Blocking & tackling after Turnovers

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joecrisp
10-21-2004, 08:47 PM
I suggested on another post that our defense should work on turning turnovers into touchdowns. Joe Crisp suggested that I was asking too much since the defense is playing well. Greg Blache talks about that and other points to improve upon and I would like to here Joe's opinion about what Greg Blache said. Maybe it makes sense coming from an experienced coach rather than an enlightened fan.
I took exception to your suggestion that the defense needed to score more points because you were trying to defend Mark Brunell's ineptitude by asking why the defense wasn't scoring points. I thought that suggestion was a little absurd, considering that the defense's primary purpose is to stop the opposing offense from scoring points-- and this defense is among the best in the league at achieving that goal.

Points scored by the defense are something that shouldn't be counted upon-- they certainly help, and it certainly makes sense to explore the possibility of improving upon that aspect of the game, but you can't reasonably expect to lean upon the defense to score touchdowns week in and week out to win games. That's the offense's primary purpose, and this offense isn't getting the job done.

And by the way, this "enlightened fan" has sought out Greg Blache for enlightenment about defensive tactics, has spoken with him about his defensive philosophy, and has a deep respect and admiration for the man. I completely agree with his opinion that the defense can improve in the area of capitalizing on turnovers. But that doesn't mean we should direct our blame to the defense for losses which were clearly the result of ineptitude on the part of the offense and special teams.

Defenses like the Ravens of 2000 are extraordinarily rare, and the fact that it would take a defensive effort of that magnitude to overcome the deficiencies of this offense is absolutely appalling. Forgive me if I'm too busy dissecting the offense to point fingers at the defense.

That Guy
10-21-2004, 09:35 PM
Running game - I wanted to say even but that team had Jamal Lewis running for 1300 yds and Priest Holmes ran for another 500.

The missing ingredient in this is special teams. Baltimore had Jermaine Lewis who was a threat to return punts and kickoffs back for scores. So far Johnny Morton hasn't demonstrated that ability us, so far at least. If we had better special teams, we at least put ourselves in a better position to win some of these games. If we can at least not lose the special teams battle every week then our defense is playing well enough to win a lot of games for us.
Well, portis is on track for 1600 + 300 through the air and betts could easily get 300-400 still, so i'd be willing to say the running games are fairly equal...

btw, johnny plays in KC, we got chad... and he did return a 50 and 30 yarder in one game, both got called back... overall the blocking just hasn't been there in any way... last game he tried to run them back anyways and got 3, 1, and -2 yards or something, i wouldn't pin the blame on him (thrash and betts also had no blocking and crap returns when he was out), but our STs just aint happening right now.

That Guy
10-21-2004, 09:37 PM
hey joecrisp, maybe what we really need is to bench portis and fire brunell so we can start our true super stars.... that's right, cliff russel and timmy hasslebeck. With them, all roads will be paved with gold and super bowl victories will be assured ;).

MTK
10-22-2004, 09:38 AM
We lost our superstar Cliff Russell, he's lighting up scoreboards now in Cincy

That Guy
10-22-2004, 08:45 PM
damn, scratch that then.

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