interesting defensive stats (points vs yards allowed)

[Ryman of the North]

The Skins have to start tightening things up on defense. They've been more lucky than good. A wins a win, but you can't keep giving teams a chance to win the game and hope they screw up. Sooner or later these yards will start turning into points.

The reason no bend but dont break defence has ever won a superbowl is simple enough I would think. Teams who rely on other teams to be stupid (stopping running the ball when averaging almost 7 YPC) or who rely on other teams being injured (8 starters would be enough to derail any team) are not going to win many games in the long run.

I am beginning to become hopeful in that at least Haslett has acknowledged that he cant just blitz every play out of a 30 fron and has run more 40 fronts with more creative blitzes, but until we can actually stop teams I wont hold my breath.

[Ryman of the North]

i think thats bogus. if aaron rodgers didnt expose us how the hell is eli manning going to expose us? peyton manning maybe, but clearly the jags and texans were able to drop 60+ points on that team so im not as worried considering how awful that defense has been so far. they scored one rushing TD against the chiefs, and their D while improved is nothing crazy. the colts are not the same team they used to be at this point in the season.

if we look like we did in the 2nd half against the colts, we can win that game for sure. two weeks in a row now our defense has been very solid. those two games at STL and HOU have really skewed our defense, as we looked beyond horrendous in both. but the past two weeks weve been seriously improved. seems that rams game was a massive wake up call.

BLC- when a team is using their third TE and they use the TE as a major part of their offence, it does affect that teams ability to score. ditto with the RB who despite not being a great RB gashed us for 130 yards on 12 carries or something like that.

[bulldog]

One of the reasons teams have been able to run is the fact we are facing top quarterbacks week in and week out.

Haslett is game planning to limit prolific passers like Rodgers and Romo sits to pee and that leaves the team susceptible to draws, screens and run calls on long yardage downs.

Except for one half against Kevin Kolb the Redskins really haven't faced an ineffective qb that has trouble making the throws.

Meanwhile other teams get to face Todd Collins, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Alex Smith, and Jimmy Clausen.

Give the Redskins THAT schedule of opponents and I will wager the run support will be a lot better.

No need to run a 2-5 or dime package when facing these passers

[MattFancy]

One of the reasons teams have been able to run is the fact we are facing top quarterbacks week in and week out.

Haslett is game planning to limit prolific passers like Rodgers and Romo sits to pee and that leaves the team susceptible to draws, screens and run calls on long yardage downs.

Except for one half against Kevin Kolb the Redskins really haven't faced an ineffective qb that has trouble making the throws.

Meanwhile other teams get to face Todd Collins, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Alex Smith, and Jimmy Clausen.

Give the Redskins THAT schedule of opponents and I will wager the run support will be a lot better.

No need to run a 2-5 or dime package when facing these passers

That's a great point that I didn't think about.

[Frostx08]

The reason no bend but dont break defence has ever won a superbowl is simple enough I would think. Teams who rely on other teams to be stupid (stopping running the ball when averaging almost 7 YPC) or who rely on other teams being injured (8 starters would be enough to derail any team) are not going to win many games in the long run.

I am beginning to become hopeful in that at least Haslett has acknowledged that he cant just blitz every play out of a 30 fron and has run more 40 fronts with more creative blitzes, but until we can actually stop teams I wont hold my breath.

No bend but don't break team has ever won a Super Bowl huh??

[Morneblade]

BLC- when a team is using their third TE and they use the TE as a major part of their offence, it does affect that teams ability to score. ditto with the RB who despite not being a great RB gashed us for 130 yards on 12 carries or something like that.

GB wideouts didnt help the cause either. They dropped alot of balls. I thought playcalling was bad as well. We could not stop the run, but they got away from it. It's not all gloom and doom but lets be realistic. There are some serious issues there, especially against the run. Kemo is not doing his job, at all. Rocky and Fletch are not great fits for ILB in a 3-4 and is shows. A good running team that is commited to it will kill us.

[Brandon Lloyd Christmas]

BLC- when a team is using their third TE and they use the TE as a major part of their offence, it does affect that teams ability to score. ditto with the RB who despite not being a great RB gashed us for 130 yards on 12 carries or something like that.

oh excuse me, i guess pro bowler greg jennings was out? or pro bowler donald driver was out? or top slot guy james jones was out? or best QB in the NFC was out? cry me a river about one great tight end, jermichael finely is hardly the guy that glues that offense together so dont try and sell that one. and theyve had no problem dropping 27 points per game without ryan grant, so dont make it an exception for the game they lose to us.

face it, the defense did a great job and its bothering you because youve been ragging on them the whole offseason and all this season.

[No_Pressure]

I think it has to do with the playcaller on defense and the style of Haslett vs. Blache last season. Forget all the 3-4 vs. 4-3 stuff for a minute and think of what the coaches tendencies are in certain situations. I'm sure that Haslett is more likely to take risks with zone blitzes and strange looks on odd downs. I think when you are very aggressive in your style you do a number of things: you raise the likelihood of creating turnovers, you raise the likelihood of getting sacks or big stops for losses or no gains, and you increase your vulnerability somewhere on the field. Sometimes the other team will exploit it and pick up yards in chunks, sometimes the other team will have their play busted and we get an interception, fumble, sack, tackle for a loss, etc.

Over the course of a game Haslett will change the way he calls plays for different parts of the field. When we have them backed on their side of the 50, I think he will be looking to really cause some turnovers. When they cross the 50 or so I think that is where we play a little more conservative and sort of clamp down on what the other team is doing. I don't have the stats but I'll be willing to bet we have a lot of teams who put together something like 40 yard drives against us for no points, so rather than playing a conservative defense where maybe 2/3 of your drives are 20 yards or less before you punt, most of teams we play go 30-40 yards before punting because we are taking more risks while trying to create big plays.

As long as we can keep stopping teams most of the time around our own 40 I'll be happy.

[ChampSkinsFanatic]

You can't really say this is a bend but don't break type D, I've seen the opposing offenses stop themselves by dropped passes or some other lucky break we get. Our defense is a sieve with so many huge holes.