Secondary, yes, but that was to be expected really. As for our OL, you may call me an appologist, but I'm quite happy with where it is at now progress-wise.
It's definitely true that 3rd downs are important. But, there is a decided difference between 3rd and 2 vs. 3rd and 7. With our current crop of receivers and a QB that prefers to check down, teams can stack the box on us for those 3rd and 7's. Doing a better job on 1st and 2nd downs has a big effect on 3rd downs.
As for our season thus far, I chalk it up to 3 things, 1) newness, 2) youth, 3) opponents. Talent might be in there too, but overall we're not the least talented team on either side of the ball so I left that one out.
1) Newness:
We have an entirely new coaching staff who brought in a huge amount of new players and a new system. Obviously this is going to take time to digest the system and adjust to the coaching staff. I expect that, regardless of our record, we will see improvement as the season goes forward.
2) Youth:
We're a very young team. Looking at it, we have one of the youngest centers in the league and a flat-out rookie LT. Plus a revolving door of youth at RG. Our 'veteran' LG is actually a young player and our only OL player that is truly a veteran is re-adjusting to RT. These guys clearly need time. At TE we have 2 young veterans in Martin and Fasano (drafted at a young age and only a couple years in the NFL). At WR Ginn is a 2nd year player who was known to be raw as a rookie. Opposite him was supposed to be the veteran big wideout, but he wasn't ready so the young overachiever Camarillo asumed the other WR spot by default. On offense only our QB and RB's are really veterans. Young players are always inconsistent, so give them time.
3) Opponents:
We really need to consider who we have played. We have played both of the AFC Championship teams already--and beaten them, so there is a lot of talent there. New England's defense is known to be strong. The Jets have a decent pass rush. Baltimore is among the very best defenses in the NFL.
I think we've performed admirably for the early season considering our newness, youth and opponents. We may not be a top team this season, but I see a lot of player growth and team development happening and I'm OK with where we are--particularly along the OL.
As for our secondary, well we knew going into the season that it was a disaster of undertalented individuals. Bell is good, but injury prone. Will Allen is a solid cover corner, but neither physical nor a ballhawk. We have no starting caliber 2nd corner or nickel player. Jason Allen is a guy I was impressed with last season at safety, but the new staff is once again changing his position ... so I have my fingers crossed about his re-shifting to CB, but I still have my doubts.
We didn't address the position in the draft nor did we address it in Free Agency, so yeah, we expected this to be a weakness position. But, we can't fix every problem in one offseason. Not disagreeing with you on the state of our secondary, just pointing out that what Ireland & Co. did address in the offseason seems to have been extremely successful, so I can live with one bad unit--our secondary.
