Is the defense THAT bad?

[noletime95]

Position by position:

NG: Ratliff has been stout. I haven't seen him get much pentration lately on his pass rush, but I think Tank coming on board will help him a lot with the rotation.

DE: Spears and Canty are stout against the run. They don't get much penitration in the pass rush, but more than last year. Hatcher may emerge to be the best DE next year IMO plus Bowen rushes the passer well. I like the mix here.

OLB: Ware is a stud. Ellis and Spencer are a solid combo. I hope to see Spencer emerge as more of a force as the year goes on.

MLB: James has been VERY good this year vs the run. I'm not sure that Ayodele is the right partner for James in the middle (except for the Viking game)....Burnett may make more sense in the base defense if teams are throwing on 1st and 2nd down. Carp is a bust for now.

CB: Once Henry is back, I think Newman is an above average 1st CB, Henry above avg 2nd CB and Reeves has emerged as a legit NFL 3rd CB, but probably average at best but improving. No doubt, we lack depth here.

Safety: I think Watkins needs to play more, especially in zone. I haven't noticed him get beat this year, albeit I haven't seen him make a lot of plays. RW and Hamlin are stout agains the run, but average at best in coverage. None of the safties, even Watkins, can cover a WR one on one. A true cover FS may actually be more important in the offseason than another CB IMO.

Dallas will continue to give up passing yards due to the saftey play, but I don't think the defense is going to get torched like it did vs the Pats.....other teams just don't have that type of personel, at least not to that level.

 

[badleelee]

At times they are that bad.

 

[smarta5150]

No its not.

We played the Patriots down our #2 CB.

Some of this panic on the board is exaggerated becuase of 1 game.

 

[SkinsandTerps]

Personally, I think they aren't particularly bad. But the expectations for this season were even higher, whereas they may have disappointed a little.

 

[StarMan2112]

The safeties are the problem imo. Gimme Ed Reed and this is a top 5 defense.

 

[Dave_in-NC]

No its not.

We played the Patriots down our #2 CB.

Some of this panic on the board is exaggerated because of 1 game.

Some of the panic is from one game. Some is from the only two good QBs we have faced have put up great numbers. We are now going into a tough stretch of games. We shall see.

 

[Mansta54]

No its not.

We played the Patriots down our #2 CB.

Some of this panic on the board is exaggerated becuase of 1 game.

This hurt us alot. Our D is fine, they're aggressive and run well to the ball.. Getting Tank is gonna be HUGE also.. I like our D alot..

 

[lcharles]

Yes, the defense is that bad.


Other than Ware, we have no playmakers or difference makers on defense.


We have average players at most positions. I don't know what brian stewart was smoking when he predicted before the season that we had the makings of an NFL best defense.


While we do have size, we lack speed. We also lack pass rushers with moves.


Some may disagree with me, but you can't argue that the same problems we had last year against good teams is still biting us in the butt.

Last Year, shaun peyton took his fullback and embarrassed us.

The pats used a little guy named Welker and we had no answer.

The only good team we played good against was the Colts, but that was an aberation.

Jon Kitna and a guy named Furrey owned Texas Stadium.

Jeff Garcia punked us.

Face it, we played against a badly injured marc bulger, a fading shell of what he used to be trent green, rex grossman , a rookie trent edwards, and made them all look bad. Problem is, an average nfl defense could handle all of them.

Now examine what Eli Manning, and Tom Brady did, and I think you get my point.


I know, I know, injuries have hurt us blah, blah, blah.


Same story, just different coaches and a different year.

 

[InmanRoshi]

Yes and no.

Against the worst offenses in the league, they're exceptional.

Against team's over .500, they're that bad.

 

[Vertigo_17]

yep, you can talk about scheme, Parcells/Zimmer vs Wade, etc...but at the end of the day we're still pretty good at stopping the run, but limited pass rush and have big problems in coverage. Especially at the safety position, although IMO Hamlin has improved that ever so slightly.

When, does it come back to the players. I mean, the Phillip's 3-4 is a pass-rush, QB sackin', scheme if there ever was one

I know, injuries, etc...blah, blah, blah.

Not much difference on Defense this year when it's said and done. Any decent OC and QB will pick us apart on pass defense.

 

[noletime95]

I do agree the safties lack in pass coverage skills and that is holding back the defense......But I do believe the pass rush has been better this year.

I also agree with the comment of "we'll see". They got shredded by the Pats after wearing down. May be a sign of things to come or it may be that the Pats are just that good.

 

[Muhast]

did he just say newman is above average?

 

[noletime95]

You read correctly

 

[Kilyin]

let's revisit this around week 10-11. k bye.

 

[sago1]

Sure we won't face a Brady the rest of the season, but we had trouble with Eli and last year trouble with Kitna and Favre will also give us some trouble. If we seriously want to compete and win a SB, we gotta improve our weak areas and a prime one is at safety. We can't do anything about Roy but we definitely should not give Hamlin an extension. Sure wish Watkins or a healthy Courtney Brown could beat Hamlin out for the FS job. Maybe that will happen later in the season.

 

[Tusan_Homichi]

We have depth issues at corner and our safeties aren't known for their pass defense. If you combine those, you're going to have issues when a team has more than a couple of viable threats in the passing game.

I think with how Reeves has improved with playing time this year, getting Henry back is going to make a big difference. We need our top 3 corners to be able to compete with some of the better 3 wideout teams we will face this year such as New England and I think having Henry back will provide that.

 

[DallasDomination]

A Henry at 100% brings this defense from average to pretty good.

Right now as it stands...Hobbled Newman injured Henry..yea We're dancing with average at best here.

 

[the kid 05]

did he just say newman is above average?

relax...he is on crack.

 

[AdamJT13]

Other than Ware, we have no playmakers or difference makers on defense.

Roy led all starting safeties in interceptions last season, led all safeties in takeaways, and is on pace for more of both this season than he had last season.

 

[Muhast]

Newman is above average and Henry is an avg 2nd corner?

Henry was leading the NFL in Int's before he got hurt.

Newman is widely considered one of the top shutdown corners in the nfl.

Dude watch a game. Either that or go return that Romo jersey u just bought, you seem like a bandwagon fan to me. I sure hope you kept the tags to your jersey.