everyone bitching about the offense and this coaching staff, remember...

[BIGH2001]

Let's look at our 2020 draft again:

Round 1, pick 7: Derrick Brown, DT, Auburn   - Benched on Sunday, hasn't done anything of note since he's been here

Round 2, pick 38: Yetur Gross-Matos, DE, Penn State  - Hurt a lot, used as situational run stopper, no pass rush ability

Round 2, pick 64: Jeremy Chinn, S, Southern Illinois  - The best player from this draft, not used properly by shitty coaching staff

Round 4, pick 113: Troy Pride Jr., CB, Notre Dame - out for the year with an injury. The team has since traded over his position and now has 100 CBs. He must not be that great.

Round 5, pick 152: Kenny Robinson, CB, West Virginia - irrelevant and non-factor

Round 6, pick 184: Bravvion Roy, DL, Baylor - depth player at best, mainly irrelevant.

Round 7, pick 221: Stantley Thomas-Oliver III, CB, Florida International - non-factor and irrelevant. The third CB we took in the 2020 draft. Dave Gettleman redux.

So out of this draft, we got one good player and a few JAGs/situational players.  Wow.

 

Edited November 30, 2021 by BIGH2001

[onmyown]

2 minutes ago, electro's horse said:

the entire premise of this thread is that the coachign staff wanted to murder was able to build a stud defense through the draft and free agency

you're just like pointing out what im saying

great but they’re losing games

and not to great teams either

they’re losing games because they didn’t balance it

the whole premise of my reply was to your point of their ‘masterful ability’ to build a defense wasn’t actually all that masterful because of all the resources they had to spend on it to do it…while self sacrificing other parts of the team

it’s really not all that meaningful of an achievement when you literally ignore the other half of the team

 

 

[The Lobo]

38 minutes ago, Fox007 said:

Not sure what that has to do with defenses knowing our offense and running WR routes for them, murdering them on known plays where they are at the exact route depth, and bragging about it during and after the game.

Talent isn't helping this offense because this offense already has talent at the skill positions and they still can't get open because thats how that works when the defense knows the play.

That’s crazy! I hadn’t heard this, I’m not saying you’re wrong, but have you read this somewhere? I’d like to see more about this, I’m curious. 

[TheSpecialJuan]

The Huddle:

"Off with Matt Rhule, Scott Fitterer, Dave Tepper, Nichole Tepper, Sam Darnold, Joe Brady, Cam Erving, Pat Elflein, Derrick Brown, Donte Jackson's head" !!

[JawnyBlaze]

Defense has been a mirage. It has talent but I don’t know if it’s the scheme or the practice or the game plan or what, but they’re easy to exploit. That “always on the field excuse” might have worked for some games but not all. Not the past two for sure, with the WFT and Dolphins marching all over them the whole game. 

[rayzor]

Yes, they put together a good defense.

So long and thanks for all the fish.

Now let's get a coaching staff that can put together a complete team and play a complete game. 

[uncfan888]

I'm not concerned about the defense.. This entire offseason needs to focus on the offense. Just sucks that we don't have much capital left to use

[frankw]

Yes we have had some quality players on defense but the unit as a whole has fallen off a cliff. If you want to blame the offense okay by all means yes they have been dreadful too but why are you conveniently leaving out the fact our resources the last two seasons have leaned heavily on one side of the ball? The offense is dreadful specifically bc this regime has attempted the dollar store Dave approach to the oline and it has blown up before their eyes.

Edited November 30, 2021 by frankw

[Icege]

12 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

We've already fallen back to middle of the pack in points allowed. We'll probably end the season as a middle of the pack defense statistically. It is what it is. We're just falling apart as a team.

A big reason for that is directly due to the ineptitude of the offense. 15 interceptions, 12 fumbles, 26 drops, 31 sacks given up, 34.8% on 3rd down, and the inability to move the ball means that the defense is constantly put in situations with their backs already to their own end zone.

If the offense can't move the ball, they can't stay on the field nor score points. That just means that the defense is going to be on the field a lot more than other defenses.

[mc52beast]

I think guys on defense are giving up. Probably tired of constantly being asked to defend short fields and watching an offense who probably wouldn’t score against Georgia.

[BrianS]

14 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

The people who watched the last two games are definitely complaining about this defense.

Defense hasn't been great, but they haven't been bad either.  Dolphins scored 13 points on drives less than 25 yards.  Just taking away the awful INT that led to the 9 yard TD drive would have completely changed the complexion of that game.  That ain't on the defense.

If you remove our turnovers from the last two games, we've given up 24 and 20 points.  That slots us in as a solidly top 10 defense.

I realize you can't just remove turnovers from the game, but you do have to look at the total picture when you want to make a sweeping statement like that.

[LinvilleGorge]

9 minutes ago, BrianS said:

Defense hasn't been great, but they haven't been bad either.  Dolphins scored 13 points on drives less than 25 yards.  Just taking away the awful INT that led to the 9 yard TD drive would have completely changed the complexion of that game.  That ain't on the defense.

If you remove our turnovers from the last two games, we've given up 24 and 20 points.  That slots us in as a solidly top 10 defense.

I realize you can't just remove turnovers from the game, but you do have to look at the total picture when you want to make a sweeping statement like that.

Are they good enough to justify almost entirely focusing on defense for two offseasons? Spending an entire draft class (plus the next year's top 10 pick) on defense? Utterly ignoring investing in the OL?

I would argue hell no they aren't. Which is my entire point here.

[Mr. Scot]

4 minutes ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Are they good enough to justify almost entirely focusing on defense for two offseasons? Spending an entire draft class (plus the next year's top 10 pick) on defense? Utterly ignoring investing in the OL?

I would argue hell no they aren't. Which is my entire point here.

I've had questions about the defense for several weeks.

Around week four or five, teams figured out they could blunt our pass rush by going max protect or just keeping extra blockers in but still have open receivers.

They also caught on to the fact that Jermaine Carter is only an average at best MLB so targeting his area on run or pass plays paid dividends. Safeties weren't much better, sadly so the middle of the defense just isn't all that scary a place.

Chinn is still good but he's not a true free safety. He'd be much better suited to either a strong safety role or an outside linebacker spot. I'd argue he's not that undersized for such a role (his rookie year showed that).

Also don't buy the argument that it's all because the defense is worn out from being on the field too long. Unless your conditioning is absolute sh-t, that's something that should only start being a factor somewhere in the second half. Starting with the Cowboys game, we've seen defensive breakdowns starting well before that.

Bottom Line: Our defense has been overrated for a while now.

[frankw]

2 hours ago, Icege said:

A big reason for that is directly due to the ineptitude of the offense. 15 interceptions, 12 fumbles, 26 drops, 31 sacks given up, 34.8% on 3rd down, and the inability to move the ball means that the defense is constantly put in situations with their backs already to their own end zone.

If the offense can't move the ball, they can't stay on the field nor score points. That just means that the defense is going to be on the field a lot more than other defenses.

There is much truth in this but even still our defense has been getting absolutely abused in the trenches regardless of the offensive woes and that simply can't happen after back to back defensive first round picks and an entire draft in 20'. That isn't even mentioning our bizarre cornerback stockpiling.