gimmesix
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life
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Gus Bradley built that Seattle defense. He did such a good job, he got the Jaguars HC job in 2013. The year Quinn took over a stockpile of young talent on defense that was so deep and talented. They had so much talent up front, they could constantly rotate guys all game to stay fresh and get after the QB.
Switzer took over an extremely talented team in place and had zero work to do. Just keep the car on the road with the cruise control on. And he did just that. Won a ring. So did Quinn.
When Quinn went to Atlanta, his defenses were trash. And yes, he had a big part of those defenses. It was the same as when Garrett was the HC but he was still responsible for the offense. The gameplan and playcalling. Quinn was in charge of those defenses that were really bad. Quinn is also responsible for turning the Falcons into a running meme of how many historic leads they have blown. The Super Bowl is obviously the biggest but they have so many more. Cowboys fans here will be well aware of one of them this season.
I don't think one person on our defense this year could even start for his Seattle defense and many probably could not even make the 2 deep.
Spare me he was the DC at Seattle 7 years ago. Marinelli was apart of great defenses and got a ring. And we saw how he worked out.
Another recycled, retread head coach hire.
I think it's fair to say that Quinn benefited from what Bradley built and the fact that he was defensive coordinator under a defensive-minded head coach. So I think it's important to look at his time in Atlanta ... and we have to look at all of it.
When Quinn took over as Atlanta's coach, the Falcons had the 14th-ranked scoring defense the previous year. They gave up 5,562 total yards (5.6 net per pass attempt), including 3,882 passing (6.7 per play) and 1,680 rushing (4.0 avg.). They also forced 23 total turnovers.
In 2016, Quinn's team went to the Super Bowl, but was 27th in points against. Its yards per play was the same 5.6, but it gave up more yards passing (less per attempt) and a higher rushing average (4.5). The defense also forced the same amount of turnovers. However, in its favor, it only gave up 20 points in its first playoff game (forcing two turnovers and 21 points in the NFC Championship Game (forcing another two turnovers). It also forced two turnovers in the Super Bowl against New England, but gave up 34 points.
The next season, however, Quinn's defense was eighth in points allowed. It dropped total yards to 5,094 (5.1 per play), which means the passing yards and rushing yards also were lower (5.8 per attempt, though, and 4.1 avg. per rush, both higher than when he took over). Turnovers dropped to 16. However, in the playoffs, they held both opponents to 15 or fewer points.
We know how the last two seasons went, but frankly, if we could have had what Quinn's defense did in the playoffs his first two years, there are years where we would have definitely had more success than we've had.
Discounting his time in Seattle, I'm mixed on him based on his time in Atlanta. His defense in 2017 in particular was quite good and that's without being able to credit either Bradley or Carroll for it. Why he had such a good defense that year, had a pretty good defense in the playoffs in 2016, but was pretty awful after that would be hard to say without closer examinations of his team. I just hope that we can find whatever formula came together in 2017. Obviously, I'd prefer the kind of defensive success that he had in Seattle, but it's not likely we'll see that duplicated by Quinn, especially since it wasn't all him.