Was watching NFL rewind....

[xSxPxHx]

And we definitely need to do something about our defense. Its just flat out horrible. Yes I know its the players on the field, but Coyle, I just about had enough of that clown. He just isn't a very good defensive coordinator. I'm worried about our defense first and foremost.

 

[LDaniel7]

This team has a lot, lot of holes. Defense. CB. LB. DT. DE. Offense. OL (2 Guards, 1 Swing and one T). #1TE and 2 & 4 WR. Power RB.

One might think we've gone 7 years or so with an idiot acquiring talent.

Oh, wait.

Not to excuse Philbin, who has his fingerprints all over the OL acquisitions, LB and WRs.

LD

 

[trojanma]

And we definitely need to do something about our defense. Its just flat out horrible. Yes I know its the players on the field, but Coyle, I just about had enough of that clown. He just isn't a very good defensive coordinator. I'm worried about our defense first and foremost.

Its multiple issues but I would tend to say that it is more structural than scheme.

Our undersized dlinemen have completely worn down.
Wake needs to operate with a snap count and is wearing down.
Jenkins was playing on one leg.
Wheeler was on the field.
Grimes appears to be wearing down.

All too many components of this d(especially critical ones) are either undersized or old.

Its a big problem and not one that a guy of Coyles caliber can overcome.

 

[ANUFan]

This team has a lot, lot of holes. Defense. CB. LB. DT. DE. Offense. OL (2 Guards, 1 Swing and one T). #1TE and 2 & 4 WR. Power RB.

One might think we've gone 7 years or so with an idiot acquiring talent.

Oh, wait.

Not to excuse Philbin, who has his fingerprints all over the OL acquisitions, LB and WRs.

LD

Yet they still managed to win...what 8 games so far?

 

[NRA]

Yet they still managed to win...what 8 games so far?

That's right. To many injuries and to much lack of depth for ANY coach to over come.

We need an influx of defensive playmakers, cb and lb first. If this defense hadn't been gutted with injury, we were productive enough on offense to be in the playoffs.

Get a guard or two and beef this defense and even with the wr's and te's we have, we can win.

 

[joeharley666]

That's right. To many injuries and to much lack of depth for ANY coach to over come.

We need an influx of defensive playmakers, cb and lb first. If this defense hadn't been gutted with injury, we were productive enough on offense to be in the playoffs.

Get a guard or two and beef this defense and even with the wr's and te's we have, we can win.

You can acquire all the players you want, bottom line is that Coyle played scared against Manning and you can't have that in a DC. I hate to bring up that popular cliche "adjustments", but Coyle is very slow at making them

 

[mnphinfan]

You can acquire all the players you want, bottom line is that Coyle played scared against Manning and you can't have that in a DC. I hate to bring up that popular cliche "adjustments", but Coyle is very slow at making them

He coached that way against the Packers and Lions as well. You just cant give QB'S like Manning, Rogers and Stafford time to scan the defense. They have seen every defense imaginable and sooner than later they will find the open man/hole in the zone. Hes O-for 3 using this strategy this year and he still hasnt learned that you need to force those QB's to make mistakes because they dont do it very often on their own. Wake the hell up man.

 

[datruth55]

This team has a lot, lot of holes. Defense. CB. LB. DT. DE. Offense. OL (2 Guards, 1 Swing and one T). #1TE and 2 & 4 WR. Power RB.

One might think we've gone 7 years or so with an idiot acquiring talent.

Oh, wait.

Not to excuse Philbin, who has his fingerprints all over the OL acquisitions, LB and WRs.

LD

Somehow I seriously doubt that. He may have had some say in the OL and WRs but I seriously doubt he had any say in the linebackers. Wheeler (who Ireland had chased before in free agency and failed) and Ellerbe have Jeff Ireland's fingerprints all over them. I also heard a recent interview with Philbin and they had asked him about Greg Jennings since we were getting ready to play the Vikings and he was very complimentary which makes me wonder if Jeff was behind the signing of Wallace and Philbin really wanted Jennings. You can only speculate what Jennings would have done here but I can guarantee he would have been more productive for us than he has been for Minnesota.

The Wheeler signing is so Jeff Ireland it's like the Gibril Wilson signing all over again.

 

[datruth55]

You can acquire all the players you want, bottom line is that Coyle played scared against Manning and you can't have that in a DC. I hate to bring up that popular cliche "adjustments", but Coyle is very slow at making them

By the same token though if you had D-lineman that could win one-on-one and were able to get pressure with your front 4 without blitzing and drop 7 into coverage all 3 of those QBs would have lost. Buffalo pretty much proved that when they played Green Bay and Rodgers had his worst game maybe of his career. There were times when Coyle rushed 3 and dropped 8 and other times when he rushed 4 and dropped 7. If you watched the Bengals/Broncos game last night you would have seen the Bengals getting pressure with just their front 4 on a lot of passing downs forcing some really bad passes by Manning who threw 4 INTs.

I do agree that Coyle is slow with adjustments...especially in-game adjustments.

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

One might think we've gone 7 years or so with an idiot acquiring talent.

Ultimately, this is the reason I'm not super mad that we brought Joe back.

Jeff Ireland is still the biggest problem with the Miami Dolphins.

 

[roy_miami]

He coached that way against the Packers and Lions as well. You just cant give QB'S like Manning, Rogers and Stafford time to scan the defense. They have seen every defense imaginable and sooner than later they will find the open man/hole in the zone. Hes O-for 3 using this strategy this year and he still hasnt learned that you need to force those QB's to make mistakes because they dont do it very often on their own. Wake the hell up man.

Not that Stafford is elite but you can't really do anything to stop an elite QB on his best day. Russell Wilson shredded that vaunted Cardinal defense after throwing everything they had at him (so did Manning). That isn't necessarily proof that the defense is flawed, it simply means that on that day the QB had "the sight."

The fact of the matter is our defense was ranked number one against the pass even after having played Brady, Rivers, Rodgers and Stafford. For a multitude of reasons we've stopped generating turnovers and sacks and our defense has fallen off a cliff.

Also, our defense is built to play at its best when the other team is forced to pass. If the other team is allowed to play with a balanced offense throughout the entire game we'll never look great in a game like that, but the defense is still good enough to keep us in games like that, with the one exception being at the Patriots. If you can win 4 games in a blowout then win just half the games that are close that gets you to 10 wins on the season.

The bottom line is our team is built to win with the offense. Our own offense is supposed to help with our run defense to a degree. The hope is that our offense can be one that can beat any defensive scheme. The hope is that our offense can win those close games at the end.

The defensive scheme certainly needs to be tweaked, we're too soft in the middle, but what we really need is better, more dependable players. The Broncos defense is supposed to be one of the best in the league but after losing their starting LBers they let Andy "primetime" Dalton lead his team to 37 points.

 

[Hc90]

Today I'm listening to the radio and they're talking about how they're really surprised that people aren't going crazy about the fact that were keeping philbin. First time in a long time I was happy our fan base was smarter than usual ... And maybe they realize that you can't keep changing and firing people every time they got 8-8 or 9-7 . Tannehill is moving in the right direction , do you really want to throw another offense at him ? Let them keep getting better ... At this pace next year we'll go 10-6 and Tannehill will throw more than 30 tds and around 10 or less picks. I'm happy with that . Steady progression every year why in the world would you fire him . Kevin Coyle on the other hand has our defense headed in the wrong direction over the past 3 years . I'm not opposed to bringing in someone else to change it up on defense but it's going to be hard to get a coordinator to come down here with philbin on a one year make or break .

 

[J. David Wannyheimer]

Today I'm listening to the radio and they're talking about how they're really surprised that people aren't going crazy about the fact that were keeping philbin. First time in a long time I was happy our fan base was smarter than usual ... And maybe they realize that you can't keep changing and firing people every time they got 8-8 or 9-7

Err, no. Our fanbase has reached the point of resigned apathy.

 

[roy_miami]

Today I'm listening to the radio and they're talking about how they're really surprised that people aren't going crazy about the fact that were keeping philbin. First time in a long time I was happy our fan base was smarter than usual ... And maybe they realize that you can't keep changing and firing people every time they got 8-8 or 9-7 . Tannehill is moving in the right direction , do you really want to throw another offense at him ? Let them keep getting better ... At this pace next year we'll go 10-6 and Tannehill will throw more than 30 tds and around 10 or less picks. I'm happy with that . Steady progression every year why in the world would you fire him . Kevin Coyle on the other hand has our defense headed in the wrong direction over the past 3 years . I'm not opposed to bringing in someone else to change it up on defense but it's going to be hard to get a coordinator to come down here with philbin on a one year make or break .

Its funny that people are thinking Ross made an emotional decision, I don't think that could be further from the truth, it made all the logical sense in the world that Philbin would be brought back as long as the team didn't show significant regression. I think Philbin is/can be a good coach. I see what Ross sees in Philbin. I think the plan to give Philbin, Lazor, Hickey and Tannehill two years together post-Ireland was a good one (assuming I'm right that that was the plan), but if I was acting on emotion even I would make a change right now. I actually think Ross is resisting the urge to go against his original plan and that is why he made the announcement when he did, he might have been afraid of being talked into acting in haste.

Before the season a lot of posters thought this season would be a train wreck under Philbin, many of them bet the under thinking it would be a repeat of 2011. I didn't see it. I thought the under was a bad bet at 8 and a horrible bet at 7.5. I thought we had an 8.5 win team but one that would rarely win less than 7 games. If the team would have won less than 7 games this season that would have shocked me. No result will shock me next season. Anything from 3 to 13 wins will be on the table. Philbin has his work cut out for him, but if he's holding something back for whatever reason, like a Chip Kelly style uptempo attack, then we could still come out and crush next season. He needs to bring something fresh to the table though, the same old, same old probably won't cut it.

 

[Spiff]

Err, no. Our fanbase has reached the point of resigned apathy.

That's exactly what I was thinking.