Defense ranked 10th

[Murph]

https://www.foxsports.com/articles/nfl/2025-nfl-defense-rankings-team-pass-and-rush-stats

Up from 12th last week 

[CRA]

last 2 weeks really make things hard to sort of figure out what we got going on this year.   In terms of what the D really is and isn't and probably the same for the run game. 

[PootieNunu]

6 minutes ago, CRA said:

last 2 weeks really make things hard to sort of figure out what we got going on this year.   In terms of what the D really is and isn't and probably the same for the run game. 

How? The d is playing much better than last season 

We just held a good offense to about half of their normal production. 

Our biggest weakness is the pass rush obviously, but the D is light years better than last season. 

[Jon Snow]

There must be some really bad defenses out there.

[cranky]

9 minutes ago, Jon Snow said:

There must be some really bad defenses out there.

I get the feeling they are going from having the worst rush defense in history last season to having the worst pass defense this year

[Jon Snow]

Just now, cranky said:

I get the feeling they are going from having the worst rush defense in history last season to having the worst pass defense this year

That checks with everything I've seen so far.

[L-TownCat]

1 minute ago, Jon Snow said:

That checks with everything I've seen so far.

Nobody needed to throw against us last year.  Not hard to believe our defense last year was just that bad all around.

This year teams are forced to throw because of improved rush defense coupled with poor pass rush.  Just makes sense to attack our weaknesses.

[jb2288]

Evero does some head scratching things but gotta give credit here where due 

[Butterflyj30]

This is great news I hope we continue to get improve!!

[ColumbusCounty]

In 6 games, we've only had 6 hurries??? ... that can't be accurate

[CRA]

3 hours ago, PootieNunu said:

How? The d is playing much better than last season 

We just held a good offense to about half of their normal production. 

Our biggest weakness is the pass rush obviously, but the D is light years better than last season. 

Yeah, it is.  But the last 2 weeks are so far removed from the opening 4……it’s hard to really know what we are this year. 

last 2 weeks our rush D has allowed an average of 25 rushing yards.   We got a RB averaging 200+ total yards with that.   So what are we right now? I don’t know.  Realistically, I don’t think we have the type D the last 2 weeks would suggest nor our rush attack. 

could just be 2 really weird games and we are largely more like the team that showed up the first 4

 

[Davidson Deac II]

12 hours ago, CRA said:

Yeah, it is.  But the last 2 weeks are so far removed from the opening 4……

 

Not really.  The run defense has been solid except for the opening game and New England.  We shut Arizona's run game down, but early turnovers hurt.  And of course, we shut out Atlanta.

 

 

[CRA]

1 hour ago, Davidson Deac II said:

Not really.  The run defense has been solid except for the opening game and New England.  We shut Arizona's run game down, but early turnovers hurt.  And of course, we shut out Atlanta.

 

 

First 4 - 122 rushing yards per game allowed

Last 2 - 25 per game allowed.  

I mean, to me at least, that is drastically different. That's almost 100 yards difference on the ground per game. 

I mean, Penix just sabotaged Atlanta.   That's football.   They ran for 130 despite not even getting a chance to get into their run game thanks to Penix. Jags went for 200.  Every team the first 4 weeks went over 100+ except AZ and AZ had more than both the last 2 weeks combined in that game. 

D is clearly better than last year.  But within this season, the last 2 weeks, have really just been sort of wonky.  We aren't what the last 2 weeks says on the ground offensively or defensively.  No team in NFL history is what we statistically did the last 2 weeks. 

[d-dave]

The sample size is too small right now.  Sure it looks good because we've only allowed 50 yards the past two weeks combined.  Cool, but not sustainable.  Teams will get you.  It happens in the NFL.

The eye ball test is that our D is playing MUCH better.  Are they world beaters?  Nope.  But they are playing so much better than last year.  Putting the Dot on Wallace is having a LOT of positive effects for our LB play.

I'll take being a below average team right now as opposed to the dumpster fire we had for years.