The Redskin Report

Not long ago Greg Blache was one of hottest defensive coordinators in the game. While the head of the defense for the Chicago Bears, he built up a strong reputation around the league. In fact he interviewed for a few head coaching jobs and was a leading candidate to land the 49ers job back when they hired Dennis Erickson.

When the Bears hired defensive guru Lovie Smith as their new head coach in early 2004, Blache’s services were no longer needed. It seemed rather odd that he would come to Washington to be 2nd in command in defense, but most Skins fans were pleased. Adding another strong defensive mind to a unit that struggled after Marvin Lewis left to coach the Bengals was seen as a positive. He was hired to the defensive coordinator in name only and is really the defensive line coach, and falls behind Gregg Williams on the defensive totem pole.

When you look back at Blache’s defenses with the Chicago Bears they were all very linebacker oriented. His best year’s featured Brian Urlacher, Rosevelt Colvin and Warrick Holdman having stellar years as backers. In retrospect it seems kind of odd to hire the guy to coach defensive line when you look back on his Bear teams. The defensive tackles were always huge lugs, whose job was to keep linemen off the linebackers. Guys like Ted Washington and Keith Traylor were the type of player he used. The defensive ends were mainly considered under achievers. A high draft pick, Alex Brown, never really worked on his watch. Phillip Daniels was another under achiever who played end for the Bears.

What is most interesting is the difference in philosophy’s between Gregg Williams and Greg Blache. Blache’s once said “Sacks don’t matter.” Greg Williams is a pressure, blitzing type of coach. In Blache’s last year with the Bears, they had 18 sacks the entire season. Our pass rush this year is the Steel Curtain compared to that (we have 14 in 9 games so far).

The most damaging thing Blache has done for the Redskins however comes in terms of his player recommendations. Obviously Blache doesn’t have authority to go sign players so this is a shared issue. But his 3 main recommendations, Walt Harris, Phillip Daniels and Warrick Holdman, have all disappointed. Harris and Daniels spent the majority of 2004 getting paid to be injured, and all three have played below expectations this year.

I don’t know enough about the inner workings of the Redskins and their coaching staff to say Blache must go or even that any of the lack of pass rush blame lays on him. But when you go back over his track record and his comments, you wonder if he is the right guy for this team and this defense.