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Some Truths about our defensive additions


Ignatius J.

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Archletta and Carter have been much maligned by this board. And I think they don't deserve it. Ryan Clark was a loveable guy. Dude could hit and play, and everyone loved him. But the loss of ryan clark isn't whats killing this defense.

Adam Archuletta is leading our team in tackles. How can this jive with the idea that somehow his play is leading to the demise of our defense? I don't think it can. He looks bad in coverage, but what safety in the league looks good in coverage knowing that he is responsible for cleaning up the run game on any given down? No one in the front seven is making stops. That's the problem. Our run defense looks bad, but think back to last year, don't you remember those long runs by tiki barber? Those runs were there because our safeties were not getting the job done. Ryan Clark was not getting the job done. Tiki barber got a long of 18 this year in NY. Why? Better safety play.

But what about carter? Well, he is clearly struggling at defensive end. He's leading our team in sacks though, so clearly he is producing in the pass rush department. If you want to complain about a lack of pass rush (which I think you can) maybe the finger pointing belongs somewhere else. Carter isn't playing nearly as well as archuletta, but he was brought in to get sacks and he sure looks like he's doing that.

It's easy to blame the new guys, but the new guys aren't the real problems. The problems are not easy to see, but my guess is that cornelius griffin has been playing hurt. These last few games on defense remind me a lot of the games where griffin was out last year. We are a different defense when griffin is in there terrorizing people. I don't really know what the problem is, but the fact is the new guys are producing. The defense needs to step up, and that includes the new guys, but to somehow think that these additions were mistakes is silly to me.

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I agree about archuletta. The guy has played very well and all the complaints he has recieved are not deserved.

Carter is a different story. Dude has 2 sacks, not exactly overwhelming. I do think he will improve on those numbers as the season progresses, but the real problem is he hasn't been very stout against the run. Gregg Williams relies on the D-line to stop the run and open up lanes for LBs and safeties to get to the QB and unless Carter starts holding up better at the point of attack we are going to have issues.

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The criticism of carter is definately more warranted, and he does need to get better, but my key point here is that it's not like the people around him are performing up to snuff either. He's leading the team in sacks. I just think it makes more sense to look elsewhere on the team... like say linebacker, where Marcus Washington and Warrick Holdman are simply not getting the job done.

He's not playing steller, but he's the best we've got. It's hard to argue he's not an improvement over what we had. Stellar by no means. Just better.

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You can't rely on the stats to tell the whole story. Carter has a couple sacks, but he has been completely neutralized outside of those two sacks. He's not getting consistent pressure, which is more important than the number of sacks.

And Archuleta is decent against the run but has been completely taken advantage of on passing plays. Stanley Richard and James Washington used to lead the team in tackles...doesn't mean they were good players for us.

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