Mike knows offense, but....

[NoVaSkins21]

His fault seems to be in giving his defense to people who are poor at running it.

he's an offensive minded coach, and much like Gibbs used to do, he leaves his D up to who he hires.

And there is his downfall.. he's not been very good at finding good defensive coordinators.

This year we have a combination problem, in that we have a sub par coordinator, some key injuries, and a secondary that desperately needs to be overhauled.

I have to believe that overhaul was perhaps partially stymied by this cap penalty we found out about on Free Agency Eve.

As to his firing in denver, the defense was probably a good excuse to use, but I also think Pat Bowlen just felt the need for change (Familiarity brreeding contempt and all) and wanted to hop on the Shiny New Thing, and hired that clown out of new england.

~Bang

Haslett has been pretty poor as a DC, but I don't think Shanahan minds what's going on the defense since he's an offensive minded guy. The guy has given total autonomy to Haslett, but the results have clearly not panned out. IMO, Shanahan needs to wake up and realize that Haslett isn't the answer. Maybe Shanahan believes in the guy, but I don't think it's worth keeping the guy if big plays are being given up week and week out.

[DarrellsMyHero28]

You guys realize we are missing four starters right ? Jesus Christ. How good did that ravens d look without their starters ???

Carriker and Orakpo I'll give you.

Meriweather is garbage. So are the rest of our safeties. Even 100% healthy (and with Jackson not suspended) our secondary is awful.

[bigevhfan]

Carriker and Orakpo I'll give you.

Meriweather is garbage. So are the rest of our safeties. Even 100% healthy (and with Jackson not suspended) our secondary is awful.

True, but we'd be better. Must address all four secondary spots starting this offseason. Makes that 18 million lost for the upcoming year that much more painful.

[BobGriffin]

Carriker and Orakpo I'll give you.

Meriweather is garbage. So are the rest of our safeties. Even 100% healthy (and with Jackson not suspended) our secondary is awful.

Awful is a stretch with everyone healthy. Average to slightly below average is more like it. With the added pressure of Rak and Carriker who knows how much better our secondary could be performing. The only reason why we were still in the game against the Giants was because in the second half they largely stopped them. We turned it over 4 times and we took it back twice. I think with what we have you cant expect much better. It's not a Haslett thing its a personnel thing. This personnel can't stop anybody but they can take the ball away which is huge. You can't really blame Bruce Allen or Shanny either. Nobody can forsee being down 4 defensive starters by week 2 of the season there isn't enough depth in this world to account for that. I fully expect for our problem areas to addressed in the draft and free agency but until then we have to roll with what we have.

[Oldfan]

Awful is a stretch with everyone healthy. Average to slightly below average is more like it. With the added pressure of Rak and Carriker who knows how much better our secondary could be performing. The only reason why we were still in the game against the Giants was because in the second half they largely stopped them. We turned it over 4 times and we took it back twice. I think with what we have you cant expect much better. It's not a Haslett thing its a personnel thing. This personnel can't stop anybody but they can take the ball away which is huge. You can't really blame Bruce Allen or Shanny either. Nobody can forsee being down 4 defensive starters by week 2 of the season there isn't enough depth in this world to account for that. I fully expect for our problem areas to addressed in the draft and free agency but until then we have to roll with what we have.

I don't like the uniforms. I blame Bruce Allen for that.

[Pride]

Reed Doughty is about the biggest tool I've seen in any secondary for a long time.

~BaBump-Bang

lol, Reed is a nice guy, it's not his fault he's continually put in bad positions..

[Pride]

Josh Wilson (2011), Raheem Morris (2012), OJ Atogwe (2011)

Other players signed or drafted to help Haz: Barry Cofield (2011), Stephen Bowen (2011), Ryan Kerrigan (2011) Perry Riley (2010), Jarvis Jenkins (2011), Adam Carriker (2010)

Otogwe couldn't hang so he's gone, Josh Wilson isn't executing all that well here lately either so, and Raheem Morris's secondary hasn't impressed me much.. So there really aren't any tools there. The last time I checked Barry Cofield, Stephen Bowen Jarvis Jenkins and Adam Carriker don't drop into coverage or play in the secondary all that much.

[DarrellsMyHero28]

True, but we'd be better. Must address all four secondary spots starting this offseason. Makes that 18 million lost for the upcoming year that much more painful.

The 18 million killed us. It's an outrage.

Awful is a stretch with everyone healthy. Average to slightly below average is more like it. With the added pressure of Rak and Carriker who knows how much better our secondary could be performing. The only reason why we were still in the game against the Giants was because in the second half they largely stopped them. We turned it over 4 times and we took it back twice. I think with what we have you cant expect much better. It's not a Haslett thing its a personnel thing. This personnel can't stop anybody but they can take the ball away which is huge. You can't really blame Bruce Allen or Shanny either. Nobody can forsee being down 4 defensive starters by week 2 of the season there isn't enough depth in this world to account for that. I fully expect for our problem areas to addressed in the draft and free agency but until then we have to roll with what we have.

I have a pretty grim view of what we can achieve even with everyone healthy and Jackson back from suspension. I said something about it earlier today but even with a more effective pass-rush you need a legitimate defensive backfield considering the passing numbers QBs are putting up. The NFL wants more scoring, the owners want to protect their investments and thus pressuring the QB has gotten harder. Even a better front 7, or a better DC you're going to have to lean on your coverage from time to time when the blitz gets picked up or the QB avoids a sack. I just don't trust the guys we have and with our limited cap space and draft picks I am not exactly looking forward to the future of the secondary.

[RawBBQSauce]

Ok Mike Shanahan is known as an offensive coach. An average defensive ranking of 18 isn't too terrible; especially when you consider what some of the last few SB champs have done on defense during the regular season.

If we and every media outlet in the country can all see the issues we have on defense, I can assure you the head coach sees it, too. He's not going to call out his out guys during a post-game presser, come on, man.

We will get better defensively...and if the rushing attack stays like this as long as Griffin is here, we won't need to play much defense because we'll be scoring points and keeping opposing QBs off the field with TOP domination.

[Oldfan]

Ok Mike Shanahan is known as an offensive coach. An average defensive ranking of 18 isn't too terrible; especially when you consider what some of the last few SB champs have done on defense during the regular season.

If we and every media outlet in the country can all see the issues we have on defense, I can assure you the head coach sees it, too. He's not going to call out his out guys during a post-game presser, come on, man.

We will get better defensively...and if the rushing attack stays like this as long as Griffin is here, we won't need to play much defense because we'll be scoring points and keeping opposing QBs off the field with TOP domination.

Point out a head coach whose reputation stamps him as an offensive or defensive coach and you have identified him as a mediocre coach, one who doesn't coach an entire football team well.

Will you quote the poster who said anything about calling people out in a post-game presser? I must have missed that.

The ToP stat is influenced by the offense (50%) keeping the ball and by the defense (50%) stopping the opponent's offense from keeping the ball.

[Smurf85]

Mike has given Haslett the tools (players) to at the very least, field a competent defense. Yet for some reason Haz can't figure it out.

First of all I'm not a big Haslett fan, but the guy doesn't have that much to work with. His best pass rusher is out for the year and the secondary is horrible. We worried about the offensive side of the ball last off-season and it seems to be working out. Now we need to put all our eggs in on the defensive side of the ball this upcoming off-season.

[illone]

Carriker and Orakpo I'll give you.

Meriweather is garbage. So are the rest of our safeties. Even 100% healthy (and with Jackson not suspended) our secondary is awful.

How can you say for sure the secondary is awful before even seeing these players work in it?

I know haz is bad, so it's a safe bet:ols: but we havent seen Tanard or Meriweather take any snaps.

:whoknows:

[nuposse87]

Injuries are a big culprit but I don't think that can be the only reason why this 3-4 endeavor is failing. Jenkins must not be at 100% because with the hype he was getting last year before his injury it seemed we had a solid young piece on our DL with him. Now I'm not sure if he's actually regressed or the coaches aren't getting everything they should out of him or maybe if it was simply bad drafting, but he isn't working out right now either. Carriker going down shouldn't have been THAT bad, but even he was able to get some decent pressure last year.

We easily have the most incapable safety tandem in football though in Williams and Reed. I'm surprised that management hasn't been actively looking for someone else just to ease this awfulness. Haslett doesn't seem like the type of guy that inspires much confidence for our defensive players either. When you don't have your superstars playing (or playing well) you would think the coaches could do a better job in increasing their chance to make sure they don't fail. Better scheming, playcalling..anything. I don't expect this defense to ever win a game for us, they just need to stop losing it for us (although the giants game seemed like a case of just too many missed opportunities eventually coming back and biting us in the ass).

[SkinsFTW]

One glaring stat I've noticed is the Time of Possession. We have the #1 rushing offense in the NFL averaging 177ypg, 3rd in the NFL in takeaways, 3rd in turnover differential, our QB has a 70% completion rate as well but since Week 1 we've averaged fewer than 30 minutes of possession. How is that even possible?

With those numbers we should be dominating TOP. It's not like we are running the Patriots hurry up offense either.

[HeluCopter29]

He's like 80 years old now.

74 years young!

[Bang]

One glaring stat I've noticed is the Time of Possession. We have the #1 rushing offense in the NFL averaging 177ypg, 3rd in the NFL in takeaways, 3rd in turnover differential, our QB has a 70% completion rate as well but since Week 1 we've averaged fewer than 30 minutes of possession. How is that even possible?

With those numbers we should be dominating TOP. It's not like we are running the Patriots hurry up offense either.

We're bad on third down on both sides of the ball. We extend drives of others, but don't do it very often ourselves.

~Bang

[RonBurgundy&Gold]

lol, Reed is a nice guy, it's not his fault he's continually put in bad positions..

Yeah, like safety.

[Duke]

We're bad on third down on both sides of the ball. We extend drives of others, but don't do it very often ourselves.

~Bang

On a side note, however, I think we are 6 for 6 on 4th down conversion. Not too bad.

[skinsfan1993]

We're on pace to give up the most passing yards in a 16 game season, with 5,254 yards. That's 458 more than the current record (which is surprisingly the 2011 Packers, who gave up 4,796 yards. although it must be noted they always had a lead, and therefore teams passed way more on then than they would have otherwise.)

Our run defense is not bad at all though. (it currently stands as 7th best, in terms of yards given up per game.)

But yea... this secondary is one of the worst of all time..

[GWinSkins83]

One glaring stat I've noticed is the Time of Possession. We have the #1 rushing offense in the NFL averaging 177ypg, 3rd in the NFL in takeaways, 3rd in turnover differential, our QB has a 70% completion rate as well but since Week 1 we've averaged fewer than 30 minutes of possession. How is that even possible?

With those numbers we should be dominating TOP. It's not like we are running the Patriots hurry up offense either.

Teams are trying to keep the ball out of RG3 hands.

[Bishop Hammer]

Haslett has been pretty poor as a DC, but I don't think Shanahan minds what's going on the defense since he's an offensive minded guy. The guy has given total autonomy to Haslett, but the results have clearly not panned out. IMO, Shanahan needs to wake up and realize that Haslett isn't the answer. Maybe Shanahan believes in the guy, but I don't think it's worth keeping the guy if big plays are being given up week and week out.

Yeah. Hate to say it but right now Mikey is more talented Norv. Focusing more on offense but not keeping up on the other phases of the team. If the D-coordinator was someone like Wade Phillips then he could be hands off with the D.

[gaskinsfan]

You can win with a offensive minded coach, you just have to have a strong D coordinator that takes over that side of the ball and produces the right culture.

Look at the Saints, Peyton was always great on offense and horrible on defense until Gregg Williams. Then they get a SB ring.

After 3 years Shanny will fire Haslett, since he only has 5 years and he feels the offense is on the right path. He better get the D coordinator pick right, or years 4 and 5 won't be much better.

[Oldfan]

Yeah. Hate to say it but right now Mikey is more talented Norv. Focusing more on offense but not keeping up on the other phases of the team. If the D-coordinator was someone like Wade Phillips then he could be hands off with the D.

You can win with a offensive minded coach, you just have to have a strong D coordinator that takes over that side of the ball and produces the right culture.

You both have the right idea, in my opinion. However, over his 16+ year career, for one reason or another, Shanny has either been unwilling or unable to land a grade A defensive coordinator.

Maybe it's because he's unwilling to delegate that much responsibility. Maybe he has been too quick to fire DCs in the past and that reputation is hard to shed. Maybe he just doesn't have a handle on the defense he wants. We can't tell what the problem is; but it isn't a problem that just began with Haslett. That much is clear.

[DarrellsMyHero28]

How can you say for sure the secondary is awful before even seeing these players work in it?

I know haz is bad, so it's a safe bet:ols: but we havent seen Tanard or Meriweather take any snaps.

:whoknows:

By examining their careers?

By looking at the injuries, and the fact that they're all cast-offs that no one else wanted?

[NattyBo]

You both have the right idea, in my opinion. However, over his 16+ year career, for one reason or another, Shanny has either been unwilling or unable to land a grade A defensive coordinator.

Maybe it's because he's unwilling to delegate that much responsibility. Maybe he has been too quick to fire DCs in the past and that reputation is hard to shed. Maybe he just doesn't have a handle on the defense he wants. We can't tell what the problem is; but it isn't a problem that just began with Haslett. That much is clear.

If anything, he went through a period where he was too quick to fire defensive coordinators, and then he refused to fire Slowik (IIRC) which ultimately cost him his job with the Broncos.

But yes, he needs to get a handle on the defensive side of the ball because since 2005 or so it has been his total undoing.