Doc Walker One-on-One Interview with Vinny Cerrato

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by 70Chip

I'm sure Greg Blache would be the first to say he wants more turnovers and points off turnovers and to generally create more chaos and general disarray. In a way, the fact that they DIDNT do much if any of that makes their defensive ranking even MORE impressive. I don't mind people criticizing the defense in areas where they need improvement. You can always improve.

I think what bothers me is that they make these arguments as a way of explaining our offensive ineptitude. If I was a member of the Redskins defense and I heard people saying, "Well, too bad the offense didn't get a little more help from the defense - we might have done something", I wouldn't know whether to laugh or to cry. Any criticism of the defense should be kept seperate from the problems our offense faces RIGHT NOW because those problems are far more serious and deeply entrenched than the defensive ones. Once Zorn gets same of his basic issues sorted out, then I would be willing to entertain an analysis of field position and turnover ratio and so forth. We have to be able to move the ball before we start going there.

On this, I think it's the other way around. The reason I was so adamant that we recognize our defensive weaknesses way back in December is so that we don't end up looking at the offense (improperly) as some inept unit based on the fact that the point totals were down.

I absolutely agree that the defense and the offense have to be separate entities. Just not if points for/against is being used as the measuring stick. That's essentially why the league uses yards to rank defenses and offenses, because points are far more dependent on the other unit.

But, obviously the offenses below average ability to score is something that can only be solved by fixing the offense. The defenses inability to get off the field is something that can only be solved by fixing the defense. We can spend our first pick on one side of the ball, but not both, so that's where the tricky part is.

The fact that the offense is so much further from greatness than the defense shouldn't detract from the fact that the offenses current ability to not self-destruct under Campbell is valuable within itself to the point where we can get value from the offense without addressing the receivers and OL.

But if we want to one day have a great offensive unit, it's clear that plenty of current players just won't cut it.