re: John's Betrayal - The Real 3rd and Chavis?

Chavis' apparent principle- while the blitz and tight man coverage can control or limit the opponent, sooner or later it is bound to fail. So while he may use that attack for most of a game, he backs out into a soft zone late, and hopes to ride it out. If you can convert 3rd and 9, fine; it will be for a 1st down, and not a long TD.

In other words, he's not a "live by the sword, die by the sword" type of guy.

I think the problem is that the defense is so different from his man scheme that the players are a little out of sorts with the zone when he switches to it, and it also removes their aggressiveness.

A decent analogy is the boxer who attacks his foe most of the fight, and then starts to dance in the late rounds to avoid a mistake and getting knocked out. He's trying to kill the rest of the time away, but it gives a previously dominated opponent a lot more room to work; and in Chavis' case his defenses have been burned late more often by the delay/zone than by pressure.