Waufle Out; Will Giants go back to 3-4 defense?

Yesterday, Giants head coach Tom Coughlin fired his defensive line coach Mike Waulfe. Waufle had been the Giants defensive line coach since 2004. Within the last 48 hours, Coughlin has disposed of two of his defensive assistants. Apparently, Coughlin heard Giants co-owner John Mara's words loud and clear. John Mara said, “You’d like to have the head coach make the final decision on those things. But that would be a tough one to swallow. The status quo, after what we just went through, is not acceptable.” Waufle's high priced defensive line did not perform up to their expectations. Coming into the 2009 season, according to Giants management, the reason for their 2008 collapse was their defensive line wore down. Giants GM Jerry Reese, "We got hit right out of the gate last year with a Hall of Famer retiring (Michael Strahan) and a Pro Bowler (Umenyiora) going down. We made it through three quarters of the season, but then we got worn down. I'll try not to let that happen again. We have to sustain the madness up front." Through free agency, Reese acquired defensive linemen Chris Canty and Rocky Bernard. However, with these two acquisitions, the Giants line had difficulty putting pressure on opposing quarterbacks. The Giants compiled only 32 sacks in 2009. This is a precipitous drop as compared to the two previous seasons. Two years ago, the Giants sacked opposing quarterbacks 53 times which lead the NFL. Last year, they were slightly down registering 42 sacks.

Besides having guys nicked up, why the decline in sacks?

Coughlin cited several reasons. 1. More teams have gone maximum protection to negate the rush. ie Saints head coach Sean Payton's game plan. 2. The Giants have given up huge chunks of yardage on first and second downs. Consequently, the pass rushers have not been able to take advantage of third and long situations. Coughlin adds, "We haven't had, unfortunately, a lot of the long-yardage, tee-it-up kind of things present themselves to us." ie Eagle game at Meadowlands- Recall, the Eagles had a touchdown drive in which they did not have a third down attempt.

As a result of Coughlin's dispatching of defensive coaches, the Giants will most likely hire a defensive coordinator who has a different philosophy. Based on some of the names being mentioned, the Giants could go back to the 3-4 base defense. The last time the Giants used a 3-4 defense was back in 1993. If this is the case, the next step would be making wholesale changes to the Giants personnel. NFL.com's Pat Kirwan has written an excellent article on 4-3 vs 3-4 defense. Kirwan concludes his article. Therefore, it might be time to consider the 3-4 a better package against modern offenses. Perhaps this is what the Giants may need to do.