Tbh this is the final piece to the puzzle of "how do we get the defense to be solid for the remainder of the year"... you fixed who you were playing at safety, you fixed who you were playing at nickel. Great.
There is clearly still a disconnect between not understanding that Bowen is a very-good-but-limited-player. He is not a "never come off the field" type of linebacker. He is a good MIKE, good tackler, and decent blitzer. He is not adept in coverage, and he is not particularly great going sideline to sideline. He is a downhill guy who is at his best when attacking the line of scrimmage.
Last year, Kiser was your primary WILL, and in passing down situations he was your best coverage linebacker. I think a lot of us thought this year that Ausberry could play that coverage role, KVA/Bowen would both get reps at MIKE and KVA could also play WILL on standard down and distance, Sneed would play that "ROVER" position and be your best blitzer. Starters for the National Championship last year were listed as Bowen/Kiser/Sneed with KVA/Ausberry as depth. I would love to know what the actual snap counts were during the playoffs for those five guys.
This year, we end up with stuff like Bowen being asked to do man coverage on 4th and 11 in the red zone. He is probably the worst coverage linebacker of your four starters by a significant margin. It's reasonable to question whether the guys we have are being used optimally.
