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- May 8, 2014
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Looking at this team there's a lot of hope for us to make some noise this season, given how good the offense has looked thus far. And looking ahead it seems like even if the offense doesn't put up as many points the rest of the way, we do have hope also on the defensive side to see a lot of improvement. So yeah, we're sitting about as good as we could have hoped for, definitely better than I expected overall.
One thing though that I think should help us is that the defense's primary struggle thus far has been their physicality. They are struggling with basic stuff like getting off blocks and contain. Now, granted, that's often a really bad deal, and something that can hang around for the duration of a season defensively, but I don't think it's going to continue. Why not?
Player availability. Too many pieces missed too many snaps in preseason. Donald holding out. Injuries that held guys out. They were disjointed vs the Colts too, looking soft outside of the big turnovers they converted with stuff like a 4.2 ypc for Gore that didn't hurt us because they fell so far behind on the scoreboard. You can see certain things working with Wade's defense like the CBs jumping tendencies outside the hashes and making offenses pay, but they're just not where they need to be yet overall and were exposed badly by a very shrewd mind and offense in Gruden and the Skins.
Basically the 9er game was like preseason game 3 for the entire defense, when you consider it was all of them being together on the field. Also it was a short week, in which they had zero time for pad practices to work the stuff they need to work. Looking at the game result on Thursday night, they surprising did show improvement believe it or not vs the run, to the tune of holding Hyde to under 100 yards at a 3.4 ypc clip. It was of course the passing game that let them down, along with a long list of dumb moves by players.
So looking ahead at a Dallas running game that downright terrifies me personally, Wade has a long window to try to get these guys where they need to be in the front seven. It all starts there IMO, because as that happens Wade's not going to need to crowd the box to keep us from being embarrassed. I'm guessing we're going to see them run some padded practices this week, and we're probably going to see some snap adjustments as well.
We already saw Quinn get his snap percentage cut a little last week and IMO that's going to continue if he doesn't improve beginning in Dallas. Longacre isn't the most athletic fit out there but he's been much more stout vs the run so he'll be the one who benefits. Both ILBs have been disappointing too as we all know, however the issue there is who do you have who will make it better behind them? That one's really hard to predict, think it might take more time for the staff to make a change there for that reason.
Either way, I expect this defense to start rebounding here real soon and playing good ball. Might not happen vs Dallas' offense, as that's a legit matchup who will challenge any defense and these guys might not get it together that quickly. But maybe a respectable day vs Dallas is possible, with continued improvement from there. I believe it's coming pretty soon here dudes, this defense is too talented to keep getting trucked week to week with a guy like Wade running it.
One thing though that I think should help us is that the defense's primary struggle thus far has been their physicality. They are struggling with basic stuff like getting off blocks and contain. Now, granted, that's often a really bad deal, and something that can hang around for the duration of a season defensively, but I don't think it's going to continue. Why not?
Player availability. Too many pieces missed too many snaps in preseason. Donald holding out. Injuries that held guys out. They were disjointed vs the Colts too, looking soft outside of the big turnovers they converted with stuff like a 4.2 ypc for Gore that didn't hurt us because they fell so far behind on the scoreboard. You can see certain things working with Wade's defense like the CBs jumping tendencies outside the hashes and making offenses pay, but they're just not where they need to be yet overall and were exposed badly by a very shrewd mind and offense in Gruden and the Skins.
Basically the 9er game was like preseason game 3 for the entire defense, when you consider it was all of them being together on the field. Also it was a short week, in which they had zero time for pad practices to work the stuff they need to work. Looking at the game result on Thursday night, they surprising did show improvement believe it or not vs the run, to the tune of holding Hyde to under 100 yards at a 3.4 ypc clip. It was of course the passing game that let them down, along with a long list of dumb moves by players.
So looking ahead at a Dallas running game that downright terrifies me personally, Wade has a long window to try to get these guys where they need to be in the front seven. It all starts there IMO, because as that happens Wade's not going to need to crowd the box to keep us from being embarrassed. I'm guessing we're going to see them run some padded practices this week, and we're probably going to see some snap adjustments as well.
We already saw Quinn get his snap percentage cut a little last week and IMO that's going to continue if he doesn't improve beginning in Dallas. Longacre isn't the most athletic fit out there but he's been much more stout vs the run so he'll be the one who benefits. Both ILBs have been disappointing too as we all know, however the issue there is who do you have who will make it better behind them? That one's really hard to predict, think it might take more time for the staff to make a change there for that reason.
Either way, I expect this defense to start rebounding here real soon and playing good ball. Might not happen vs Dallas' offense, as that's a legit matchup who will challenge any defense and these guys might not get it together that quickly. But maybe a respectable day vs Dallas is possible, with continued improvement from there. I believe it's coming pretty soon here dudes, this defense is too talented to keep getting trucked week to week with a guy like Wade running it.
