Defense needs as much blame

[SCO96]

1 hour ago, Untouchable said:

Ball skills are severely lacking with our secondary right now, particularly with the young corners. Just in this game I can think of a pick each of them should of had.  Worley dropped his and Bradberry went for the deflection instead of the pick even though he had better positioning.

I've never got much feed back when I presented this question, but I'd like to bring it up again since we're talking about the defense.

We all agree for the most part that Worley has been a disappointment at CB. But, most of us will agree that he doesn't seem shy about making contact on defense. When G-Man drafted him he said he did so because Worley led the NCAA in INT's the last year he played and his philosophy was that guys who get INT's in college often get them in the pros.

Do any of you think Worley could possibly be a better safety than CB in the NFL?

He might be able to make more plays if were lined up deeper and could keep more plays in front of him. If I'm not mistaken, I think some scouts even projected him to be a safety in the NFL. I think he even said he'd be willing to play wherever he could help out the most.

[CRA]

special teams gets a TON of blame.  A fumble on a punt and another on a punt return?  Just one of those in a game would be a nightmare let alone 2. 

defense gets a lot too.  tackling was a joke.  Saints RBs are good.....not that good though to justify what we did. 

as far as the O goes, there were some drops that didn't help.  Also, I was shocked out little we asked Cam to run and be a threat.  It changes things.  But that wasn't part of this gameplan.  Not sure if it was because of the thumb or not.  Based on sideline shots of Cam it was definitely an issue still. 

bottom line is we played horrible vs a good team.  Saints didn't force us to be that bad either.   

[Dragoon11]

11 hours ago, CarolinaSamurai said:

Our defense let them put 31 points on us. Let that sink in, every thread is fire Shula fire Rivera. How about we put the blame were it belongs on the Defense shoulders. We have two over the hill safety's , Corners who couldn't pick a ball if it was thrown at them, and a Dline that couldnt stop the run or hardly get any pressure. 

These were issues in the off-season and we didn't address them. We needed a safety, a DE, a corner that were young and hungry. We could of addressed these in the draft and free agency but instead got "offensive weapons" and old dudes. Now we are sitting here watching those weaknesses completely lose a game for us. 

Stop blaming a bad offense that was only good once since Shula took over. They are what they are and nothing's going to fix that except firing the OC which won't happen. 

LOL.....By the third play of the game, the Saints were down to Panthers 30 yard line. Right out of the gate, the Saints took advantage of knowing that the Panthers ALWAYS start sluggish. They knew that the Panthers don't handle adversity well. Put them in a early hole, and they're just not equipped to make big comebacks. Will give Saints offense a ton of credit....THAT's a Super Bowl caliber offense!!....Don't be surprised if Saints win it all this year. That being said, they did prove that the Panthers 2nd ranked defense is over rated. Won't get into everything they did wrong, but the tackling alone was absolutely horrible. Panthers defense has to set the tone for the game. In this game they clearly didn't do that. A Super Bowl defense will limit a great offense. Remember Denver's great defense, Seattle's D in those Super Bowls??......Panthers defense isn't even close to being that caliber.

[AggieLean]

7 hours ago, Wolfcop said:

At one point our offense had gone 3 & out on 6 of 9 possessions. How the hell is the D supposed to hold down the Saints O in that situation? This  game was lost on offense. 

If your defense is truly elite then they'll hold. This excuse is not going to continue to hold up.

We have a good, not great defense 

[Peppers90 NC]

Defense has been a mirage all year. Anyone who thought we were a top 5 defense was wearing blinders. Coleman is a liability, misses too many tackles and doesnt provide much help in coverage. Our D-line is the only thing going good for us but Peppers made a boneheaded play that cost us badly. We gave up one big run otherwise did pretty well containing their run game. Our corners get suckered into leaving their spots in zone coverage too often. We should be playing more man against a team like the Saints I think.

That said, the defense provided two three-and-outs consecutively only for our offense to do the same and put them right back on the field.

[Peppers90 NC]

25 minutes ago, AggieLean said:

If your defense is truly elite then they'll hold. This excuse is not going to continue to hold up.

We have a good, not great defense 

Yes but the offense does have to contribute something too, right?

[Mikey815]

Funchess is the only nfl caliber receiver and he is barely average. Cam has no targets outside of cmc especiallly withoutvolsen. Do u realize funchess was invisible until late in the game? I’m 

[AggieLean]

9 minutes ago, Peppers90 NC said:

Yes but the offense does have to contribute something too, right?

Of course they do.

We know our offense isn't elite, though. The pieces simply aren't there. With that being said, I know they have to be better. Way too many drops and miscues last night, but they're not the ones being touted as elite on here.

[SCO96]

5 minutes ago, Mikey815 said:

Funchess is the only nfl caliber receiver and he is barely average. Cam has no targets outside of cmc especiallly withoutvolsen. Do u realize funchess was invisible until late in the game? I’m 

You right but I think there is an explanation for that.

As you correctly pointed out he's really been  Cam's only consistent receiving threat this season. Without Olsen to help carry the load the Saints could afford to focus their defense on him. Our other guys have yet to prove themselves to be playmakers and they don't warrant any attention.

If I were scheming against the Panthers I'd double Funchess or role my coverage his way and dare the other guys to beat me.

[CarolinaSamurai]

16 minutes ago, Peppers90 NC said:

Yes but the offense does have to contribute something too, right?

Yeah except this offense isn't made to score big points quickly. It was designed to eat the clock, score slowly, and give the D a break to be fresh. We will always lose in a shootout with Shula and Rivera at the helm. The D is expected to play lights out to win and 21 points should be enough to win that game if they did. All our money and picks except Cam, Turner, CMC, and the Khalils is on defense and that points to prioritizing running and slow offense but a great D. 

The real question is should we try to make Shula into a coach he isn't by drafting and signing flashy WRs and catching RBs or should all the money and picks we have spent on D be useful to us and shoring up the weaknesses on that D so it does what it's suppose to. 

[Peppers90 NC]

Just now, CarolinaSamurai said:

Yeah except this offense isn't made to score big points quickly. It was designed to eat the clock, score slowly, and give the D a break to be fresh. We will always lose in a shootout with Shula and Rivera at the helm. The D is expected to play lights out to win and 21 points should be enough to win that game if they did. All our money and picks except Cam, Turner, CMC, and the Khalils is on defense and that points to prioritizing running and slow offense but a great D. 

The real question is should we try to make Shula into a coach he isn't by drafting and signing flashy WRs and catching RBs or should all the money and picks we have spent on D be useful to us and shoring up the weaknesses on that D so it does what it's suppose to. 

well even then going 3-and-out on consecutive drives doesnt eat much clock or give the D a break. Shula has shown flashes to be a solid OC but often reverts back to being ultra conservative too often. i put that on Ron as much as anything.

[CarolinaSamurai]

2 minutes ago, Peppers90 NC said:

well even then going 3-and-out on consecutive drives doesnt eat much clock or give the D a break. Shula has shown flashes to be a solid OC but often reverts back to being ultra conservative too often. i put that on Ron as much as anything.

But you can't have then get 14 easy points either. We were trying to overcome being down all game and when this offense is playing from behind it sucks. They end up trying to hard and putting themselves in bad 3rd and longs and trying to hard to make big plays that arnt there.

[Peppers90 NC]

8 minutes ago, CarolinaSamurai said:

But you can't have then get 14 easy points either. We were trying to overcome being down all game and when this offense is playing from behind it sucks. They end up trying to hard and putting themselves in bad 3rd and longs and trying to hard to make big plays that arnt there.

Easy points when punter drops the ball, Peppers makes boneheaded play to give them a first after a stop on 3rd down. Probably a few others as well.

[CarolinaNut]

watching this defense try to tackle yesterday literally made me laugh

Coleman might be the worst tackling safety i've ever seen..it's ok to small but he plays small..if he isn't diving at a players ankles to trip them up he's getting bowled over 

our corners are straight trash..Bradberry has his moments but he's average at best..improving the secondary would help immensely but we also have to start looking for a replacement for Davis, Johnson, and Peppers..the defense is just old at our most talented positions and just not very good everywhere else..we can't contain an offense like Saints right now as constructed