Is it Time to Raise the Bar for Pagano's Defense?

[Stinky Wizzleteats+]

I wanted to explore the forum, thats you people, (I love using that term) to see what y'all think this defence should do in terms of improvement over last year.

I think we will only improve modestly unless Attachu adds more than I expect, and Careathers is much more than I would count on vs the run. Verret also needs to be solid.

All the new faces young tallented or in between still will not change last years bigest issue. Consistency. I think comminication and consistancy above all elce will make the bigest difference.

[richpjr]

I can't see how we aren't a lot better if we can stay even remotely healthy. With the draft picks, FA pickups, and injured players back and young players with more experience, I expect the bar to be raised a lot.

[blueman]

I guess I'd expect some confusion the first couple games or so, as guys settle in, but from then on it should be wicked fun to watch.

Maybe Pags surprises me and we start hot, word is he's picking up from where he left off last season, that sounds like a good thing to me.

[Mister Hoarse]

I think the complexity of the defense will result in a slow start.
Overall, I think the D is much better. On paper.

[Steve]

In an interview, JJ said that they have installed basically the whole D already. The feeling was that last year they didn't install all of it during OTA's and mini's, and then slowly kept building on it as TC and the first few games. But that some of the guys were slow to catch on, and the D struggled. This year, they wanted to get it all in, and now give them more time to soak it all in, and get more reps in it as TC goes on.

Regarding Stinky's main point, you have to hold the D to a higher standard. Even though we were in each game, there was a stretch in the middle of the season, we were on a record setting pace for how many yards we had given up. The O was playing well enough to offset that. If we want to take the next step, the D has to pick things up, because at least statistically, there is not that much room for improvement. The O can get better, but the stat sheet probably won't show too much improvement. So, if we want to make those sorts of moves, and get better, the D is the obvious place to make that move.

[Grinners]

Last year our D got a lot better toward the end of the year. You could see that we became an attacking D, more aggressive, and more dictating. This happened when we got our pass rushers back from injury. I think that is what we will see more of this year and we are better suited for it then we were last year. Our Corners should be lights out better, which improves Safety play. The pass rush should be more consistent this year with three (on paper) pass rushers. But how we will be vs the run is a question for me.
In general I think we raise the bar significantly vs the pass. Top 10-12 range in that area from our 29th spot last year.
I can see us having spotty success vs the run early and then leveling off to be better down the road.
Overall D should be a lot better and be an attacking D. Which is a fun D to watch play, so I am hoping it comes to pass.

[Zot]

I believe it is time to raise the bar. I really expect the pass defense to come together. (ie the coverage is going to improve the play of the defensive line and visa versa.) At worst we should be a top fifteen overall defense and that's raising the bar.

[Thunder Thighs]

I want to see the run defense improve. We were giving up something like 4.6 yards per attempt last year, which was near the bottom of the league.

We will be playing 6 of last year's top 10 running teams, plus the Raiders who were 12th. That's 9 of our 16 games against very good running teams. Also, the Broncos have Monte Ball in his second year, and he was getting better as the year went on.

I feel Denver in the playoff game might have exposed a weakness in our defense. They ran the ball well against us. A lot of the successful runs were right at Reyes.

However, Lissemore did not play in the playoff game, and Cam Thomas is gone, so I'm hoping Lissemore will be the difference maker in the running game this year.

[blueman]

I think like last year, Pags and TT are hoping our ball-control O limits the number of run plays against our D, and because our red zone problems are all solved (yeah, on paper...), teams will be forced to play catch-up with us and pass the ball - which just won't work. We saw this come together late last season and work pretty well against some very good teams, we need our "paper" improvements - in red zone efficiency and pass D - to show up, that's all.

[Steve]

I want to see the run defense improve. We were giving up something like 4.6 yards per attempt last year, which was near the bottom of the league.

We will be playing 6 of last year's top 10 running teams, plus the Raiders who were 12th. That's 9 of our 16 games against very good running teams. Also, the Broncos have Monte Ball in his second year, and he was getting better as the year went on.

I feel Denver in the playoff game might have exposed a weakness in our defense. They ran the ball well against us. A lot of the successful runs were right at Reyes.

However, Lissemore did not play in the playoff game, and Cam Thomas is gone, so I'm hoping Lissemore will be the difference maker in the running game this year.

The big thing we can do to fix our run D is to just stop missing tackles. I have run a ton of stats on our season, and the best thing I have found so far, in terms of a predictor, is how many explosive runs we allow. In games when we allow numerous 10+ yard carries, we lose and if we don't we win. And the big thing that allows long runs more then anything else is tackling. I also subtracted the explosive runs, and if you recompute the yards per carry, that is difference between us being a weak run D and a really good run D. The other thing about tackling better is that it helps your pass defense too.

The other things we can do is to start to create a few more negative plays. I don't have the link handy but we were one of the worst team in terms of the number of stuffs (0 or fewer yards on runs). A team that has a few more stuffs can offset being a poor run per carry team. A lot of cover 2 teams have allowed a high-ish yards per carry, but then had a large number of stuffs. Run offenses just cannot sustain themselves if they have to get "extra" yards to get a 1st down. So, if is a penalty, or a stuff, they are really hurt if they have to overcome those yards to get a 1st down.

I don't think that we really got exposed that much in the Denver game. The only reason Denver got to run the ball so much, is we kept giving them the ball back. Had they been forced to drive the ball the length, and not play on a short field, they wouldn't have been able to sustain drives. And it is also not like Reyes wasn't know as being a less then great run defender. Add to that Reyes was going up against Orlando Franklin and Lou Vasquez, both pro bowl caliber players, and without Teo behind him, I'm not sure that other teams can necessarily replicate what Denver did. We will see teams run right at Reyes, other teams did last year, but I don't think they are going to be able to exploit him like Den did.

The big key in terms of team D is that we really have to improve our pass D. If you are a big fan of yards per play, then it is pretty obvious. Even a poor passing team averages 6+ yards per play, and only the best run teams average even 4.5 yards per carry. So, most teams average a couple of yards per play better passing. And to be one of those great running teams, you need a lot of good run blockers. It is not that hard to put together a passing offense that averages 6-7 yards per carry, you don't need any exceptional athletes. And if you do, it boosts your average even more.

There are just never going to be that many teams that can kill you with just the run, unless you are really bad at it. If teams start against us at their own 20 most of the time, if they average even 5 yards per carry, it is still going to take 16 plays to drive the field. There are not many offenses that can sustain drives with 16 play drives. They will stop themselves long before they score, if we don't get a lucky stop, and get the other team behind on down and distance. I'm not saying we don't need to get better at run D, but the key to the season is really pass D, and that is where most of the energy should be put.

[Beerman]

When it comes down to it, we have to improve across the board. I do feel our biggest weaknesses last season were pass rush and corner play. In both cases, we are replacing personnel. Freeney/Attoachu are replacing Keiser and Williams (huge upgrade IMO). Flowers/Verrett/Williams are potentially replacing Marshall/Cox/Wright/scrub x. Wright improved over the year, but he still needs to keep improving to really even get to an average CB rating. I wouldn't be surprised if we have a completely new starting group with Verrett/Flowers/Williams getting the bulk of snaps. Verrett/Williams in particular bring a massive speed element that no one in the secondary possesses.

The positive is that our entire defense is still very, very young. You should expect reasonable improvement from pretty much everyone except Weddle who already plays at a high level. JJ and Freeney just need to stay healthy and have that steady, solid influence in their part time play.

[TTThunder]

Yes - no missed assignments and no missed tackles are expected...

Go Defence!!!