Defense is legit

[WmHBonney]

First, Antonio Gibson is hardly a "no name" RB. He is legit. Second, if we are going to upgrade the Dline, then we might as well get a LB or big safety in there because we drop the Dline into coverage all of the time anyway. Why is Al Woods dropping into coverage?

 

[classicaaron]

defense is ok at best. people need to look at more than the score. their point total isnt very high but this mentality of letting an offense do whatever they want until they get to the red zone needs to stop. holding teams to field goals all the time doesnt help when the offense cant score. they need to worry about the field position battle. can they ever just force a 3 and out. cant we ever have a team punt within their own 20. when our offense struggles as bad as they are they need to get some 50 yard drives for a score instead of relying on them to go 80 yards every time. the whole mentality of the defense is broke. seems like coaching scheme more so than the players. although zero pass rush is a big problem.

 

[Seattle_Tsunami]

Washington ran almost 80 play. You need to see the snap count?

Identical to last week, the game with all the low snap counts. So yes, keasley45, let's see the snap counts before jumping to conclusions.

80 plays is 80 plays. Greater than 2x TOP deficit is what it is. There are no conclusions to jump to.

Yeah, I don’t know how there is any mystery in this.

 

[keasley45]

defense is ok at best. people need to look at more than the score. their point total isnt very high but this mentality of letting an offense do whatever they want until they get to the red zone needs to stop. holding teams to field goals all the time doesnt help when the offense cant score. they need to worry about the field position battle. can they ever just force a 3 and out. cant we ever have a team punt within their own 20. when our offense struggles as bad as they are they need to get some 50 yard drives for a score instead of relying on them to go 80 yards every time. the whole mentality of the defense is broke. seems like coaching scheme more so than the players. although zero pass rush is a big problem.

Its bend but dont break because thats the shape they have to assume to compensate for no rush. When the field is condensed, they dont get as stretched, and the rush has a better chance at working. Its not that they WANT to give up long drives. Its that they can either sell out to compensate for the poor DL, or play solid behind the DL, try to get opportunistic stops, and take advantage of a shortened field.

The only reason we even had a chance last night is because the defense forced quite a few 3 and outs in the 2nd half.

And i think the score matters a lot.

 

[AgentDib]

defense is ok at best. people need to look at more than the score. their point total isnt very high but this mentality of letting an offense do whatever they want until they get to the red zone needs to stop. holding teams to field goals all the time doesnt help when the offense cant score.

Expectations should be adjusted based on the roster. We are 5th in offensive spending with $85.1m cap and are spending much less on defense ($56.3m). So the defensive strategy should take into account that we don't have the pieces to play that more aggressive style. The defense as a unit is outperforming their paychecks.

I do agree we should continue to mix in more man coverage with Reed back on the right side and Jones looking OK last night. We just don't have the defensive personnel to win games 9-6 this year.

 

[Boycie]

Think how they would be if they didn't have to play a double header every week.

This is a great point^!

 

[Yxes1122]

defense is ok at best. people need to look at more than the score. their point total isnt very high but this mentality of letting an offense do whatever they want until they get to the red zone needs to stop. holding teams to field goals all the time doesnt help when the offense cant score. they need to worry about the field position battle. can they ever just force a 3 and out. cant we ever have a team punt within their own 20. when our offense struggles as bad as they are they need to get some 50 yard drives for a score instead of relying on them to go 80 yards every time. the whole mentality of the defense is broke. seems like coaching scheme more so than the players. although zero pass rush is a big problem.

This defense would look a lot better if they weren't on the field 2-3x longer than the offense week in, and week out.

Time of Possession This Season:

Wk1: Sea 24:13 - Ind 35:47
Wk2: Sea 22:42 - Ten 44:33
Wk3: Sea 24:07 - Min 35:53
Wk4: Sea 28:19 - SF 31:41
Wk5: Sea 26:57 - LA 33:03
Wk6: Sea 29:37 - Pit 37:33
Wk7: Sea 27:11 - NO 32:49
Wk8: Sea 28:31 - Jax 31:29
Wk9: Sea 20:51 - GB 39:09
Wk10: Sea 19:32 - Arz 40:22
Wk11: Sea 18:20 - LA 41:40

And stopping teams on third down affects this as well, but the naked eye says that in most of these contests this offense is perpetually hanging the defense out to dry. It's like watching the 2014 NFCCG over and over again without Beast Mode and Jon Ryan there to save the day.

The 2021 Defense isn't the LOB, but it is far from the reason we are a bottom 5 team this year. Russ's hand chosen OC is bad. Pre Russ Injury, the offense was exactly the same as the 2nd half of 2020 offense. No rhythm, no consistency, and completely reliant on random explosives to carry them. Post Russ Injury, we don't even have that. At this point, better to put in Geno until the final two minutes of the game because the 2 minute drill is the only good thing Russ does for this offense.

It's frustrating watching the 5th highest paid QB in the league (with a cap hit 2x higher than the next highest player) bring so little to an offense after hearing him complain all offseason. This is the Let Russ Cook offense. Built by Russ, for Russ. With a Pass Percentage of 70% in the last 3 games. This isn't run first, this isn't Pete stifling the offense. This is Russell Wilson, with the team on his back, and floundering despite getting exactly what he wanted.

But yeah, Pete's the problem. (Not saying you said this, it's just the prevailing narrative I seem to see)

 

[Chapow]

The defenses is nowhere close to being legit. They are awful. They can’t get off the field. They can’t tackle. They can’t get near enough pressure on the QB. Etc,,, How are people still defending that unit? Another no name running back goes for over 100 yet again. They are as much to blame for the lopsided TOP as the offense.

Maybe people are defending that unit because they are giving up the 6th fewest points per game of any defense in the league.

Meanwhile, the offense is going 3 and out over and over and over again, until they finallly get 1 first down before punting again. Our offense is straight up dysfunctional. They are a steaming pile of dog $h!t that can't even execute the simplest of play calls. It is honestly some of the worst football I've ever seen in my life.

The defense is absolutely not the problem. There are only 5 teams in the league giving up fewer points per game than we are. If we had even a remotely competent offense, this team would have a winning record right now.

The defense is absolutely part of the problem. 6th in the league for points scored? That’s because teams have numerous 7 to 8 minute drives on them. Other teams don’t score more on them because they run out of time, not because they can’t.

I do agree that choosing to play "bend but don't break" defense is part of the time of possesion problem. I just happen to think that the complete and utter ineptitude of the offense is a far, far bigger part of the problem.

Washington had 10 possesions last night (not including taking a knee at the end of the 1st half and the end of the game). Our defense forced a 3 and out on 4 of those possesions, and gave up only 1 first down before quickly forcing a punt on another. So they they got a very quick stop and forced a punt on half of their possesions. Each and every time, our offense responded with a quick 3 and out of their own, forcing the defense right back out on the field. At one point in the 2nd half, our defense forced 3 3 and outs in a row. Our offense responded with their own 3 and out every time.

Washington's longest drive of the game (by time) resulted in a field goal. Their second longest drive of the game resulted in a turnover on downs after our defense got a stop in the the red zone (and btw, this was in the 4th quarter when our defense was absolutely exhausted from being on the field for the vast majority of the game). Their 3rd longest drive of the game resulted in an interception. One of their TD drives was a short 3 minute drive (after our offense gave them excellent field position by fumbling), and the other was a 5 minute drive. Not excessively long by any means.

Meanwhile, our offense actually had 11 possesions. One more than Washington. They had 7 3 and outs (including 5 in a row at one point), a 2 play :48 second drive where they fumbled and gave Washington excellent field position, and another drive where they were only able to muster 1 first down before quickly punting yet again. Both of their scoring drives were under 3 minutes. The longest possesion of the entire game for our offense was 2:39.

The offense literally can not sustain a drive. They are forcing our defense to be on the field for the vast majority of the game. Even in a game where our offense had more possesions than the other team, and our defense forced a very quick punt on half of the other teams possesions, our defense was still on the field for over two thirds of the game. Our offense couldn't be screwing over our defense any harder if they tried.

 

[kidhawk]

Don't get me wrong, I don't believe our defense is elite or world beaters by any means, but for the past month or so, I think they have been playing solid football. The first part of the season, they were atrocious, but once we made some changes to the DBs, they've played pretty solid ball. I believe if our offense actually could just play anywhere near their potential, we'd be all hyped about our playoff hopes and how far we can go instead of talking about off season moves so early.

 

[sutz]

Don't get me wrong, I don't believe our defense is elite or world beaters by any means, but for the past month or so, I think they have been playing solid football. The first part of the season, they were atrocious, but once we made some changes to the DBs, they've played pretty solid ball. I believe if our offense actually could just play anywhere near their potential, we'd be all hyped about our playoff hopes and how far we can go instead of talking about off season moves so early.

Agreed. If the offense could have played anywhere near average ball, we'd be at least hovering around .500 win/loss. At Thanksgiving, if you're at .500 or above, you're right in the playoff hunt. As it is, we'd need to win out and have a good team have an epic meltdown to even sniff being in some obscure tie-breaker to even be close to the 7 seed.

I've been saying this for a couple of months, at least. The defense improved, the offense regressed. No defense can play 35-40 minutes a game week after week and maintain their abilities and skill levels.

 

[LTH]

this^^^^