RETRACTION: Why Hasn't Our Defense Improved?

[Oldfan]

Defense in the 2013 NFL is really about .... generating a pass rush...

 

I think it's increasingly about generating a pass rush economically, using fewer players to do it, since offenses are burning the blitzes better each year.

[Warhead36]

The NFL is an offense league now. You really don't need a good D, just average....

 

I can't agree with that. Unless you can figure out why scoring seven points is more important than keeping the opponent from scoring seven points, offense and defense will always be equally important.

In a vacuum, yes. But if you notice, the teams that contend year in year out are generally the teams with the best offenses. It's too hard to field a winner built around a good defense because good defense has all but been legislated out of the game with the rule changes, on top of the fact that for the most part the most talented and athletic players generally play offense.

 

If your team is built around a dynamic offense and average defense, you can contend for a Super Bowl. If your team is built around a dominant defense and average offense, you'll struggle to win 9 games.

[emor09]

After the first two drives of the playoff game, our offense put our defense in awful positon for three quarters.

 

With our starting safeties, OLB and DE hurt, our D STILL had us in position to advance if Leonard Hankerson could catch a slant.

 

Yes, we gave up 24 points, but our D played great in the Seattle game. That's the most recent film we have, and it's impressive.  

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

Phew. where do you start .....

 

We have no 34 NT. Cofield is a smart football player who gives his all but he's too small and not strong enough to play nose in a 34. And we get little to no pressure from the ends so the D front is all about containment. Not the best formula to make an attacking 34 work. Then there's been the big B&G comedy show at the back end that we're only just getting round to addressing thanks to everything else we've had to gut and rebuild. And also thanks to some ass in NY who thought it funny to financially rape us the last few years for the Hell of it. 

 

And then there's the career average, wholly predicable DC. If we, as layman fans know what he's going to do; then it must be Christmas for opposing OC's. I honestly don't see this D becoming elite until he goes and a bona fide 34 guy is brought in to really take the unit on. Better personnel or not. 

 

We hopefully should improve and grow with the fantastic playmaking youth we added this Spring in 2013. 

 

But I don't see the defense under this DC making any significant leap to keep pace with the O. 

 

Hail. 

 

*Edit* I'd throw Morris into the 'BIG question mark' bracket along with Haslet too. Really don't get the push for him to take over looking at the state of the DB's on the field whilst he's been here. 

[Bang]

In my mind, it boils down to depth  There have been injuries to pass rushers and secondary.. Reed Doughty has a lot of heart, and occasionally he makes a nice play, but to have him be your starting safety usually means that 3rd down is attainable for most teams. he just does not have good pass cover instincts.

 

London fletcher appeared to have lost a step. He had some injuries, and teams ate him alive with tight ends. Now there's two bona-fide liabilities in pass coverage. One at the deep level and one at the intermediate level. 

 

Last year we gave up 44% of third down attempts.

Absolute worst in the NFL.

 

I would suggest that when you've got pass coverage problems on the personel level like we have with Doughty and with fletcher last year, then it becomes fairly easy for a QB to pick apart the d on 3rd down and move down the field. Because of those, especially fletcher's glaring problem with tight ends, it means we're not able to blitz as much. The risk of being caught is great.

Folks say "we need to blitz more", and ignore that a running back flaring out causes a hell of a problem when Fletcher is routinely a step behind the tight end on his route, and Doughty has the field awareness of Stevie Wonder.
if we blitz more with those weaknesses, the chance of a big play goes up exponentially. We'd get caught with our pants down a LOT with a ball carrier on a short route running free.

We've had to leave extra men in coverage to hide weak spots.

 

I'll give Haslett the benefit of the doubt prior to now, but they've been together long enough to have drafted and acquired some depth to use when injuries inevitably creep up.

The 3rd down problem MUST be fixed, if that means London has to sit on third down for a fresher set of legs, so be it.

The guy is great, but no one is timeless.

 

~Bang

[Oldfan]

 

The NFL is an offense league now. You really don't need a good D, just average....

 

I can't agree with that. Unless you can figure out why scoring seven points is more important than keeping the opponent from scoring seven points, offense and defense will always be equally important.

In a vacuum, yes. But if you notice, the teams that contend year in year out are generally the teams with the best offenses. It's too hard to field a winner built around a good defense because good defense has all but been legislated out of the game with the rule changes, on top of the fact that for the most part the most talented and athletic players generally play offense.

 

If your team is built around a dynamic offense and average defense, you can contend for a Super Bowl. If your team is built around a dominant defense and average offense, you'll struggle to win 9 games.

 

Rule changes favoring the offense raise the the average total score in NFL games. They have no effect on the relative importance of offense v. defense. The most talented athletes have always played in the skill positions. That doesn't change the importance of offense v. defense either. A team with a Grade A defense and a Grade C offense is equal to a team with a Grade C defense and a Grade A offense.

[wrecker]

 

The Redskins were able to do this in the 2nd half of the season, and would have easily been able to do it against Seattle with a healthy Griffin out there

The crazy thing is that the Skins didnt lose the lead until the 4th. I dont even want to think of the score if Griffin didnt get hurt.

....or if they had put Cousins in at halftime after it was obvious to the casual observer RG3 was ineffective after tweaking his already injured knee.

Actually they should have put Cousins in after we saw RG3 limp to the sideline on the sweep left play in the second qtr. Sorry but I am still fuming about this.

[Hitman21ST]

I would agree with DC9. Injuries played a HUGE part last year, and the cap penalty directly affected out ability to bring in sufficient talent to compensate for injuries.

 

Any time a team loses both their starting safeties, their best pass rusher, and one of the best run defenders (Carriker) on the team, the defense will struggle. The defense didn't play bad against New Orleans when we still had Carriker and Rak, but then we lost both against the Rams. I think it just took time for Has to adjust to his new lineup. We rotated ROLBs until Jackson stepped up, and Jenkins admitted he was still shaky about his knee for the first part of the season. Madieu just isn't a starting quality (might even argue a backup quality) free safety, and while Reed is a very good backup, he's not an every down starter.

 

I do think Has is on the hot seat this season, but this is also the first season that he's had a full compliment of starter quality players (11 starting quality players starting) going into week 1 (which he hopefully will).

[Chris Luva Luva]

1.  Haz and Mike inherited a team with zero skill and depth, it takes time to rebuild it. 

2.  Injuries

3.  Cap penalty.

 

Last but not least, this isn't Madden. 

 

1.  Haz and Mike inherited a team with zero skill and depth, it takes time to rebuild it. 

2.  Injuries

3.  Cap penalty.

 

Last but not least, this isn't Madden. 

 

Excuse #1 doesn't work since the D did better in 2010 and three years is ample time to show improvements.

 

Ahhh yes, my first point which is indeed a fact is labeled an "excuse" by you.  There's no need to even discuss it further with you.  LMAO

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

If injuries played such a huge part last year, why was this D still piss poor with both a healthy Cariker and Orakpo the year before? 

 

And to put all their eggs on Jackson when they knew there was a major chance of a long suspension was just about the most ridiculous thing this regime has done. 

 

Hail. 

[Warhead36]

 

 

The NFL is an offense league now. You really don't need a good D, just average....

 

I can't agree with that. Unless you can figure out why scoring seven points is more important than keeping the opponent from scoring seven points, offense and defense will always be equally important.

In a vacuum, yes. But if you notice, the teams that contend year in year out are generally the teams with the best offenses. It's too hard to field a winner built around a good defense because good defense has all but been legislated out of the game with the rule changes, on top of the fact that for the most part the most talented and athletic players generally play offense.

 

If your team is built around a dynamic offense and average defense, you can contend for a Super Bowl. If your team is built around a dominant defense and average offense, you'll struggle to win 9 games.

 

A team with a Grade A defense and a Grade C offense is equal to a team with a Grade C defense and a Grade A offense.

Then why do teams with the better offenses win a lot more often than the teams with the better defenses?

[RG3Hunna]

We unfairly blame haz so much it's truly unfair when you think about it. 

 

1. We've been a traditional run stopping defense for YEARS, this is a passing league now and we're still trying to assemble a strong secondary to compete against the plethora of passing offenses in the league now.

 

It's no coincidence we do VERY well defensively against teams that want to run it down our throat "Minnesota" "Seattle"

 

2. We have been trying to fix the offense for 3 years so most of our resources have gone to the offensive side of the ball, not to mention we were hit with an unfair $36 million cap hit that has hampered us from improving our talent on our roster. 

 

3. Injuries/Death our secondary hasn't been the same since Sean Taylor was killed, do you guys remember the Texans game where Andre Johnson pissed on Reed for a game winning TD? Now Imagine if that was Sean Taylor? A lot of the holes in our secondary would be covered up with his elite range. 

 

Haz started playing soft D early on because we had so many injuries he didn't want to expose the secondary and then he finally decided we're gonna get beat by the pass regardless, I might as well blitz and our defense improved tremendously the last 7 games.

 

 

Yes, Haz is not an elite D coordinator but I mean the hate this guy gets with our fanbase is insane. This guy was given a wet napkin, 2 toothpicks and gum and was told to build an assault rifle. He's not as bad as some of you think, remember the Greg Blache years?Now that was bad conservative uninspired defensive football. 

[Califan007 The Constipated]

During Shanahan's tenure here, his defenses have had:

 

1) No real NT

2) Absolutely no safeties

 

Get both of those and see how much the defense improves.

[Oldfan]

I have heard hype about our rookie crop coming out of Redskins training camp ever since Sammy was chucking it to Bugsy. Every once in a while, some of it turns out to be true, I hope this is one of those exceptional years. We need an infusion of good young talent to upgrade the defense.

 

In order of importance, I think three factors account for the lack of improvement:

 

1. The Shanny drafts haven't done well in upgrading our defense;

 

2. Haz hazn't inspired confidence;

 

3. Injuries have plagued his unit.

 

 

However, the rankings in the OP should have an asterisk added. The defense ranking (25) might be to low and the offense ranking (6) might be too high since the defense did great this season in takeaways that helped the offense with good field position

[RG3Hunna]

During Shanahan's tenure here, his defenses have had:

 

1) No real NT

2) Absolutely no safeties

 

Get both of those and see how much the defense improves.

Those are 2 of the most important positions in a 3-4 defense and all we have had is "Reed Doughty" and "Barry Coefield" and we wonder why we're mediocre?

[SWFLSkins]

 

The Redskins were able to do this in the 2nd half of the season, and would have easily been able to do it against Seattle with a healthy Griffin out there

The crazy thing is that the Skins didnt lose the lead until the 4th. I dont even want to think of the score if Griffin didnt get hurt.

I don't even want to think of the score if Kirk Cousins goes in at halftime. 

[Oldfan]

[ Warhead ] Then why do teams with the better offenses win a lot more often than the teams with the better defenses?

 

They don't. You are probably being deceived by a run of luck. We know that coin flips are 50/50 but you often see a run like HHTTTTT. That isn't evidence that tails is now dominant over heads.

 

Your seeing a run of Os does not mean that Os now dominate over Ds.

[pjfootballer]

If injuries played such a huge part last year, why was this D still piss poor with both a healthy Cariker and Orakpo the year before?

And to put all their eggs on Jackson when they knew there was a major chance of a long suspension was just about the most ridiculous thing this regime has done.

Hail.

First year in the 3-4. It takes about three years to become fully acclimated to it. I think we show signs here and there that the 3-4 will be good, but at this point I was expecting a more dominant Pittsburgh type defense and all I've seen is something resembling Dallas' 3-4.

[thebluefood]

I'm going to go with injuries and losing half of your back end on defense from the 2nd to the 3rd year and have little to no money to replace it.

Couldn't have said it better. If we don't see some major improvement from the defense this season, I want someone to give Has a ticket for the next plane out of National. Preferably to Dallas. 

[TSO]

To add to Califan's points:

1- Cap penalty

2- Cap penalty

3- Cap penalty

And I do disagree slightly about Cofield being a true NT. Sure, we probably can do better with an absolute dominant NT, but I think Cofield gets more flak for his apparent "small" size while the film tells otherwise. He gets good push when they block him one on one (and is a solid pass rusher in those situations) and even beats double teams by splitting them often. In the end, he gets his job done whether or not he uses power and size.

[RG3Hunna]

If injuries played such a huge part last year, why was this D still piss poor with both a healthy Cariker and Orakpo the year before?

And to put all their eggs on Jackson when they knew there was a major chance of a long suspension was just about the most ridiculous thing this regime has done.

Hail.

First year in the 3-4. It takes about three years to become fully acclimated to it. I think we show signs here and there that the 3-4 will be good, but at this point I was expecting a more dominant Pittsburgh type defense and all I've seen is something resembling Dallas' 3-4.

But look at the talent pittsburgh has had on their Defenses compared to us, You can't get the pittsburgh D when your defensive roster is full of players who probably wouldn't start on the pittsburgh D. 

[TSO]

I will say that Haslett, Morris and Slowik did something after the bye week (Has giving more authority to Fletcher on the field and choosing to blitz more exotically, Morris with his incredible DB rotation, and Slowik improving LBs pass coverage as well as Rob Jackson) and it was special.

My hope is that special sauce they found after the bye last season is recognized as special. I don't want then to change a thing and I'm glad they're all back (which is saying something cuz I couldn't stand Slowik and was really annoyed with Haslett's bland schemes).

If Haslett reverts to that "cover 3 shell" with an occasional blitz from Riley or fletcher crap again I will explode. I just don't believe that'll happen. I think they found their winning recipe and they know it.

[SWFLSkins]

If we start this season the way we

Finished last we will be fine.

 

Five of our seven wins to close the season were against division foes. Maybe our scouting isn't good against non-division rivals, or maybe Haz's game planning is slow to catch on to the opponent's tendencies. What do you think?

Don't buy that theory OF, Shanahan doesn't seem like the type to overlook an underling being underprepared. And I trust in him as an executive in that capacity. The offense is in good hands now and I think you'll see Mike pay even more attention to the defense. I was never really high on Haz but I won't blame last year on him, the D finished strongly, I just want to see that carry through and show the growth that you made mention in starting this thread. Time will tell. He has some options at safety now and for getting to the QB.

[Gibbs Hog Heaven]

I will say that Haslett, Morris and Slowik did something after the bye week (Has giving more authority to Fletcher on the field and choosing to blitz more exotically, Morris with his incredible DB rotation, and Slowik improving LBs pass coverage as well as Rob Jackson) and it was special.

My hope is that special sauce they found after the bye last season is recognized as special. I don't want then to change a thing and I'm glad they're all back (which is saying something cuz I couldn't stand Slowik and was really annoyed with Haslett's bland schemes).

If Haslett reverts to that "cover 3 shell" with an occasional blitz from Riley or fletcher crap again I will explode. I just don't believe that'll happen. I think they found their winning recipe and they know it.

 

I can concede that on Haslet. Things certainly changed after the bye.

 

I remain to be surprised but here's hoping I'm surprised this year and it continues.

 

Hail. 

[skins island connection]

 Hey, OldFan, that's MY job to bash Haslett!  How dare you?!  lol..

 

 It's simple; very very simple.

 Wade turned the Texans defense around in 1 training camp; this is Haslett's 3rd-4th year?

 It's not so much the players as the play calling.  Once again, good coaches make good/great players, NOT the other way around.  The terminology of 'coach' is to teach, groom, a player into performing to their best abilities; utilizing the talent in ways to be successful and under certain situations defines a coach.

 

 Actually, the squad on the field is a pretty good one, barring injuries, and yes, injuries did play some role in the defensive success, or lack of, last year, but having an offense which put points on the board helped the defense, being the opponents were forced into throwing alot to catch up.

 

 All anyone has to do is go back and look into the career of Haslett, and its pretty self-explanatory; unless he has superstars on the field, he is limited; hec, many armchair coordinators could do the same thing.

So, is it Haslett's inability to coach players into being good, or is it lack of adapting to game situations?

 

IF, the Redskins offense is slowed or sluggish, the defense will be in the spotlight to pick up the slack, and I don't think Haslett has it in him to have the defense step up, and boy will ES go ape**** if the defense is struggling...