Quote:
Originally Posted by RaidersOftheCellar
The Cincinnati game set off the alarm for me. There were warning signs before, but the dam broke that day. 3.85 points per drive blows away the 07 Patriots, and they blow away everybody else. Imagine if Boyd doesn't drop a wide open TD lob. And if Dunlap isn't left unblocked on that 4th down play. Then we're talking 5.4 points per drive. And on the drive that led to their only punt, what if that OPI isn't called? They had just made a big play and were driving again. Do we have any confidence that drive wouldn't have ended with a score?
As bad as it were, it could've easily been an all-time horrific defensive performance.
I'm not too down on the defense overall, and the young players still have some time to improve before the biggest games. What annoys me is people suggesting that this defense is much better than last year's. I don't see how anybody can say that. Sure, it's easy to point to doofuses like Sorenson and Niemann, but their snap counts went way down in the 2nd half of the season.
In Nov and Dec last year, the defense allowed UNDER 13 ppg. And they played some good offenses in that stretch. Not only that, but KC's offense wasn't exactly humming during a lot of that stretch, so they weren't keeping the defense off the field.
For a bit, everybody thought the defense was great. The nat'l media was even calling it dominant and claiming they were carrying the offense. But everybody turned on them quickly after they gave up 31 in Cincinnati and of course the famous 4th quarter vs Buffalo (even though losing Mathieu had a lot to do with that).
Where was all this "that's what happens vs good offenses" talk then? All I heard all offseason was that our defense sucked ass. Weird double standard.
If at any point this season, this defense allowed under 13 ppg for two full months, I'd be ecstatic.
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Have mostly felt the same about the defense this season. And last, for that matter. Though, imo, the defense was good enough to win a Sb last season. The offense completely collapsed vs. CIN in the 2nd half, while the defense played more than well enough to win that game. But that's old, rehashed news.
The defense needed to get younger, faster and more athletic. Well, Veach/Spags have done that. But it aint Madden; it was always going to take some time for them to learn the playbook, adjust to the speed of the NFL, gel, etc. As is normal for human beings, some are adjusting and getting comfortable quicker than others.
Will say that the more i look into it, the more it looks like the secondary misses a HB-type safety. Only 1 INT between them, and 9 PDs. They don't make offenses pay at all for throwing between the numbers downfield.
Considering how often the DL gets pressure, those guys should be piling up a lot more stats than they have. The eyeball test suggests that they're late to the party, but also that they're not taking the right angles.
Saw one play a couple days ago from the DEN game that should've been an INT for Reid, but he takes a bad angle like he expects the ball to be underthrown by about 5 yards, but he also doesn't hustle; he kind of jogs over so he's short and he's late. Resulted in a big 3rd down conversion that never should've happened. you watch that play, and you have to think, "HB, even having lost a step, makes that INT."