Defense on a roll...

I wasn’t really sure how the defense was going to work out with the ILB situation but they have made it work.

The tackling on this team has improved dramatically!

Joe Haden is a difference maker!

Sean Davis specifically has really impressed me with his play, coverage and tackling wise.

Terrell Edmunds has played as well as I would expect a rookie to play.

The DL as a whole makes an average secondary look good.

Pray for no injuries as the depth is not good though!

 

Still not sold on the defense. We need to see how they stack up against Brees and Brady.

 

Let's see how they hold up against the Panthers on a short week. Our last 4 wins weren't exactly against anything close to resembling contenders (Atlanta, Cincy, Cle, Balt). Meat of the schedule is coming up.

 

Beating those 2 teams will require the offense to sustain long, time consuming, TD drives, just like yesterday, and just like when they played NE last year (forget the JJ play, they didn't convert on 3rd and 4 with less than 3 minutes left, then punted).

It will require a total team effort, as no D can fully stop those 2 teams.

 

Both of those QB’s will make any really good defense look average.

Against those QB’s I just hope they can make just enough plays to keep the team in the game. Anything more is icing on the cake.

 

Gonna be tough! I expect we will need a few turnovers or win the time of possession battle to keep Newton and Mcaffrey off the field.

 

Like Bob in Canada said, that won't be very informative.

Brady's worse day, by far, was against the Lions, who have a poor pass defense.
He had good days against the Bears and Bills, who have much better pass defenses.

Brees had almost the same passing against the Browns and the Ravens, despite the difference in the quality of those defenses.
Brees had a monster day against the Rams, who have the likely DPoY.

 

Top 10 in total defense, number six rushing defense and number 16 passing. Are they "GREAT?" Nah. Are they solid? Probably closer than we think.

Just an FYI, a team like New England or Kansas City will score easily against ANY defense.

 

Defense has improved but still not even close to mediocre. Flacco didn't see a wide open Jackson for a TD and Crabtree dropped a TD pass. The tackling is getting better but teams seem to be able to drive the length of the field fairly easy at times.

Terrell Edmunds is playing as I'd expect from a 4th or 5th round rookie to play, I'm calling him a bust now, go ahead and beat me up but so far I was right about Artie Burns. I want Edmunds to succeed but he doesn't have ball skills or field awareness and he isn't getting any better diagnosing plays.

On the pass he defended he was fortunate to ball hit his hand, if the ball was thrown higher and it doesn't hit his hand he gets called for face guarding which is a PI. That makes 6 balls thrown to guys he has covered so far that he has never turned to find the ball, 2 in yesterdays game. BTW, I can see why GB parted ways with Moran Burnette, he has lost a step for sure.

On a good note Sean Davis is 100% better than Edmunds and while Edmunds is a rookie I'd expect his play to get a little better, especially as a 1st round pick. So while they improved it needs to get a lot better as it went from a shambles to just plain bad and I know what the score board read but the defense seems to need the opposing teams to have a dropped pass of miscommunication to many times to get stops.

 

Agree. While the D has been making strides I would like to see better play by the ILBs in the run game. We have been putting good pressure on opposing QBs but against the likes of Brady and Brees pressure isn't enough. They will stand in and deliver the football. We have to sack those guys to create long down and distance scenarios to help the D get off the field. A couple things I would like to see them do away with or at least curtail are sending Hilton on blitzes. They aren't working anymore and we are essentially taking our best cover guy out of coverage. Second they also need to stop sending VW off the edge. They are running not 1 but 2 guys way up the field and completely out of the play. While encouraging they haven't exactly been playing the top offenses of the league. Carolina will provide the toughest test we've had in a month...

 

True... yet Ben missed a wide-open Brown in the end zone, JuJu dropped an easy pass that would have likely led to 3 or 7 points and things just happen. We could have easily won by 15+. The defense has definitely improved, you're right, but they've been pretty damn good the last month. I do think Brees spreads and shreds us.

 

Why is everyone worried about Brees.... that game's still 7 weeks away. A lot can happen in that time. First things first, Cam Newton and Christian McCaffrey.

 

Because it's the elephant in the room

 

100% correct and I agree with you. My point is that it normally requires a team to drop passes or miscommunications to get stops way too often. It is a game of inches but my concern is how easy teams run the length of the field and they only seem to stop themselves. We are the only defense to give up opening drive points to the Browns, that isn't good and it wasn't a fluke.

 

I was pleasantly surprised by how ineffective Lamar Jackson was against our D. Ok, he was wide open for a TD one play and Flacco missed him... but he was also getting pressured at that point, so ho hum.

That makes me a little more optimistic about how we'll handle a mobile QB and the RPOs that Carolina have. It will still be difficult, no doubt. But we have to be encouraged by the improvements we've seen in this defense. They're much more of a unit now that they were in the first few games.

 

Because even if the Steelers beat the Patriots, a loss to the Saints is going to allow Patriots to get either #1 or #2 seed. Patriots may lose 2 more games, max. I don't see them losing more than 2.

 

Your passion for an elite defense is awesome and I love it!

I also think your expectations and analysis is a bit off.

Edmunds hand was right where it should have been and he went up at the right time. That deserves more praise than criticism. Does he need to work on his coverage skills? Absolutely!! He is far from a bust though.

Overall the defense is not in shambles but is average to slightly above average.

 

Serious question...has Jackson been effective against other teams. I don't really pay attention to the Ravens unless we are playing them.

 

There are eight elephants in the room. Let’s worry about the one right in front of us.

 

True. We don't want to turn this into some kind of a circus....

 

From what I've seen, he's created a fair amount of confusion amongst other defenses, simply because of where he can line up and the problems he can create when he goes in motion (similar to Kordell, some respects). But he's only in for around seven snaps a game at the moment. So when he's in, he's been a threat in other games. But he hasn't really been in enough to see if that's just novelty value.

 

holding them 30 or under would be a win. This aint the defenses of old. our offense needs to score. Ben has only scored 30+ twice on brady. 1 in his rookie season win, and another in that 55 points allowed loss lol.

 

Neither am I sold on the defense. Flacco moved the Ravens easily against the Steelers defense. He total blew two touchdowns by not seeing Lamar Jackson wide open and threw very poorly to Crabtree. Both plays should have been TDs which neither Brees, Brady, Goff, and Mahomes would have missed. The Steelers duck a bullet, a 23-30 bullet.

 

probably like the rest of the league.

 

i wish we would have signed hilton to a longer contract.