How Good Can the Defense Become?

[skinsnut]

I'd say, we are a top 10 Defense...and I'm not talking statistically.
The reality is that we are really good at keeping passing offenses in front of us, even really good ones.

In the preseason our weaknesses were LB depth, 2nd safety issues, Rodgers, McIntosh concerns, DE pass rush.
Most of these concerns are gone, except DE pass rush.

To me, our main issues are still on the line, ...no pass rush...we are stopping teams with coverage, but that seems to be working as long as we continue to score better than last year as we have...

But the biggest issue I see, which I'm sure other teams will see if they aren't just looking at the stats sheet is this....Our Run D just aint that great if consistantly attacked, especially along the line.
The reality is this, the Giants committed to the run and beat us up.
The Cards, Saints, Dallas and Philly never really committed to the run, or they bailed on it, which was a huge misake. I see it as our weakness, (it just happens to be the offensive weakness on all but 1 of these teams)

My concern is when we finally come up against a team that will run 30+ times a game on us with talented backs with a functional passing attack.
Fortunately for us there are only few teams that are run heavy anymore.
Really, there are only 4 games on our schedule that can legitamately attack this run defense weakness.
Dallas, Giants, and perhaps the Rams(sucky D) and Pittsburgh.
(I dont believe the 49rs have a balanced attack)
Fortunately all of these games are at home.
If the fans cause false starts, it is hard to commit to the run.

I am starting to think that Jason Taylor will soon become a situational pass rusher, if we continue to do well without him in the passing attack since he is a liability in Run Defense.