How Good Can the Defense Become?

We haven't heard Landry's name much because no one is really going deep on him. OCs know what's up and they pretty much figure; hey, if you play with fire you get burnt. It's almost as if his sole purpose is to not give up the big play, and that's fine by me. I think Blache is doing a wonderful job thus far with the D, utilizing what he's got. It's like someone said, it's baffling how we can create no pressure and still dominate. In Reid's post-game conference, he looked baffled as well saying things along the lines of "we didn't give up a sack, we didn't turn the ball over" as if almost to say "hey, we did everything we were supposed to do, but we just got outplayed".We all know that we have quality depth at certain positions, but the D cannot afford for all the backups to be on the field at once.(i.e. -we can't afford a s#!*load of major injuries). It's hard to say if we are a top 5 D, or will be at season's end. Unfortunately we still have to play the teams in our division again and they are all good offensively. As long as we can stay somewhat healthy, I see a really good defense at season's end with some slightly skewed numbers. However, it will be interesting to see what happens when JT comes back. Not very good against the run but damn if he isn't a ballswatter.

Just look at the offenses this D has played. They're already pretty damn good.

Just look at the offenses this D has played. They're already pretty damn good.

Yeah exactly. And we havent had a sac in the last 2 games, but look at the last 2 o-lines we played.

I'd say, we are a top 10 Defense...and I'm not talking statistically.
The reality is that we are really good at keeping passing offenses in front of us, even really good ones.

In the preseason our weaknesses were LB depth, 2nd safety issues, Rodgers, McIntosh concerns, DE pass rush.
Most of these concerns are gone, except DE pass rush.

To me, our main issues are still on the line, ...no pass rush...we are stopping teams with coverage, but that seems to be working as long as we continue to score better than last year as we have...

But the biggest issue I see, which I'm sure other teams will see if they aren't just looking at the stats sheet is this....Our Run D just aint that great if consistantly attacked, especially along the line.
The reality is this, the Giants committed to the run and beat us up.
The Cards, Saints, Dallas and Philly never really committed to the run, or they bailed on it, which was a huge misake. I see it as our weakness, (it just happens to be the offensive weakness on all but 1 of these teams)

My concern is when we finally come up against a team that will run 30+ times a game on us with talented backs with a functional passing attack.
Fortunately for us there are only few teams that are run heavy anymore.
Really, there are only 4 games on our schedule that can legitamately attack this run defense weakness.
Dallas, Giants, and perhaps the Rams(sucky D) and Pittsburgh.
(I dont believe the 49rs have a balanced attack)
Fortunately all of these games are at home.
If the fans cause false starts, it is hard to commit to the run.

I am starting to think that Jason Taylor will soon become a situational pass rusher, if we continue to do well without him in the passing attack since he is a liability in Run Defense.

I think Marcus Washington, when healthy, is still a very good linebacker. If he can't stay healthy, at his salary, we'll have to let him go. As good as our DB's are playing, can you imagine how many INT's we''ll get if Taylor can get his rush on? Carters already playing good ball, but if Taylor is coming hard on the other side it will help Carter that much more. Horton is making rookie mistakes but those will lessen with time. He already is more of an asset than liability and is always around the ball. Him and Landry are putting a hurtin' on some people. (Westbrook) As good as this 'D" is, and they are good, with the personell we have and Coach Blache, we have the potential to be "Scary" good.

As impressive as the defense has looked, I think it is safe to say that the skins are at least in the top ten defensively in the league. At least top five against the run. I am also impressed with Chris Horton. Man what a steal in the draft.

I don't think statically we can become a top five team. It just seems like the way the D plays we give up a lot of yards, but not a lot of points. I believe were 11th in scoring D, which is considered the most important team D stat.
Hopefully the next three games will help those numbers.

Having said that, I think this D can get us to the promised land. No doubt.

As impressive as the defense has looked, I think it is safe to say that the skins are at least in the top ten defensively in the league. At least top five against the run. I am also impressed with Chris Horton. Man what a steal in the draft.


do you know where on the web that the stats for all the rankings are for the nfl?i'll be damned if i know where to look,i'd owe you if you could post it please.

do you know where on the web that the stats for all the rankings are for the nfl?i'll be damned if i know where to look,i'd owe you if you could post it please.

You can sort them from here.. NFL Stats: by Team Category (http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?tabSeq=2&defensiveStatisticCategory=GAME_STATS&conference=ALL&role=OPP&season=2008&seasonType=REG&d-447263-s=TOTAL_YARDS_GAME_AVG&d-447263-o=1&d-447263-n=1)

We have the potential to be an elite unit, especially seeing the teams we've just played and held our own against them all. I'd love to see a dominant performance sometime in the next 3 weeks, competely shutting a team down.

There's no question the defense has looked great, especially the secondary, but I feel the offense has helped out tremendously in their ability to sustain long drives. We've seen in the last two games how the skins have kept the ball in the 4th quarter, killing off for the most part, the last 6-7 minutes of the game. If your the opposition, it's hard to score if you can't get your offense on the field.