I know Dak and the Offense are getting all the attention, and probably deservedly so, but I am more worried about our defense.
The ENTIRE reason Coach Mac installed a new offensive system and made the offense more conservative, was because the coaches believed the Defense could be dominant and win. Play turnover-free ball, settle for FGs and run plays more often, easier route options, and let the defense win with turnovers. And some of our first games, it looked like they were right. The same guys in the media saying the Cowboys are soft now were saying they were the number one NFL team not too long ago because of the defensive dominance, in particular with turnovers, and the offense moving the ball down the field, but admittedly struggling in the red zone..
But those victories are looking like we played some of the worst offenses in the NFL, namely the New York Giants and the New England Patriots. If you give any credit to their ratings, PFF even has them as the worst graded offensive lines in the NFL. Jets are a good team as proven by yesterday’s win, but we were lucky to play them the first game with their back up QB in action, and he was arguably the worst starting quarterback in the NFL last year.
Cleveland was tied with the Cowboys as the best team in Defense. I posted some team stats here not long ago and they were tied with us on everything. They were just struggling with their new ’franchise’ QB. That defense came to play against San Fran yesterday. Ours decided to roll over, EVEN knowing this was the most important regular season matchup to determine their Playoff future. You saw Coach Mac with a little bit of panic in the press conferences talking about this and how the team was built on defense. SF is one of the best ranked offenses in the NFL, Cardinals before last week were in top 1/3. Chargers are there too, So eager to see if this defense is for real or just a group that only looks good when they have the lead and can bring out the pass rushers.
