The Sour Kool Aid Thread - How good is our Defense?

[skinsn24]

I carried this conversation on much to long.

:gaintsuck :eaglesuck

[skinsfanno9]

I would be surprised if anyone said he's not interested in these... but I would agree if they said these are secondary to stopping the run and stopping the opponent from scoring...

Just another perspective here, for as long as I've listened to Gibbs, he has ALWAYS stressed the turnover battle as being the primary key behind having the right personnel. I would agree that they want to stop the run and stop the scoring first, but I'm guessing we would both agree that both Gibbs and Williams would not be happy with a defense that again sat at the bottom of the league in turnovers.

[SASKINTOTHEEND]

Based on the pre-season, some here are predicting a monster defense this year. I've seen a "12-4" defense or top 5 defense as "realistic" predictions in other threads.

While we seem to have learned how to tackle (this is a BIG step forward), I'm not seeing domination here. Lets take the Baltimore game:

1. How many turnovers did our first team defense get?

2. How good was our front four pressure on McNair? Here's a hint - McNair was 14/19 with one TD and no INTs.

3. Yeah, Baltimore only scored 7 points, but had a bevy of penalties. Every time they seemed to get something going, they followed it up with a few illegal procedure penalties. So was it our top 5 D which stopped them from scoring or was it Baltimore's mistakes?

I will say that our run defense on the first team looks much improved, but It certainly helps though when all-pro tackle Jonathan Ogden takes the game off.

Bottom line, it's certainly fair to say that our speed improved, and our open field tackling has taken enormous strides. For this reason, we can certainly have a very realistic hope for a better defense. But without turnovers, our defense will only be average at best (which is still a huge improvement). It's also a fair prediction to say that our front four isn't gonna inspire fear this year. LBs and safeties? Perhaps...

You know that never can any team have anything going well 'cause someone is always trying to bring them down. Just see that this D is tremendously quick. Like you put it that the ravens had a bevy of penalties. They were caused by the O-line who were trying to beat a faster D by trying to anticipate the count and have a quicker start than the D. It was our top 5 D who caused Baltimore's mistakes.

Give props where props are due, please.

[onnie007]

I don't think a stop-n-go game like Saturday's game against the Ravens was a good indicator of what either time is capable of. Plus we aren't even showing half of our blitzes. So I'm not worried. The Kool Aid comes from the individual play of new starters Rocky, London and Laron. They are flying on the field and the whole defense is playing with a different attitude.

[PorkSkins]

Too early to tell. I definitely think Fletcher and McIntosh have upgraded the LB's. The big question remains is how do we develop a pash rush without blitzes. Holding the receivers longer is supposed to be the coach's answer. If we have a great season with our secondary then we could rank 10th - 18th. If we get burned deep like last year with few turnovers, there won't be much improvement. Let's hope Landry can cover the double moves deep down the field at real speed.

[Philip Pease]

I think that our D will return to the form they showed in 04 & 05. Last season they looked hesitant and slow. This pre-season they look agressive and fast.

Greg said that he will let the players loose - to allow them to rely on their instincts rather that emphasizing being in correct position and disciplined. In short I see this as telling them to be more agressive in attacking the ball carrier instead of waiting for the ball carrier to get to you. The attitude of everyone is agressive.

London Fletcher is a definite improvement and Rocky seems to have really stepped up and is playing without thinking so much. The new rookies have shown real talent. We have much better depth at every position.

I think our defense will be great this year. My Kool Aid tastes great.