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Do We Suddenly Have a Dominant Defense?


Going Commando

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At the end of the day, pressure is pressure.  An edge bending speed rusher is nice, but I'll take four Kerrigans or four Murphy's if that's what we can get.  Losing Murphy's 9 sacks was a real blow.  Right now, Galette isn't pulling Murphy's weight, which is how I had hoped we would cope with the injury.  Either he or Anderson need to step up for the defense to get back to how they played against Oakland.  Especially with the secondary taking such a catastrophic hit.

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22 hours ago, PartyPosse said:

The TOP after the first quarter was incredibly lopsided. Don't be fooled by the points. KC carved us up good. They were like 8 or 9 out of 13 on third downs, average was like 7+ yards.

 

Don't be fooled by the points?? 

 

Our ability to hold Kansas City to the points that we did, which followed holding previous opponents to season-lows is absolutely a valid measuring stick.

 

I wouldn't say they "carved us up good". On the contrary, my response would be to tell you to not be fooled by their third down conversions. Especially when so many were converted on behalf of defensive penalties. Without the calls keeping them on the field, the true third down conversions would have been closer to 50%.

 

The best team in football actually did NOT carve us up. Every yard was hard fought for them, and barely won despite their huge home field advantage. They capitalized on a worn out and tired defense decimated by injuries. Again, their offense finishes that game looking a lot more pedestrian than the stats lead you to believe if it weren't for the penalties.

 

After my initial rage and knee-jerk frustration immediately following the loss, I have come away from this game confident that our defense and team overall will be just fine and aside from the Eagles and Broncos I like our chances against the rest of the schedule quite a bit.

 

It was a humbling loss, but our fight and grit was very respectable. I'm happy to get that bloodbath out of the way early in the year heading into the bye with a chance to lick our wounds before re-focusing on the rest of the schedule. Losing by 3 points to the best team in the league on their turf, with so much youth and inexperience in the scheme tells me that this is a top 8-10 team by year's end. Book it.

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Really happy with the defense.  If resigning Brown, Keeping Norman on, maybe resigning Breeland and Foster is an option over keeping Cousins, I am for it.  Cousins is a good QB, but a dominant defense for years to come is more important to me. 

 

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3 hours ago, stevemcqueen1 said:

At the end of the day, pressure is pressure.  An edge bending speed rusher is nice, but I'll take four Kerrigans or four Murphy's if that's what we can get.  Losing Murphy's 9 sacks was a real blow.  Right now, Galette isn't pulling Murphy's weight, which is how I had hoped we would cope with the injury.  Either he or Anderson need to step up for the defense to get back to how they played against Oakland.  Especially with the secondary taking such a catastrophic hit.

I think Smith is filling the void nicely (except for those penalties yesterday).  That sounds strange given he subbed with Murphy last year, but you know what I mean.  Agree with the rest though.  

3 minutes ago, TheShredSkinz said:

When Norman is in, we are good. To  be called dominant you have to consistently dominate. Even when the O disappears for a couple quarters.

Not that I think we have a dominant defense, but I keep seeing things like "a dominant defense can't have a bad quarter/half/game", "a dominant defense doesn't commit offsides penalties", etc.  Doesn't seem quite right to me.  

 

Our defense (though they were put in a tough spot) shot ourselves in the foot.  I think it's fair to say that dominant defenses at least rarely do that.  We've obviously improved on D, but it remains to seen just how much.  Generally speaking they're looking quite good so far.  

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You know what my favorite part of the defensive performance was? 

 

They completely shut down that gimmick/trick play crap of the Chiefs. It was awesome. 

 

Chiefs came out thinking they’re going to do all that cute stuff that they’ve been owning everyone with and we friggin trashed it. Andy Reid essentially threw out his game plan (to his credit). The look on their faces that first quarter was glorious. :ols: 

 

They countered well enough though, but it certainly wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle schematically or personnel-wise. I wouldn’t say we got “out adjusted”. Just too many stupid mistakes and refs who were over anxious to get us on them. And all those injuries, yeesh. 

 

But, yeah. Another week where we straight up out-game planned the opponent going into the game. We’ve done that a lot under Gruden and it’s something that’s under appreciated. 

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  I didn't know Alex Smith was that damn fast!  That shocked me to see him running so fast for 1st downs, I couldn't believe it.

 

 The defense is much improved, and they still need work and practice on focus during broken plays a little more. some of Smith's scrambles, you see defenders abandoning their coverage to try and stop Smith, but then he stops short of crossing the LOS and throws a blooper right over their heads to a wide open guy.

 

I chalk it up to over-pursuit, but it happened a few times, but thankfully we only have a couple of QBs who can scramble like that coming up in games.

They are playing much better, better in one-on-one tackling, so far Nicholson is fitting in great, good field vision, if the simple mistakes can be cut down, the ones that cost us cheap 5 yd or 1st downs, it will be fun to watch. I wasn't sold on Manusky but he is doing something that Barry and Haslett couldn't, and that's run a defense.

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11 minutes ago, skins island connection said:

 

  I didn't know Alex Smith was that damn fast!  That shocked me to see him running so fast for 1st downs, I couldn't believe it.

 

 The defense is much improved, and they still need work and practice on focus during broken plays a little more. some of Smith's scrambles, you see defenders abandoning their coverage to try and stop Smith, but then he stops short of crossing the LOS and throws a blooper right over their heads to a wide open guy.

 

I chalk it up to over-pursuit

 

I've got to imagine the defense was coached up on how fast Smith is and how when things go bad, he's gonna scramble to the right and most likely take off.  Over-pursuit is correct though, particularly Kerrigan.  This happens to him often with QBs that have wheels.  Going for the sack and they get the hell out of dodge.

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On 10/3/2017 at 11:50 PM, TheShredSkinz said:

When Norman is in, we are good. To  be called dominant you have to consistently dominate. Even when the O disappears for a couple quarters.

Agreed.  Defense doesn't suck, but its not the same without Norman out there.  I'd say its a playoff defense with Norman playing, Offense still not hitting its stride yet.

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2 hours ago, UK SKINS FAN '74 said:

Breelands in a contract year, bout time to see if he's worth paying. Time to step up.

I don't think we'll bring him back. We already gave Norman a big deal and we have Fuller and Moreau behind him and we need to prioritize extending Brown as well as potentially other young players like Preston Smith.

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So apparently Josh Norman is out for a month ?

 

I hope Breeland steps up big time.

58 minutes ago, Warhead36 said:

I don't think we'll bring him back. We already gave Norman a big deal and we have Fuller and Moreau behind him and we need to prioritize extending Brown as well as potentially other young players like Preston Smith.

Yep - gotta bring Preston Smith back

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The defense revolves around Josh Norman. He locks down a portion of the field by himself. Teams don’t want to throw there because he’s good in coverage. Guys don’t want to run near him because he’ll force a fumble. He’s the key and centerpiece of the D.

 

the addition of Brown and the DL stepping up has been integral to the solid defensive play, though. Sideline to sideline, Brown is the among the best in the NFL.

 

and Kerrigan and Smith can get all the edge pressure they want. Without an interior rush breaking the pocket QBs can just step up in the pocket and pick us apart. Enter the 2017 DL. They are collapsing the pocket from the inside and making Kerrigan and Smith’s pressure more effective.

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15 hours ago, Rex Tomb said:

So apparently Josh Norman is out for a month ?

 

I hope Breeland steps up big time.

Yep - gotta bring Preston Smith back

 

Don't love the timing of it.  Pierre Garcon bent on revenge.  A. Jeffrey.  Dez.   All guys I think Norman can handle.  Breeland I'm not so sure.  Though Breeland did have a career type of game against Dez years back. 

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As long as the D-line, safeties, and Fuller continue to play well I think Breeland will be fine without Norman.  I’m mainly worried about Q. Dunbar and the rooks. Breeland took a majority of the heat for big pass plays given up last season but Dunbar and Will Blackmon were out of position quite a bit too.

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