Chris Cooley Asks Mike Shanahan Why the DLine is So Vanilla

From today's (Friday) presser:

Cooley: "We talked about creating pressure without having to bring five and six. Orakpo is back. Kerrigan is a year better. Rob Jackson would add to the edge. [Brandon] Jenkins would add. We said we could do things like put Kerrigan on the same side as Orakpo, stunt, move them all over. There's been no creativity in the defensive line. They basically line up...Kerrigan bull rushes. Orakpo speed rushes. And we're ineffective there. At what point do you get more creative with those guys?"

Shanahan: "Well you can be as creative as you want. But I think you answered your question at the start. You want to put pressure with four people. If you can do that you're going to cause offenses some problems. Sometimes if you improvise too much where you go five, six, seven they can come up with the big plays. A lot of it has to do with what Quarterbacks you're facing as well. If you go against some of the experienced quarterbacks we've gone against, and you are bringing five or six people, with screens and their ability to get rid of the ball, they can come up with big plays very quickly. Against teams like Denver and San Diego most teams will attack them with...every situation is different. At the end of a day you got to find a way to get it done and we've come up short."

So, thirteen hours after losing to the lowly Vikings and Cooley calling out the terrible defensive schemes, Shanahan defends his case with having to defend Peyton Manning and Phillip Rivers. Did he remember the Vikings had two starting OLinemen out: Left guard Joe Berger made his first start since 2011 and Tackle J'Marcus Webb made his first start of year. The Skins did get four sacks, but Ponder finished with a 113.1 QB rating...his next highest one this season is 86.4.

The whole presser is available here including the news Chris Thomspon is on IR with shoulder surgery.