The-Hogs.net - Washington Football Discussion, Redskins to Commanders Era

Im hoping that some of you who know a little more about football/the 'skins/NFL, etc. can help me out here. What has happened to our D? Most of us, including myself, expected us to do just as well, if not better than last year, at least top 5, but our D just doesnt look like the same D i remember so proudly watching last season. I know we lost 2 key players, but guys have steped up to fill in. (Marshall, and hopefully Rogers will take the #2 spot soon). Sean Taylor doesn't seem to be playing the same, Springs is yet to have an INT...just wondering what you all think about this.

Sooner or later, teams were going to find a way to deal with William's defensive schemes. It seems that the blitzes are being picked up this year. That wouldn't be so much of a problem if we could get some sort of push from the defensive line. You put Dexter Manley, Charles Mann and Jumpy Geathers into this defensive line, and you'd see a different result.

That being said, a set of healthy defensive tackles would certainly help. It seems like they've all had problems staying healthy this year, and it's difficult for a defence to keep on covering for that without a leek popping up somewhere.

I don't know much, but that's my

There are people round here who know a hell of a lot more than me, and no doubt they can shed more light!

No pass rush is the problem with this defense. Some people fail to understand how a pass rush is directly linked to the play of the secondary. Ill explain it to you.

Cornerbacks do not know the routes the WR's are running and have to be better athletes because they have to be able to have speed to close gaps. A CB has to be able to recognize the route and react to it, the split second that it takes to react creates seperation and the CB HAS to have the speed to close that gap and be able to make a play on the ball. A pass rush aids the CB in that the WR's do not have all day to allow their route to develop and to come back to the ball when the QB scrambles which is very hard to defend. A NFL QB CANNOT have 6+ seconds to throw the ball and if he does he'll pick ANY secondary apart.

Gregg has a solution to that, its called blitzing. Blitzing is very effective for us but its also a negative. The positive is that its causing the QB's to get rid of the ball most of the time, even our blitzes are gettgin picked up consistenly! Why? They're getting picked up because blitzing is too common and not surprising since we have to do it so much to garner ANY amount of pressure on the QB. The reason blitzing has hurt this team is because its taking men out of coverage. Are your chances to intercept the ball greater with 7 guys in the secondary of just 4? My bet woudl be with seven but we can't do that. We have to blitz the entire team and that usually leaves every WR in 1-1 coverage and if the QB throws the ball off target there is usually nobody else around to catch it! Why? Because they had to blitz.

This puts the pressure on our offense to step their game up. Our D is still great and has NEVER let us down this seaosn. Our offense is a lot better but by fumbling the ball 2-3 times a game have lost us 2 games. All of our losses have been close and thats testament to the defense being able to overcome the offense turning the ball over.

Gregg overloads the offensive line to

The Skins still have a descent Defense but they are totally suseptible to the run. Especially on Fred Smoot's old side. Fred could tackle! Not that that is the only reason, but I think one of them.
Springs doesnt have any Int's but he is great corner and they dont throw at him much. He will get a few in the remaining games.
I have said from day 1 that they need a pass rushing def. end. They have got to get more pressure on the QB! Daniels was good last year but has 1 sack this year and I didnt even realize Renaldo Wynn was still on the team. He has done zero since he came here.

I think alot of the problem has to with Griffin being hurt most of this year. Last year he was a monster vs the run. This year he has been hurt alot and our rushing Defense has stuggled. Our pass defense is still top 5 but its our rushing defense that has dropped off the table. I put most of that on injuries and not so much on teams picking up our strategies


Brew

I think the biggest reason is we aren't as healthy as we were last year

skins2357 wrote:I think alot of the problem has to with Griffin being hurt most of this year. Last year he was a monster vs the run. This year he has been hurt alot and our rushing Defense has stuggled. Our pass defense is still top 5 but its our rushing defense that has dropped off the table. I put most of that on injuries and not so much on teams picking up our strategies


Brew

And he's still banged up. Listed as questionable.

Six of the eight teams we've played are in the top half of the rankings for total offense; 4 are in the top 10 and only two in the bottom 10. Overall, we've played teams that are pretty good on offense.

Tampa Bay is ranked 21st. Only Chicago and San Fran., of the teams we've played, are ranked lower.

Its ok you cant expect any d to shut down teams all day. All that matters is if we get the Win at the end of the day.

Chris Luva Luva wrote:No pass rush is the problem with this defense. Some people fail to understand how a pass rush is directly linked to the play of the secondary. Ill explain it to you.

Cornerbacks do not know the routes the WR's are running and have to be better athletes because they have to be able to have speed to close gaps. A CB has to be able to recognize the route and react to it, the split second that it takes to react creates seperation and the CB HAS to have the speed to close that gap and be able to make a play on the ball. A pass rush aids the CB in that the WR's do not have all day to allow their route to develop and to come back to the ball when the QB scrambles which is very hard to defend. A NFL QB CANNOT have 6+ seconds to throw the ball and if he does he'll pick ANY secondary apart.

Gregg has a solution to that, its called blitzing. Blitzing is very effective for us but its also a negative. The positive is that its causing the QB's to get rid of the ball most of the time, even our blitzes are gettgin picked up consistenly! Why? They're getting picked up because blitzing is too common and not surprising since we have to do it so much to garner ANY amount of pressure on the QB. The reason blitzing has hurt this team is because its taking men out of coverage. Are your chances to intercept the ball greater with 7 guys in the secondary of just 4? My bet woudl be with seven but we can't do that. We have to blitz the entire team and that usually leaves every WR in 1-1 coverage and if the QB throws the ball off target there is usually nobody else around to catch it! Why? Because they had to blitz.

This puts the pressure on our offense to step their game up. Our D is still great and has NEVER let us down this seaosn. Our offense is a lot better but by fumbling the ball 2-3 times a game have lost us 2 games. All of our losses have been close and thats testament to the defense being able to overcome the offense turning the ball over.

Gregg overloads the offensive line to

Pretty good posting... the original poster wanted help with details... this was a well thought out post...!


I pretty much agree too... We need to create pressure without having to send the house.... We have been gashed on some big runs this year... most of the big runs/plays against us have been when we were blitzing....

Have you ever heard the saying, "live by the blitz -- die by the blitz"

If by chance a runningback makes it to the second level when we were blitzing we will get gashed.... Plus we have faced some pretty good runningbacks this year... Alexander, Holmes, (Tatum & Anderson), Tiki

Injuries have played a big role too.... We have played decent and still are ranked 7th overall....

Keep the faith...!