[GTripp0012]

As far as the D goes, the problem seems incresingly obvious to me each week. The way GW builds his defense, it's built around a strong front 7. What he desires to do with his secondary is to use them in creative ways, thus he demanded we go out and draft the physical speciman that was Sean Taylor, and sign Adam Arculetta. The Corners are physical run stuffers despite conventional NFL defenses who prefer smaller, quicker, cover corners, thus the drafting of Carlos Rogers. The secondary has been under a lot of fire this year for giving up big plays. But Gregg Williams has and has always had an expectation for his front seven to dominate the line of scrimmage, allowing him to twist his coverage using the personel he has to throughly confuse the opponent. That's at least what happened the last two years. All of a sudden this year, we add a less physical defensive end and lose our physical linebacker, Arrington, and there is a gaping hole in the front seven. You add to that injuries to Griffin and Saleve'a, and Philip Daniels aging right before our eyes every week, and it's no wonder we are getting beat each week. Now rather than being on the attack, the secondary is on the defensive. And all those DBs have major flaws in their game that even the weakest NFL offenses are exploiting. Arculetta and Rogers are getting the brunt of it, but it's not like these flaws were just recently discovered. Williams had to take the good with the bad to get the physical abilities that he covets. This whole defensive problem is a product of GW's all or nothing defensive scheme. They either dominate the game, or they get dominated. And right now, the front 7 is playing average football. And in our scheme, average isn't good enough. Because we have a bunch of physical tools in the secondary who aren't the best cover guys (by design), who are getting picked apart.

The only quick fix I can see is to replace Holdman on the weak side. If Rocky is ready, play him. If he isn't, go somewhere else. Posey or somewhere. Or move Andre Carter back to LB, start Wynn or Evans at DE, and use Carter's skills to rush the passer. Because, right now at end, he's getting beat up in the run game, and is pretty mediocre in the passing game, and its killing the defense. Either way, something needs to be done to the front seven quickly.