What the hell is wrong with our Defense?

The problem all starts at MLB, Marshall is servicable at times, however, your MLB is the captain of the defense, or your "defensive QB" if you must, and Marshall is clearly not that. We need to sign or draft a distinguished MLB and go from there. Washington is a decent leader but he is OLB, and Holdman shows up once every three weeks. Once we get a good MLB (Posluszny) PSU, Then we can build a D-line.

I not convinced that Smoot is much better than we have and that Pierce would make much of a difference all by himself. I do think Pierce is clearly an upgrade over Marshall but lost in the sea of underwhelming talent at we have he'd probably look pretty average too. He isn't a super talent so it'd be hard for him to over come. Kinda like ST has to do in the secondary.


Let me tell you:

1. Smoot is much better. He is at worst an adequate CB. He was actually a good CB most of the time.

2. Pierce would have made a huge difference. He is the QB of the defense, responsible for making the calls and audibles. He has greatly improved the Giants D. With him, Lemar could still be playing WLB, his natural position. So you get two positions upgraded.

3. We don't need Super Talent. What we need is competent players. We had them, we let them go.

4. Think about this: We spent our high draft picks to address areas of need:

Carlos Rogers when Smoot left
Rocky as a replacement for Lavar when Marshall could have just as easily played WLB if we had kept Pierce.

We could have used those picks to draft quality players for our D line. We might have a better defense than we had in GW's first year, if we had kept Smoot and Pierce and built the D line!

Smoot really wasn't that huge a loss I don't think. Yeah Rogers is struggling and has taken a huge step backward this year, but Smoot really isn't playing any better.



The part that bothers me is that we let smoot go and used a top ten pick to replace him.

The problem with the defence is team speed. Springs was once one of the fastest players in the league, But that was along time ago.
Rogers is quick but not fast.
Marshall isnt that fast, he gets caught up in traffic.
Holdman is too damn slow.
Carter is fast, well he should be but he sucks.
Wynn, daniels are too old and slow to put pressure.
Vincent and Fox are not speed burners.
Taylor has good speed, amazing speed if you consider his size.
Wright and Rumph are slow for cornerbacks.


We dont have guys that can fly around the ball or use their catchup speed when they make a mistake.

SECONDARY!!!!!!!!!! Rogers BLOWS!! He plays like he is afraid of the ball, afarid to tackle, afraid of being tackled....

Seriously, he needs to go! I've been saying that since Pre-season!

Yes we let Smoot go and replaced him with a top ten pick. Clearly the coaching staff felt Smoot wasn't the player that we think he is and that Rogers would be a better option. I think the problem wasn't letting Smoot go but Rogers simply not being the player that everyone thought he could be. So far.

Good post, Gmanc. I completely agree that the troubles start with the D-line. Then it's a chain reaction. No push with the D-line means our LBs get hit by linemen. Only Washington is good enough to deal with this, and Lamar especially cannot. That forces us to blitz too much, and makes our blitzes predictable and ineffective. That exposes our weakened pass D, where we lost Clark and got perhaps the biggest bust in FA history. CBs can only do so much--Rogers hasn't been good, but I agree that no one could have stopped that pass to Galloway--we blitzed, what 8-9 guys and got NO pressure. Once the blitz failed, the play was done.

So, give more time to the rooks on the d line, get demetric in, get back Killings (didn't we cut someone else who had some sacks? Boschetti?). Draft on the d-line, FA for an MLB? And then light a god damn fire under everyone's ass--if you aren't giving the effort, if you are missing tackles and blowing assignments, then you should sit and give someone else a try. I though we had these old school coaches, but it seems they aren't motivating these guys. The poor tackling makes me sick. WTF????

Good post, Gmanc. I completely agree that the troubles start with the D-line. Then it's a chain reaction. No push with the D-line means our LBs get hit by linemen. Only Washington is good enough to deal with this, and Lamar especially cannot. That forces us to blitz too much, and makes our blitzes predictable and ineffective. That exposes our weakened pass D, where we lost Clark and got perhaps the biggest bust in FA history. CBs can only do so much--Rogers hasn't been good, but I agree that no one could have stopped that pass to Galloway--we blitzed, what 8-9 guys and got NO pressure. Once the blitz failed, the play was done.

So, give more time to the rooks on the d line, get demetric in, get back Killings (didn't we cut someone else who had some sacks? Boschetti?). Draft on the d-line, FA for an MLB? And then light a god damn fire under everyone's ass--if you aren't giving the effort, if you are missing tackles and blowing assignments, then you should sit and give someone else a try. I though we had these old school coaches, but it seems they aren't motivating these guys. The poor tackling makes me sick. WTF????

I agree 100% about the coaches not motivating these players. In fact it seems as if these coaches (namely Gibbs) are more concerned about making things comfortable for these players, whether its the all white unis the players wanted, the short easy mini camp, the lack of playing time in preseason for starters, it just seems that player motivation is out and player comfort is of utmost important. The record show that this coddling of players is not working.

The part that bothers me is that we let smoot go and used a top ten pick to replace him.

Well I can understand that. I just think that we're making Smoot out to be better than he is because we lost him. We tend to do that with a lot of players. I don't think we'd be markedly better if Smoot was playing corner for us right now. Slightly maybe, but a huge upgrade I don't think so.

SECONDARY!!!!!!!!!! Rogers BLOWS!! He plays like he is afraid of the ball, afarid to tackle, afraid of being tackled....

Seriously, he needs to go! I've been saying that since Pre-season!

Rogers would look a hell of a lot better if the D-line could get some pressure and the safties gave some support. It's true that he isn't playing like a top 10 pick but he isn't that bad - I'd say he's about average compared with the rest of the D.

It all starts with the d-line though. Just look at our top tacklers - they are all in the secondary - that tells you all that you need to know about the pressure that the front 7 is generating.

As for Pierce, yeah that hurt us more. But he wasn't here last year either and we seemed to be ok. I think among the several problems we have on D, it all starts with a weak interior line. Griff and the Samoan probably overachieved the past couple of years and now they're running on fumes.

Pierce was the unquestioned leader on defense, he brought a huge chip on his shoulder to each and every game and played with extreme intensity. I honestly think Pierce's loss was the biggest F-up this organization has made since 2000.