there has been a lot of grumbling ever since the Alan Williams report that fans are sick of the "poor", "worthless", "___(fill in the blank)___" Tampa-2 scheme, and they are disappointed we're sticking with it.

so, i decided to break down where the Vikes landed in the defensive ranks over the last twelve years and put them out here for all to see. my original plan was to give my personal view on it in great detail, but i don't want to greatly sway the direction of this thread in one way or the other. i hope anyone who wants to join in the discussion will thoroughly consider this entire analysis, and not simply point to one or two years in an attempt to defend their viewpoint. we should welcome any opinions on either side of the debate -- a healthy argument is a good way to inform ourselves and consider every angle =)

one point i will objectively stress is that the Tampa-2 can be a successful scheme, provided you have the appropriate personnel who is willing to buy into what a knowledgeable coach is selling.

for this analysis, i took a look back at the six years we've been running the Tampa-2, compared to the six years prior to that when we weren't running it. i know these stats can be picked apart by way of personnel/coaching turnover, not taking the offense or injuries into account, only comparing the team to itself, etc etc... but this is simply intended to be a baseline comparison of our team not running the Tampa-2 vs running Tampa-2. i felt it was important to include both defensive yardage and scoring rankings to give a more detailed picture (please note the scoring table does not take FGs or return TDs into account):

Yardage

Scoring

whether the improvement in stats is coincidental or a direct correlation to the Tampa-2 switch is up to you to decide. feel free to draw your own conclusions and share any thoughts you may have in the comment section.