Quote:
Originally Posted by Paintrain
Sorry for going OT but...
Why all the man love for Grilliams? We had good defenses statistically generally while he was here, but with 4 first round picks (RIP Sean) in the secondary, proven veterans on the line (Carter, Griffin, Daniels) and at LB (Fletcher, Washington) shouldn't we have a good D?? It's not like we are running street free agents out there and having a top 10 defense.
For all that Gregg (second G for genius of course) did, we were consistently near the bottom of the league in generating turnovers, near the bottom in defensive touchdowns, middle of the pack in sacks and middle of the pack in scoring defense. Those are the categories that reflect a defense that helps teams win games. Who cares if we are top 5 in YPG (the measure they use) if we aren't getting key stops and getting the ball back for the offense, that's a hollow statistic.
Let's also not forget that his defense gave up 6 2nd half leads last year, including the Seattle game. Now I've been one of the biggest Gibbs/Saunders-late game play calling bashers, but other than the GB game, the offense didn't give the opposing team any points that flipped the scoreboard.
Most of the defensive players credited Blache for last year's improvement, citing his influence on simplifying schemes, letting players just play rather than think about the numerous stunts and blitzes Grilliams tried to implement. I think we're going to be fine defensively, hopefully increase turnovers and put some points on the board.
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I would put GW's bunch in the overachieving category in his years here. Look at our line, although some solid veterans, we plugged people in and they got the job done. The one year that our D didn't play as well, i heard an NFL scout on the radio say that our group has never been that talented and it just caught up to us...we'd maxed out our mediocre talent. The next year we were back in the top 10. I think alot of people undervalue what GW did here. Don't get me wrong i'm hoping for a great D this year, but I'm a little concerned. Blache doesn't have top 10 D's in his coaching past. His defenses have been middle of the pack.