Kyler Murray didn't look dysfunctional against Minnesota. Daniel Jones looked like a world beater against Jacksonville a week ago. I'm starting to move away from the "its the competition" idea as a partial explanation for the defensive reversal because.........
People that openly criticized the defense three weeks ago were not wrong.
The only explanation for the complete reversal is coaching. The defensive line simply does not look like the same unit. The coaches did something to turn it all around. It may be the best coaching feat I have witnessed in the 50 years I have been watching pro football.
Can Bruce Irvin make that much difference?
Anyone know the status of the safety that hobbled off? I think he is one of the key parts for all of this.
I would contribute it to a few things:
1. The defensive line is running more of thier traditional alignments with less two gapping and more single gapping, this makes the D-line more aggressive and less "reactive" against the run, saw a perfect example of this today when Bruce Irvin had enough of Daniel Jone's bs and threw him into Barkley getting a huge TFL.
2. The secondary is playing MUCH better, Ryan Neal has been a huge addition and it just looks like they are communicating better, Tariq might already be scaring QBs to throw his way, he didn't get much thrown at him and I think he only gave up one catch.
3. The pass rushers are set out wider, I think this gives them more speed to beat tackles to the point of attack- DT has looked much improved and Chenna is feasting as well
. nobody will want him when we discard him. i wonder if teams will laugh at us still playing barton after 8 horrific games. he's gotta be PFF's worst graded player so far. dammit, pete.
