack artists in the game don't have anywhere near the number of pre snap penalties that Bennett racks up each season.
In 2017, Bennett had 10 offsides penalties, 2 neutral zone infractions, and 1 encroachment. Chandler Jones, the league leader with 17 sacks, had just one pre snap penalty. DeMarcus Lawrence, tied for 2nd with 14.5 sacks, had 6 pre snap flags, and Calis Campbell, also with 14.5 sacks had just 1 pre snap penalty. The 3 of them together had 8 while Bennett alone had 13.
So clearly, Bennett has a big problem that is not explained by simply playing on the edge. And yes, Pete, Richard, or someone should have gotten in his face big time about it. I don't care how good a player he is, he needs to work on his self discipline.
But I suppose at this point in his career, it's probably like teaching an old dog new tricks.