Giving our defense excuses

[jarhead]

We need some talent at DT and hope that REdwards is healthy next year will help.I do not see our savour in the draft.

We will need to backfill lb (T davis) position

We need another solid cb

And finally I am not impressed with McDermott but with the lack of talent he is hard to judge.Under McDemott I do not see the fundamentals of tackling or players developement improving so far.I thought Meeks was better that McDemott

[CatMan72]

On Saturday night, our defensive coordinator told his players:

...the defense has to start pulling our weight. We want to be on the same level our offense is on.

/thread

[mc52beast]

When the season started,I decided to give free passes for the 1st 6-8 games. Figured w/ new schemes it would take some time to come together. Well,after 11 games we have a pretty good offense and a defense that some colleges could score on.

What p's me off is that there are other defenses with similar injuries,similar talent that are playing well. Don't know if there is a quick fix for what ails this group,alot of help is needed.

[panthers55]

We need some talent at DT and hope that REdwards is healthy next year will help.I do not see our savour in the draft.

We will need to backfill lb (T davis) position

We need another solid cb

And finally I am not impressed with McDermott but with the lack of talent he is hard to judge.Under McDemott I do not see the fundamentals of tackling or players developement improving so far.I thought Meeks was better that McDemott

Agree with the majority of what you say. One question though. Since Meeks is still here and in charge of the secondary, what was up with Martin's whiff Sunday. I don't know that folks tackled better when he was the DC than MCDermott.

I actually mark up deficiencies in fundamentals this year to the lack of padded practices during the year. Teams aren't allowed to work on fundamentals in pads as frequently as they did in years past. With seasoned veterans this isn't an issue as much but with rookies and young players it is.

[Dpantherman]

Here's an excuse:

They suck. So what's new?

[HoFBound90]

not really a hard concept, everyones injured therefore we have a bunch of young/praqctice squad caliber players thrust into starting roles.

i is not a rocket scientist. threads like this are stupid

its not an excuse if its the truth. if we had only lost lets say 1 starter and a role player/rotation guy or msomething then there would be no excuse, bnut when half of your key defensive players go down then its just the truth

[tondi]

The whole injury excuse bugs me. We have had the same 4 DB's all season. The same 2 DE's and DT's all season and Anderon at LB all season. We lost 2 starting LB's (one of whom hasn't played an entire season in years) after the season began and DT Edwards prior to the season.

In other words 8 of 11 projected starters have played pretty much all season. One of others (Edwards) got hurt on the first day of training camp and has been replaced by the very guys we drafted to play significant minutes this year.

Sure it has been somewhat of a revolving door at the other 2 LB positions but to blame the shortcomings of the entire defense all season on these two positions is a bit of a reach, IMO.

[Khaki Lackey]

I think it's a lot harder to evaluate talent than everyone thinks. Cam is proof of that. Most "experts" were wrong about him and he was the most visible player drafted. How often does it work out that your greatest position need has a bust-proof stud available in the draft? Also, some players actually get better. I'm not ready to give up on McClain and Fua just yet.

[CatMan72]

I'm not ready to give up on any rookie... transition for DT's is tough, especially coming from a program like USF. A guy like McClain got used to overwhelming people with his athleticism in college, now he's got to develop his skills.

[bleys]

The whole injury excuse bugs me. We have had the same 4 DB's all season. The same 2 DE's and DT's all season and Anderon at LB all season. We lost 2 starting LB's (one of whom hasn't played an entire season in years) after the season began and DT Edwards prior to the season.

In other words 8 of 11 projected starters have played pretty much all season. One of others (Edwards) got hurt on the first day of training camp and has been replaced by the very guys we drafted to play significant minutes this year.

Sure it has been somewhat of a revolving door at the other 2 LB positions but to blame the shortcomings of the entire defense all season on these two positions is a bit of a reach, IMO.

:lol:

sorry, I appreciate all posters.. but :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[CRA]

The whole injury excuse bugs me. We have had the same 4 DB's all season. The same 2 DE's and DT's all season and Anderon at LB all season. We lost 2 starting LB's (one of whom hasn't played an entire season in years) after the season began and DT Edwards prior to the season.

In other words 8 of 11 projected starters have played pretty much all season. One of others (Edwards) got hurt on the first day of training camp and has been replaced by the very guys we drafted to play significant minutes this year.

Sure it has been somewhat of a revolving door at the other 2 LB positions but to blame the shortcomings of the entire defense all season on these two positions is a bit of a reach, IMO.

We lost the 2 best playmakers on D. Most importantly 2 that formed a LB talented corp that would be able to aid and mask how weak we were in the middle (w/ 2 rookie DTs).

[rayzor]

to the OP...the 'Enter' button is not your enemy. he's a friend. use him and switch to decaf. might have more people read what you write. i know i would have.

anyone who can't see that this was essentially a perfect storm situation for a defense sucking should try and open their eyes a bit.

the defense was mediocre at best last year. teams didn't score a lot against us because they didn't have to.

we go into this season with a massive hole in the middle of the Dline and a questionable and thin secondary.

we try to upgrade the Dline by drafting two project DTs and bringing in a solid vet DT. solid vet gets hurt for the first time in 5-6 years and misses the season. you are stuck with 2 rookie DTs drafted in the 3rd round that you really just want to get them well needed experience. interior of the Dline is going to be soft.

we go into the season shifting from one scheme to a very different one that has a completely different mindset. while it doesn't always result in a struggling defense initially, it can and it did. having a very shortened offseason really hurt. having as young and undisciplined a defense as we do made it hurt even worse.

defensive gameplan for this year was going to heavily rely on the strength of our LB corps. they brought in a couple guys to help with depth and got everyone healthy....or so they thought. what was/could have been/should have been one of the best LBs corps in the league all of a sudden lost two of their 3 starters. you don't recover from that very well. you don't lose 2 pro-bowl caliber LBs and replace them with 2nd stringers and expect there to be no significant drop off.

young and undisciplined defense + 2 rookie DTs starting because you lost your starting DT + new and very different scheme + lack of offseason + losing your MLB and WLB = bad defense

it's a perfect formula for suck and it's the unfortunate reality. not an excuse. it's an explanation for what happened.

not sure what people want aside from that other than to jump around screaming "WE SUCK!!!!! FIRE EVERYONE!!!!!!!"

it will get better.

the young and undisciplined team in a new system will have the benefit of a year under their belts plus a full offseason which will help with their level of discipline and their lack of experience and lack of understanding of the scheme.

rookie DTs won't be rookies next year. they'll have not only the benefit of having started and having much needed reps during the season, they will have full offseason to learn and correct mistakes. they will also have the benefit of a full offseason in the weight room and with team nutritionists who will help them positively max out their frames and get stronger. plus we'll have edwards back and, more than likely, another DT brought in (hopefully an experienced one). that will make for a much better and improved interior Dline.

the secondary will be fine. we may bring in another CB and more depth at both CB and S.

we will have beason back and that is not just going to improve dramatically the play at the Mike, but we'll have that leadership we have been really lacking that can help things get tightened up on the field.

we will also more than likely bring in talent at the Will.

it's going to get better so quitcherbitchin.

[R0CKnR0LLA]

worst in the league last year (how much improvement can you really expect?)

shortened offseason

3 injured starters

fill ins for injured players playing well below average

new HC

new coordinater

new scheme

rookie at the most important position

this is the offense I'm talking about, weird huh?

[rayzor]

yes. weird.

offense is overachieving and most of the attention to improving the team was put on offense.

we got smitty back and happy.

we got a massive upgrade at QB who is doing better earlier than even his biggest bandwagon riders thought he would.

that new QB essentially adds another starting caliber RB.

we got two massive upgrades at TE.

meanwhile on D we added a little depth at LB and a DT that got hurt and on IR and 2 third round rookie DTs and lost essentially our QB on defense.

again...not sure what people want to hear about the defense....