bonesbr549 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Interesting read and some good interpretations from John Keim. And I still can't believe we have the same DC next year. Just blows my mind. http://espn.go.com/blog/washington-redskins/post/_/id/4975/quick-takes-defensive-stats Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ldysknzfn1 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 It is a good read...some things I was surprised by ...most I wasn't..I don't how you can defend leaving Haslett as DC after those numbers...BUT if, indeed, he was "handcuffed" by Shanahan, perhaps he deserves a "do over"...but when or if do we say..wait a minute perhaps it wasn't a handcuffing incident...ST obviously didn't help the situation one bit...we shall see what a new season w/a new HC brings..if I see 20 yd cushions again I will explode! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fan since a Fetus Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 John Keim seems to be good at his job. But, even though a lot of us are not happy that Haz is coming back, we might as well shut up, live with it and hope for the best. I really don't see a turnaround in this defense until we get a new DC, but I can hope. I am making it a point not to **** about it until the games start next year. Then the gloves are coming off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaGoonie55 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 The defense better improve. Period. I hope it works out, history dictates that it won't. HTTR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearrock Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 A really great article by Keim and sobering insight. *sigh* Man, if I was running this team, I would be shaking my head at the lengths this defense has to go in order to make the team competitive in the absence of a great offense. - You can either get better depth at Dline to always rotate fresh average to above average line or get monster players. Monster players being harder to get, I think depth and rotation is probably better. Would really love to see a space eater at DT, but they don't grow on trees - What to do about Orakpo? If he's brought back though, I would like to see him rush the passer more. I think the key to turning around this unit is to identify the individual strengths of the players and have them commit to excelling at that. Jack of all trades in the NFL is so hard to come by, especially those who can do everything well. I think it's much more likely to identify the one or two things that the individual player does really well and have them do those things in the confines of the overall philosophy. - Who replaces Fletcher? Clearly Fletcher was a liability in pass coverage this year, but how many MLBs who excel in run and pass def are out there in the league right now? Combine that with Fletcher's leadership, anyone who is only marginally better than Fletcher may end up degrading the unit overall when you factor in leadership and knowledge into the equation. - Amerson may be promising, but is he ready to be a starter? Hall played well, but how much will he cost? I would love to upgrade both safety positions, but do we have the money or the picks? Do Thomas or Rambo have enough things that they do well to play well back there? The biggest problem I see is that there is no particular strength to this defense, no unit that is good or even above average. We have to commit the numbers to be good in run defense (which they seem to do every year under Haslett), but we don't have the secondary to sacrifice bodies to defend the run. But without the numbers, we don't have the playmakers to adequately defend the run. We haven't gotten consistent pressure with guys beating one on one blocks to help the porous secondary. There are gaping holes at every level of this defense and I don't know how long it will take to fix those holes. If I'm building this team, I would have a really hard time gauging when that window of opportunity is going to open up because it may simply take a fresh cycle to rebuild this defense. I would think the most promising option at this point is to build the offense into a juggernaut and combine it with an aggressive, opportunistic defense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr_apropos Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 The defense better improve. Period. How can it get any worse?! Seriously though, I think maybe Gruden is thinking that more offense -- longer drives resulting in TDs -- will help the D more than switching coordinators. It sort of worked in Philly and you can see more teams adopting that philosophy. The current NFL Rules completely favor the offense so instead of trying to create a killer D, just get one that will limit the points against and pray you can outscore the other team. I'm not saying this is a winning strategy, but I can sort of see giving it a shot. The whole focus of the D seems to be 'take chances, get the turnover, try to limit the damage to a field goal'. Here's hoping the Hass is up to the task. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeluCopter29 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 I really don't see a turnaround in this defense until we get a new DC, but I can hope. I am making it a point not to **** about it until the games start next year. Then the gloves are coming off. I hope more fans have this mindset. I think this article speaks to a need for more blitzing and additional pressure. It felt like to often this year we came with a four man rush and with our personnel, that won't get the job done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NewCliche21 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 John Keim seems to be good at his job. But, even though a lot of us are not happy that Haz is coming back, we might as well shut up, live with it and hope for the best. I really don't see a turnaround in this defense until we get a new DC, but I can hope. I am making it a point not to **** about it until the games start next year. Then the gloves are coming off. John Keim is literally the best writer out there regarding the Redskins. There's a reason that he went from the Examiner to the Post to ESPN in maybe a three month span. He's outstanding. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Acre Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 There is Daniel McCullers, DT, TennesseeHeight: 6-8. Weight: 360.Projected 40 Time: 5.45.Projected Round (2014): 2-4 (This is Waltfootball btw) Worth a shot in the 3rd? If he pans out, best 3rd round pick we could make. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riggo-toni Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 A couple of things I extrapolated from this. 1. Danny Smith still sucks. Keith Burns was putrid, but the 2 teams giving opponents the best starting field position were the Skins and the Steelers. Thank heaven we fired Burns, but let noone kid themselves into thinking this year's fiasco in any way exonerates Senor Gumchew. 2. Our defense was way too slow. Why Keim doesn't explicitly draw this conclusion in his article is a bit baffling, but to me it seems self-evident. When there's a long field, opponents could simply outrun our defenders. When it was a short field, London's savvy covered up a multitude of sins and lifted us up to mediocrity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jflow78 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 It actually makes perfect sense to me. Their weakness was in pass protection, pass protection becomes easier in the red zone because there's less space, and the front seven is far better than the defensive backfield. So, I don't know that there was anything in here that shocked me. This signals that we need safety help more than any other position on defense, IMO. Hall had a better year, and Amerson was up and down (like you'd expect a rookie to be), but the safeties were terrible all year. John Keim is literally the best writer out there regarding the Redskins. There's a reason that he went from the Examiner to the Post to ESPN in maybe a three month span. He's outstanding. I agree 100%. He was the only reason I ever looked at the Examiner. The guy is one of the best sports writers out there, IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingGibbs Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 How's that for "hope"? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RhodeIsland Ave Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Garbage In = Garbage Out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greenspandan Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 the stats that that Keim leads off with -- showing how the defense did disastrously poorly on drives that started with a long field to work with, and actually did very well when given a short field, suggests something to me. when the defense is ON their gameplan, when they are doing what they practiced and doing what Haslett wants to be doing, they are TERRIBLE. When they are thrown into a bad situation, forced to improvise, and OFF their gameplan, they excelled. what does that mean? i think it means that other teams have Haslett figured out to a tee. when the skins are doing what they "want" to be doing, other offenses recognize it and know exactly how to attack it. the numbers show that the redskins "standard" defense was dismantled by virtually every QB they faced. it's only when the skins D was thrown OFF its gameplan via turnover or long runback on special teams that it was ever effective! this should be a huge red flag and puts the blame squarely on Haslett's shoulders, as opposed to personnel or execution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hazel-Ra Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Well, since J-Haz seems to be here for the duration, he needs to review the tape from the late 7 game run in 2012. Our defense actually looked good during that stretch and we were getting INTS and Sacking QB's and may have saved his job then. There must have been a common denominator there Jimbo... find it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Emsworth Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Have to agree on Keim, best Redskins writer at the mo. the defenses problems are legion, which at least gives plenty of room to potentially upgrade . We need much better productivity from the front 3, to make better use of our OLB's strengths, new ILB (Robinson coming back??) and major help at Safety (& could stand a fair bit of improvement at corner/nickel). First job for the staff is to work out if we already have any guys who can significantly up their contribution from last year (K Robinson, R Crawford, B Jenkins, C Minnifield, B Rambo and P Thomas for instance). Then get more talent onto the roster. With cap space, some important free agent decisions of our own and the draft there is the opportunity to do that , but it's a big task for a new staff trying to embed a new playbook and philosophy (albeit with a fair amount of carryover). In their shoes I'd start off trying to get more pressure by adding to the quality of the front three and hope that'd improve the stuff going on behind them. But it's not like areas of the offense aren't going to be clamouring for improved resources too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darth Tater Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Well, since J-Haz seems to be here for the duration, he needs to review the tape from the late 7 game run in 2012. Our defense actually looked good during that stretch and we were getting INTS and Sacking QB's and may have saved his job then. There must have been a common denominator there Jimbo... find it! Unfortunately, much of the lesson is play teams with bad offenses and when you do play teams with good offenses, hope they just have a bad day (the Giants missed at least 11 points they should have had in the first half either because of drops by wide open receivers or bad throw by Manning) and/or play keep away (for instance, the second game against Dallas). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maskedsuperstar Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 There is Daniel McCullers, DT, Tennessee Height: 6-8. Weight: 360. Projected 40 Time: 5.45. Projected Round (2014): 2-4 (This is Waltfootball btw) Worth a shot in the 3rd? If he pans out, best 3rd round pick we could make. Can he rush the passer? Haz uses the NT to rush the QB. It is a good read...some things I was surprised by ...most I wasn't..I don't how you can defend leaving Haslett as DC after those numbers...BUT if, indeed, he was "handcuffed" by Shanahan, perhaps he deserves a "do over"...but when or if do we say..wait a minute perhaps it wasn't a handcuffing incident...ST obviously didn't help the situation one bit...we shall see what a new season w/a new HC brings..if I see 20 yd cushions again I will explode! Cooley says that Shanahan called the defensive plays. Something just isn't right. I mean, Haz likes to bring pressure. And that just stopped. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrelgreenie Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 A really great article by Keim and sobering insight. *sigh* Man, if I was running this team, I would be shaking my head at the lengths this defense has to go in order to make the team competitive in the absence of a great offense...... The biggest problem I see is that there is no particular strength to this defense, no unit that is good or even above average. We have to commit the numbers to be good in run defense (which they seem to do every year under Haslett), but we don't have the secondary to sacrifice bodies to defend the run. But without the numbers, we don't have the playmakers to adequately defend the run. We haven't gotten consistent pressure with guys beating one on one blocks to help the porous secondary. There are gaping holes at every level of this defense and I don't know how long it will take to fix those holes. If I'm building this team, I would have a really hard time gauging when that window of opportunity is going to open up because it may simply take a fresh cycle to rebuild this defense. I would think the most promising option at this point is to build the offense into a juggernaut and combine it with an aggressive, opportunistic defense. Theose stats are fugly but we should have already known that. Our only hope from a coaching perspective is that (a) Haslett was truely limited by Mike S. meddling and ( Slowick didn't do a good enough job with the LB corps and that Baker/KO will raise their level of production. Personnel is a huge hurdle. I've been speculating on this in the FA thread. I view this strength of the defense as outside pass rush. My plan would be maximize the ability to bring pressure: I would start by re-sign Rak or signing another ~10 sack OLB Jason Worilds (or Woodley if/when he gets cut) DL: I would start upfront. I want to increase the ability of the front 3 to generate pass rush and play stout. My A#1 priority in FA is finding the best DE I can. Lamar Houston/Vance Walker/Paul Solaia etc..(I would say NT but Haslett seems to love the idea of playing Cofield at NT) ILB: I would re-sign Riley and sign a 'bridge'* FA ILB to play beside him. I want a veteran that knows the 34 defense Dayrl Smith/Karlos Dansby (If I really had my way I would sign Spikes from NE and sign Dakota Watson from TB) SAF: I would sign a 'bridge'* FS. And develop the younger guys. Ryan Clark/Charles Woodson CB: Re-sign Biggers I use 'bridge player' to mean a veteran player that is still a solid starter that is willing to sign a short (1-2 year) team friendly contract and accept the role as leader, mentor for the younger players and help groom them into starters. ............................................................FS-Ryan Clark ..................................................................................................................SS-Jose Gumbs/Phillip Thomas ................................................................ILB-Riley..........ILB-Daryl Smith ........................ROLB-Orakpo....DE-Lamar Houston....NT-Cofield...DE-Baker......LOLB-Kerrigan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Die Hard Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 If Jim Haslett was constantly super-ceded by Shanahan on (1) in-game playcalls... and (2) throwing out defensive gameplans on the Friday of game week.... why would any self-respecting professional coach accept a contract extension last year? http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000064266/article/jim-haslett-receives-redskins-contract-extension Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MumboSauce Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Need better players and better coaching. Well, stuck with the same coach so I don't know what will come from that...but We need faster more physical players. It can't all be fixed in an off season but Some pieces need to be solidified. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 Guys, our players on defense suck. Tired of reading about Haslett. He might not be the greatest but we had a starting roster that wouldn't even make the roster on many other teams The most vanilla defenses in the league are the best. The 49ers and Seahawks just line up in their base defenses and punch you in the mouth. You know why? Because they have players who are good at football Outside of 2, we do not. And neither of those two are pro bowlers. Whoops looks like Orakpo won a pro bowl nod by default. So, 1 is Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinsGuy Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 If Jim Haslett was constantly super-ceded by Shanahan on (1) in-game playcalls... and (2) throwing out defensive gameplans on the Friday of game week.... why would any self-respecting professional coach accept a contract extension last year? http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000064266/article/jim-haslett-receives-redskins-contract-extension Agreed, and it is why I don't buy the whole "Shanahan interfering" argument. No coach with pride in their work or their name stamped on a unit would put up with such nonsense. If Haslett had great defenses everywhere else he was and did poorly here, I could accept the notion of Shanahan meddling. However, Haslett's defenses have been sub-par pretty much at all his stops in the NFL before he got to Washington, and BEFORE he worked with Shanahan. So unless Shanahan was using mental telepathy, extortion, or Jedi mind tricks to control Haslett in places like New Orleans and St. Louis, the "interfering" argument just doesn't hold up, IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goskins10 Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 the stats that that Keim leads off with -- showing how the defense did disastrously poorly on drives that started with a long field to work with, and actually did very well when given a short field, suggests something to me. when the defense is ON their gameplan, when they are doing what they practiced and doing what Haslett wants to be doing, they are TERRIBLE. When they are thrown into a bad situation, forced to improvise, and OFF their gameplan, they excelled. what does that mean? i think it means that other teams have Haslett figured out to a tee. when the skins are doing what they "want" to be doing, other offenses recognize it and know exactly how to attack it. the numbers show that the redskins "standard" defense was dismantled by virtually every QB they faced. it's only when the skins D was thrown OFF its gameplan via turnover or long runback on special teams that it was ever effective! this should be a huge red flag and puts the blame squarely on Haslett's shoulders, as opposed to personnel or execution. Just playing devils advocate here: What if it were because when they have a short field they concentrate more and therefore play their positions better and stay more disciplined. When they have a long field they get a bit lazy and make more mistakes. Not defending haslett here, the guy clearly deserves his fair share of the blame for not having them ready every down. My point is there is enough blame for them all, the coaches and the players. They both combined to stink it up. Both need improvement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zoony Posted January 21, 2014 Share Posted January 21, 2014 If Jim Haslett was constantly super-ceded by Shanahan on (1) in-game playcalls... and (2) throwing out defensive gameplans on the Friday of game week.... why would any self-respecting professional coach accept a contract extension last year? http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap1000000064266/article/jim-haslett-receives-redskins-contract-extension Don't forget, Morocco Brown and Scott Campbell were neutered as well. That explains why they're staying too Pretty sure Shanahan over rode the field maintenance crew last December too On a serious note, I have no doubt that Shanahan over rode a few calls here and there. He would not be the only head coach in the league to have a hand in game planning and play calling on defense. The narrative about Haslett being spun by Redskin media mouths is asinine. However, I don't really blame Haslett for our defense, either. Our players on defense SUCK. I would be happy if everyone were let go save Riley and Kerrigan. And I wouldn't shed a tear over either of them, either. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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