Greg Blache Defensive Scheme!!

Pittsburgh
Baltimore
Philadelphia
Tennessee
Minnesota

All undeniably better defenses than we were last year. That's five.

Then there's the Tampa's, Chicago's, Dallas', and New York Giants' who we were ranked above, but I feel had a stronger defensive effort from start of year to finish than we did.

And by the end of the year, the Indy's and Cincinnati's of the world were stingier in point giving than we were.

Still, there's something to be said for even an average defensive effort in the wake of the loss of your best young talent. Credit goes where it's due. But lets not blow it out of proportion, we made a ton of defensive mistakes last year. I think we'll be noticeably and obviously better this year.

If we are undeniably a worse defense than Philly how did we beat em twice, because our offense or special teams undeniably is not better than Philly's. You're just looking at it based on hype from the media. If you look at results we gave up 4th lowest yard total and 6th lowest point total. And oif course people are going to come back with we didn't cause enough turnovers and that's true, but when you play a riskier style you also give up big plays. We played solid and that's why the overall stats are good. And in terms of turnovers, I believe we were 2nd in the NFL in 3 and outs, which is basically a turnover, same as a 30 yard interception for example.

Also, I thought I heard talk about Blache possibly retiring after this year and sticking around for one more year. I don't know his contract or anything like that, but I hope he does retire after this year so we can get Gray. I expect the defense to be good this year which may keep Blache around, and if it does I expect Gray to be gone with another D-coordinator job.

If we have an 8-8 year and the defense doesn't make significant strides in getting to the QB and turnovers then it won't just be Blache looking for work, it may be the entire staff. Assuming all goes well Gray may have another DC position offered to them and I recall the front office and Gibbs being really high on Olavadatti as a future DC.

Well if we go 8-8 and like your saying they all may get fired then our future is dark. We then have new coaches with different schemes. They would want their personnel for their system. This would set us back even more. As always the Redskins looking to replace the coach or QB = No Super Bowl.

I think our defense will be more effective this year when the games count. If you can't get pressure on the QB when your leading the game in the final minutes with your front four then your doomed. Whats makes a defense great is putting pressure with just rushing 4. When you blitz you are taking a gamble that your blitzer will hurry the QB or sack him. When your leading and a team has to pass your defense should be able to put pressure with just 4 men rushing. If our defense can force turnovers early in the game and also in our opponets side of the field this will help our offense. Defensive turnovers are big momentum changers which can break a teams sprit.

Any one remember the St. Louis game, (i do as it was the only one i was able to go to...) our offense may not have impressed, but with a minute left our D could not get to the qb and they through a long pass to set up the winning field goal. Our D gave up several 4th quarter leads, so even if it was the 4th ranked, it was not a championship quality D.
Hopefully, AH/Orakpo and a healthy Daniels, will change the dynamic and the 4th quarter leads won't evaporate this year. (also hopefully they will be bigger, and we will score over 30 a couple times). My friends remember, the offseason is all about hope.

Any one remember the St. Louis game, (i do as it was the only one i was able to go to...) our offense may not have impressed, but with a minute left our D could not get to the qb and they through a long pass to set up the winning field goal. Our D gave up several 4th quarter leads, so even if it was the 4th ranked, it was not a championship quality D.
Hopefully, AH/Orakpo and a healthy Daniels, will change the dynamic and the 4th quarter leads won't evaporate this year. (also hopefully they will be bigger, and we will score over 30 a couple times). My friends remember, the offseason is all about hope.

I remember us losing 19-17 and the offense turned a chip shot field goal or possibly a touchdown into 7 for them.

There is no way the St. Louis game falls on the defense.

How much of the losing 4th quarter leads falls on a D that never had a cushion. Your team could be up 13-10 into the 4th and then you give up a score. So you lose 17-13 because God knows your offense cannot answer. That is an indictment on the defense?

If we are undeniably a worse defense than Philly how did we beat em twice, because our offense or special teams undeniably is not better than Philly's. You're just looking at it based on hype from the media. If you look at results we gave up 4th lowest yard total and 6th lowest point total. And oif course people are going to come back with we didn't cause enough turnovers and that's true, but when you play a riskier style you also give up big plays. We played solid and that's why the overall stats are good. And in terms of turnovers, I believe we were 2nd in the NFL in 3 and outs, which is basically a turnover, same as a 30 yard interception for example.

Also, I thought I heard talk about Blache possibly retiring after this year and sticking around for one more year. I don't know his contract or anything like that, but I hope he does retire after this year so we can get Gray. I expect the defense to be good this year which may keep Blache around, and if it does I expect Gray to be gone with another D-coordinator job.

Yeah, I would argue about Philly's D being undeniably better. Two times they were on the field the same day and ours was better. Plus I don't think that anyone would say our offense was better than Philly's so our D had the tougher task.

I remember us losing 19-17 and the offense turned a chip shot field goal or possibly a touchdown into 7 for them.

There is no way the St. Louis game falls on the defense.
Whenever you take the lead with 1 minute to go, and you lose, it falls on the defense. I don't care what went before, at the 2 minute warning, if you have the lead, a CHAMPIONSHIP DEFENSE stops the opponent (um especially one with a new head coach and no wins at that time!)

As much as I wish Blache was more creative with the overall scheme on defense, at the end of the day we still had the 4th best.
I just wish we used more disguise to get pressure.
We wouldn't have to bring extra guys all the time if we could create a half second of confusion.
I wish we did some overloads blitzing, some fire-zone and zone-dogs.
But, you don't fire a DC because you don't like his style.

If the pass rush doesn't improve dramatically i think that we need to take a hard look at letting Coach Palermo go kick rocks.

I would love for Coach Gray to take over as DC, but 2 years ago Synder basically begged Coach Blache not to retire to coach the defense how can he then turn around and fire him?

Blache would have to retire for Gray to take over, hopefully Gray will still be around.

Good points, I was thinking the same thing; Blache seems to have this cut n dry approach to play calling; he's either going to blitz or not. There's little disguise to the blitzes & he's methodical & predictable about when they come.

Teams figured this out & simply went to their best matchup, e.g. against cincy on a key 3rd down he blitzed & left Smoot 1 on 1 w/Housh. Easy 1st down because our guys were easy to pick up for that extra couple seconds the qb needs.

I feel like the D over achieved to a point but lacked true shut down ability that a top 5 D typically has. They made offenses work hard, but they didn't scare anybody. Hopefully that changes this year. In a few crucial games the D couldn't make a big stand, see St. Louis, Cincy, SF & Balt. games. (I realize they were usually on the field a long time)

Whenever you take the lead with 1 minute to go, and you lose, it falls on the defense. I don't care what went before, at the 2 minute warning, if you have the lead, a CHAMPIONSHIP DEFENSE stops the opponent (um especially one with a new head coach and no wins at that time!)

I don't think anyone thought we had a CHAMPIONSHIP DEFENSE (whatever that is). We had an above average playoff calibre defense and a mickey mouse offense. That is why we were 8-8.

Now that I think about it, didn't part time Superhero L. Torrence give up the catch that set up the field goal?

Blache turned chicken s--- into chicken salad last year.

I don't think anyone thought we had a CHAMPIONSHIP DEFENSE (whatever that is). We had an above average playoff calibre defense and a mickey mouse offense. That is why we were 8-8.

Now that I think about it, didn't part time Superhero L. Torrence give up the catch that set up the field goal?

Blache turned chicken s--- into chicken salad last year.
I would then change my sentence to read an above average playoff caliber defense, should hold a no win team to 0 points with one minute to go.

Yes Torrence gave that catch up, but at the time the pass rush was blamed because their qb should have been sitting facedown eating turf. But we had NO pass rush.

How do you say Blache started with chicken s***? We had the number 8 ranked D the previous year. Not really chicken s***.