Ill start off by saying that I love our guys up front on defense. Obviously, our D is the best part of our team, so before you categorize me as a JT and ZT basher or whatever other things people will reply with, just keep in mind that I have always supported the D.
That being said, WAY too much emphaiss is being put on the offense as the cause of our 1-4 record. This needs to change, sure the offense has been AWFUL, but this defense has collapsed in crucial moments quite a bit.
Example: There must be a million threads saying "Harrington sucks, his two INTS led to scores!". Last time I checked, having your pass intercepted didnt give the other team 14 points. There was a defense that needed to get out on the field after those interceptions and they were NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. New England made it look easy and marched right down the field. If we would have held them to 3 points or less on just one of those drives, think of the difference that would have made.
Our secondary is bad, we all know that, but what's worst is the entire defense on third down. It seems as though they just burn out and give up a big play, or cause some ridiculous penalty, or simply sit in their zones and are slow to the football. It actually works against us that we're so good on first and second down defensively because we just fold on third down and so all that ends up happening is we stay on the field for three downs before the other team gets a first down and we have to do it all over again, this is why we've seen the defensive play diminish as the game gets down to the closing moments, these guys ware themselves out!
Sure, we've also seen greatness from our D, including that critical stop when Brady and company had been driving and completing first down after first down, only to have to punt. At times we also get great pressure on the QB.
Somebody said it best a few weeks ago when they said that some players hold "tenure" if you will and the fans here let things slip with them. That's how I feel about our defense, we praise them and when they fold we find some way to blame the offense. The truth is this defense has put us in horrible positions, weather it be a Will Allen pass interference in the red zone or a completely ineffective blitz, we don't seem to be as great as we sometimes make it out to be. It's expected that new quarterbacks will attract more negative posts than our well known, veteran defense, but this sort of analysis will hurt our team.
That being said, WAY too much emphaiss is being put on the offense as the cause of our 1-4 record. This needs to change, sure the offense has been AWFUL, but this defense has collapsed in crucial moments quite a bit.
Example: There must be a million threads saying "Harrington sucks, his two INTS led to scores!". Last time I checked, having your pass intercepted didnt give the other team 14 points. There was a defense that needed to get out on the field after those interceptions and they were NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. New England made it look easy and marched right down the field. If we would have held them to 3 points or less on just one of those drives, think of the difference that would have made.
Our secondary is bad, we all know that, but what's worst is the entire defense on third down. It seems as though they just burn out and give up a big play, or cause some ridiculous penalty, or simply sit in their zones and are slow to the football. It actually works against us that we're so good on first and second down defensively because we just fold on third down and so all that ends up happening is we stay on the field for three downs before the other team gets a first down and we have to do it all over again, this is why we've seen the defensive play diminish as the game gets down to the closing moments, these guys ware themselves out!
Sure, we've also seen greatness from our D, including that critical stop when Brady and company had been driving and completing first down after first down, only to have to punt. At times we also get great pressure on the QB.
Somebody said it best a few weeks ago when they said that some players hold "tenure" if you will and the fans here let things slip with them. That's how I feel about our defense, we praise them and when they fold we find some way to blame the offense. The truth is this defense has put us in horrible positions, weather it be a Will Allen pass interference in the red zone or a completely ineffective blitz, we don't seem to be as great as we sometimes make it out to be. It's expected that new quarterbacks will attract more negative posts than our well known, veteran defense, but this sort of analysis will hurt our team.
