"We don't have enough talent on defense"

[b0ng]

I've heard this excuse to keep Smith a lot. I am not buying that anymore. I think we have talent enough on defense to be able to do whatever his real philosophy is. We had to have a coach feel that his job was already foregone before he started dialing up more pressure.

I think that there is enough stud-level talent and that there are plenty of players who can fill in adequately enough to make this defense a whole lot more of a handful for opposing offenses.

Anybody with me and think that the "No Talent" excuse is NOT a valid defense for Smith's terrible units for the first 9 weeks of the season?

[Hervoyel]

Originally Posted by b0ng

I've heard this excuse to keep Smith a lot. I am not buying that anymore. I think we have talent enough on defense to be able to do whatever his real philosophy is. We had to have a coach feel that his job was already foregone before he started dialing up more pressure.

I think that there is enough stud-level talent and that there are plenty of players who can fill in adequately enough to make this defense a whole lot more of a handful for opposing offenses.

Anybody with me and think that the "No Talent" excuse is a valid defense for Smith's terrible units for the first 9 weeks of the season?

The last four weeks is definitive proof that this team, with these players can field an effective and aggressive defense. It's as much an indictment of Smith as it is a credit. Sure he's got them getting after it now and that's great. Golf clap for Richard Smith for finally getting it. How come he couldn't get it in the first 10 weeks of the season?

Dunta coming back was big but it wasn't the be-all, end-all of defensive transformations and besides, Dunta's been beat plenty since he got back. It's not like he's 100% his old self again. No, Richard Smith ran a timid defense for most of the year, again, because he lacks the stones to take the necessary chances. He won't put his guys in a position to make plays and be successful.

He needs to learn this lesson or hit the road once and for all. Next year we're going to probably be starting a rookie safety of some sort and possibly a rookie linebacker at some point. This is not an excuse for Richard Smith to get all timid again. If he tries to reign it all in until the youngsters are up to speed then he'll cost us games.

You're 100% right. We can play with this bunch. Nobody has all the players they want in the NFL except for Pro Bowl teams. Since Smith will never coach one of those he'd better learn how to make chicken salad out of what he's given.

[BuffaloglennTX]

Originally Posted by b0ng

I've heard this excuse to keep Smith a lot. I am not buying that anymore. I think we have talent enough on defense to be able to do whatever his real philosophy is. We had to have a coach feel that his job was already foregone before he started dialing up more pressure.

I think that there is enough stud-level talent and that there are plenty of players who can fill in adequately enough to make this defense a whole lot more of a handful for opposing offenses.

Anybody with me and think that the "No Talent" excuse is a valid defense for Smith's terrible units for the first 9 weeks of the season?

I'm not - they still need a pass rusher opposite Mario, more athletic safeties, and more strength at defensive tackle. I do believe that Richard Smith was too tentative early on in the season, but I also believe he has learned his lesson and having Reeves improve his play along with #23 returning, has the confidence to do what he has done the last several games. It's working, and if you look back, there were flashes of it earlier this season but it was not consistent (first Tenn game, first Indy game).

[jerek]

We still need to improve our secretary, add a competent LB and D-lineman but I'd pretty much echo what Herv said ... I'd fault Smith for our poor performances more than I'd fault the guys in uniform.

[infantrycak]

Originally Posted by jerek

We still need to improve our secretary

What, poor dictation is resulting in the delay of game penalties?

[Thorn]

Originally Posted by jerek

We still need to improve our secretary, add a competent LB and D-lineman but I'd pretty much echo what Herv said ... I'd fault Smith for our poor performances more than I'd fault the guys in uniform.

The defense has a secretary? LOL

[b0ng]

Originally Posted by BuffaloglennTX

I'm not - they still need a pass rusher opposite Mario, more athletic safeties, and more strength at defensive tackle. I do believe that Richard Smith was too tentative early on in the season, but I also believe he has learned his lesson and having Reeves improve his play along with #23 returning, has the confidence to do what he has done the last several games. It's working, and if you look back, there were flashes of it earlier this season but it was not consistent (first Tenn game, first Indy game).

Richard Smith was entirely too tentative last season up until we basically got knocked out by Cleveland, and then proceeded to dial up some great defensive games like 5 or 6 times down the stretch. We thought he "learned his lesson" then but he brought back the ugly monster that it was at the beginning of last season back.

We're never going to have dudes who would be starters on every other NFL team at every position. I'm just really ready for a fresh set of eyes to put on our defense and to come up with something other than what we've had the past 3 years. It's not like he's gotta come up with a brand new pass rush for the Steelers. We're ranked in the bottom barrel in practically every defensive category you can come up with a stat for despite how great they've played since they were mathmatecally eliminated from the playoffs. If you can raise us to be just "mediocre" we'll mow through most NFL teams.

[texasguy346]

Originally Posted by Thorn

The defense has a secretary? LOL

Haven't you ever heard of the Secretary of Defense? I'm guessing he wants us to get Robert Gates to take Richard Smith's job. You think teams were afraid of LaBeau's defense wait till they see our Gitmo defense.

[Scooter]

Originally Posted by Thorn

The defense has a secretary? LOL

great idea jerek, we need to bring in deacon jones to give this team some fire!

[BuffaloglennTX]

Originally Posted by Thorn

The defense has a secretary? LOL

I remember the "Minister of Defense"!

[HOU-TEX]

Originally Posted by Thorn

The defense has a secretary? LOL

Well, someone's gotta be the scapegoat. We might as well make one up because it's looking as if SmithDC is making his annual run to keep his job.

Jerek, were you eyeing your secretary as you were typing? Aaahhm, I'm tellin.

[jerek]

Originally Posted by infantrycak

What, poor dictation is resulting in the delay of game penalties?

Someone has to be held responsible for not copying the playbooks correctly.

Originally Posted by HOU-TEX

Jerek, were you eyeing your secretary as you were typing? Aaahhm, I'm tellin.

While that would make for a hilarious Freudian slip, I work in a windowless office and have no secretary. Sorry but I'll have to let the joke die with that.

[HJam72]

Why am I confused and thinking about cheerleaders?

[Double Barrel]

I'm not a fan of RS, and I'm certainly not making excuses (but I have to give him props for the last couple of games!)....but...we still need some talent on our defense. As mentioned above, we need another pass rusher and some secondary personel. We've got some good pieces, but we still need depth and a couple more playmakers on the starting 11.

[Ole Miss Texan]

I don't think that it's so much of a lack of talent as it is a lack of maturity. We have a lot of talent but they havn't developed yet. I'm going to mark down Mario, T. Johnson, and Demeco down as guys we've seen as developed quickly or peaked (bad choice of words). I see T. Johnson as improved but he probably won't get much better, Mario/Demeco- are studs. Guys like Amobi, Okam, Adibi, Diles, Bennett, Dunta, Molden, etc. have showed us plenty of potential but they aren't there yet as pros. I put Dunta back in there b/c of his injury. All these guys are people we've drafted that have so much potential and talent... they just need some time to develop into true professional players.

Note: This post isn't one in favor of keeping or getting rid of Rick Smith. The same would be true for most coaches/coordinators. Some coaches can get their players to develop better or faster than others, some can get their players to play better than others. It's up to Gary Kubiak and Richard Smith to find that guy for our defense.

[ChampionTexan]

I don't see why it's either or.

Yeah - the defense has improved, and a more aggressive mindset has probably had something to do with it, but if we took the yardage stats from the 4-game winning streak and extended them to the first 14 games of the season, we'd still be only 14th in rushing D, 18th in Passing D, and 17th in overall D. While it's just barely, the last time I checked, 17th is still in the bottom half of a 32 team league.

In my mind, while Richard Smith's not the worst DC in NFL history - heck, he's probably not the worst DC in NFL present, he can be improved upon. I think you can also say that about some of the defensive personnel too, because if the only problem in weeks 1-12 was the defensive philosophy, and we've fixed that, we should be better than 17th post-fix.

I don't know if Richard Smith has saved his job. Yeah, I would like to see him move on, but who replaces him is far more important than just fire him or don't fire him. Even when we know who our '09 DC is going to be - even if it's my first choice (and I don't know who that is), or RS is back, you can't know if it was a good move until we see results. That is to say if we hire (fill in the blank with Mike Nolan, Marvin Lewis, Jim Johnson, Mike Waufle or whoever you like best), and we finish in the bottom half defensively next year - I'm not happy. If we bring back Richard Smith and finish top 10 - I'm ecstatic. Any praising, complaining, predicting, celebrating, commiserating or whining that happens in the interim will be meaningless.

[Goldensilence]

Curious to see Marcus' take on this.

[Marcus]

Originally Posted by b0ng

We had to have a coach feel that his job was already foregone before he started dialing up more pressure.

Did Richard Smith himself tell you that, or is that something that you chose to pull out of your (_!_) in order to make your...point? You have no idea what he's feeling.

What the truth is, is that some of you are indeed looking for a scapegoat. a fall guy, to hang (fire) to make yourselves feel better because they didn't make the playoffs. Someone's got to burn for that. Fire Richard Smith, and all is right in the world.

You are just looking for someone to blame.

We probably now do have enough talent on the defense to compete. but that "talent" (shall we run off the names?) has to be developed into actual players, which takes time. Smith is being more aggressive lately, but I'm not going to pretend to know why, because I have no idea why or what the circumstances are. It could be that he's actually learning what works best, and it could be that he's actually developing into a better coordinator himself. He, the other coaches, and the players, don't sit off in separate rooms by themselves. They have to work together as a team, develop as a team, learn as team, become a team.

They seem to me, like they are on the right track. This so-called theory that he just plays conservative or vanilla because he's afraid he might lose his job is nothing but steaming horse****.

Now, I don't know if Kubiak is going to fire Richard Smith at the end of the season. He made the comment on the radio today saying that the defense had become more aggressive. He didn't say why, and more than likely won't. But I"ll go out on a limb and predict he's got his mind already made up, one way or the other.

[Specnatz]

Originally Posted by Marcus

Did Richard Smith himself tell you that, or is that something that you chose to pull out of your (_!_) in order to make your...point? You have no idea what he's feeling.

What the truth is, is that some of you are indeed looking for a scapegoat. a fall guy, to hang (fire) to make yourselves feel better because they didn't make the playoffs. Someone's got to burn for that. Fire Richard Smith, and all is right in the world.

You are just looking for someone to blame.

We probably now do have enough talent on the defense to compete. but that "talent" (shall we run off the names?) has to be developed into actual players, which takes time. Smith is being more aggressive lately, but I'm not going to pretend to know why, because I have no idea why or what the circumstances are. It could be that he's actually learning what works best, and it could be that he's actually developing into a better coordinator himself. He, the other coaches, and the players, don't sit off in separate rooms by themselves. They have to work together as a team, develop as a team, learn as team, become a team.

They seem to me, like they are on the right track. This so-called theory that he just plays conservative or vanilla because he's afraid he might lose his job is nothing but steaming horse****.

Now, I don't know if Kubiak is going to fire Richard Smith at the end of the season. He made the comment on the radio today saying that the defense had become more aggressive. He didn't say why, and more than likely won't. But I"ll go out on a limb and predict he's got his mind already made up, one way or the other.

Look at the bolded Marcus, maybe you need to relax and take a breath. A lot of people are wondering out loud as to why the defense has all of a sudden become more aggressive. Before then it was back off 10 yards on a 3rd and 5 to go and watch the first down happen. 4th Down Defense is the worst in the league? 9-10 90% Third down defense is not spectacular either. We have allowed only 184 attempts on 3rd down with a success rate of 39.6%, which means we sucked on first and second down considering where we are ranked on total first down plays, 19th.

It is not that we are looking for someone to blame, the defense and turnovers are the worst stats on this team. If they improve this team would have a better record.

[Double Barrel]

Originally Posted by Marcus

Did Richard Smith himself tell you that, or is that something that you chose to pull out of your (_!_) in order to make your...point? You have no idea what he's feeling.

What the truth is, is that some of you are indeed looking for a scapegoat. a fall guy, to hang (fire) to make yourselves feel better because they didn't make the playoffs. Someone's got to burn for that. Fire Richard Smith, and all is right in the world.

You are just looking for someone to blame.

And some of us just saw a god-awful defense ranked almost last in every category and figured that the leader of the defense - you know, the guy behind the schemes, plays, and talent evaluation - should be held accountable.

You can assume that people want a scapegoat, or you can understand that there are many reasons behind the various opinions of fans.

Besides, the "blame" for not making the playoffs could (if you wanted to) be laid squarely at the feet of our fumbling/interception throwing QBs. So perhaps it's all a matter of individual perspective at the end of the day.

Personally, I see lots of reasons for missing the playoffs, and it is not one man's fault. JMO