Improving the defense

So I look on nfl.com and see that our defense is last in total yards, passing defense, and 3rd down conversion %. That's like not very good. We are giving up 350 yards through the air, giving up 68% of third downs, and 478 total yards per game.

Instead of saying we suck here's what I would do immediately to improve the defense.

1) Pull CC Brown and put in Simmons. Simmons hits hard and already has a pick this year which is more than I can say for Brown.

2) Get Mario to lose some weight. It looks like he has no quickness at all and carrying around 290 or so can't help.

3) Play Antwan Peek more. He's not my favorite Texan but he's our best pass rusher by far. He either gets pressure or causes a hold when he's rushing the passer.

4) Blitz Dunta more. He is really good at blitzing and we have proven that even with him in coverage we will get lit up.

Those are a few things I would do. Add your own.

Good post!

1) I agree. CC Brown gets lit up more than paris hiltons crack pipe.

2) I don't know. He's still a rookie, and a DE at that. He's gone up against some good OL lines..eagles, colts. Next sunday I look for his first sack.

3) I agree. He rushed the QB a lot during the preseason. I liked what I saw from him. He plays with a lot of intensity.

4) I agree during the right coverage situations. I remember a few times last year when he did real well blitzing, and it seemed like it was at the perfect times too.

I agree with most of that, except I think Babin has stood out equally if not more to me than Peek at this point. But then again I think Babin's getting more snaps, so I'm all for seeing Peek getting some more game time.

wags said:

That's like not very good.

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That understatement made me spew beer over my keyboard. Thanks buddy.

Tell it to the coaches, guys. I don't think they wil listen to anyone.

Ibar_Harry said:

Tell it to the coaches, guys. I don't think they wil listen to anyone.

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Why not? Everyone hear was saying keep Mario at DE and Kubes said alright.. and did so..

They need to blitz more period. And removing Greenwood from the field wouldnt hurt anything. He cant tackle and gets blown away in coverage, whats the point of having him in?

wags said:

So I look on nfl.com and see that our defense is last in total yards, passing defense, and 3rd down conversion %. That's like not very good. We are giving up 350 yards through the air, giving up 68% of third downs, and 478 total yards per game.

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We also played two of the top 3 offensive teams in the NFL.

wags said:

Instead of saying we suck here's what I would do immediately to improve the defense.

1) Pull CC Brown and put in Simmons. Simmons hits hard and already has a pick this year which is more than I can say for Brown.

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That might be a solution, who knows...... but Simmons is a 9 year vet, and that was only his second interception. & as far as Brown getting beat in coverage, I know a couple of times, he was the guy making the tackle, but it wasn't his man that caught the ball. Like that touchdown in the endzone, where the commentator was like, " & where's the safety..... he's not even in the picture" That was McLeon's man....... Sanders' man had run a post to the endzone, and was there much sooner than the tightend. Sander's appeared to slow down, and stop(zone maybe) and CC did what looked to be the right decision, and covered the WR. Had the WR caught the ball, CC would have been in the right spot to keep him out of the endzone.

The same thing happened on the otherside, Marvin Harrisson took Dunta into the endzone, and Earl covered over the top...... except Harrison was actually in the endzone.

The only person who could've done anything different, was Greenwood. there was a second WR that came underneath, moving from Peyton's right to left. Greenwood decided to follow him..... not very well, but he "covered" him. Demeco was on Peyton's left, and moved further left, to cover Addai in the flats. Had Greenwood stayed with the tightend(because Manning stared him down, patted the ball, all those tell-tale things) the ball would've gone to the WR on the underneath coverage, who was headed straight for Sanders & Brown. He might have got into the endzone anyway, but Greenwood trailing him wouldn't have changed that one bit.

That was only the third time the Colts ran that play.... they scored with it twice...... Greenwood screwed up every time.

wags said:

2) Get Mario to lose some weight. It looks like he has no quickness at all and carrying around 290 or so can't help.

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& that would kill the reason for us taking him #1 overall. We didn't draft Dwight Freeney or JevonKearse... This is the next BRuceSmith/ReggieWhite it is his size/strength to speed ratio that should give us mismatches up and down the line.

wags said:

3) Play Antwan Peek more. He's not my favorite Texan but he's our best pass rusher by far. He either gets pressure or causes a hold when he's rushing the passer.

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Kalu made some pretty good plays for us..... Especially against the run.... I'd love to see more Antwan, but where?? We should have kept his weight down, and left him at WiLL...... he can't be any worse than Greenwood.

wags said:

4) Blitz Dunta more. He is really good at blitzing and we have proven that even with him in coverage we will get lit up.

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two really good points, I can't argue with this.

wags said:

Those are a few things I would do. Add your own.

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The first thing I would do, is if I notice one of my DL men has an advantage over an OL I would keep him there, and work on that weekness. TJ was out muscle-ing(sp) the Colts RG everytime he lined up against him. It was only a matter of time, before TJ created a permanent whole in that spot. But we change our Tackles like we do our DEs..... TJ usually plays the strongside.

Personally, I think we had three tackles step up and make a case for a starting job....... TJ, Thomas Johnson, and Anthony Weaver looked like a good tackle Sunday. Two weeks ago, we're looking for the two that sucked the least, this week all 4 guys played well(including SethPayne) and that's a good thing.... I'd hate to have to pick two guys to take the starter's snaps in practice, but if it were up to me, TJ & Weaver would prepare starting today as if they'll start against Washington like they did Sunday. Mario & Babin would be my ends....

I would also consider moving Simmons to Will, Peek to Sam. & if PBuch is good to go, I'd threathen Dunta with the bench.... I don't think I would go so far as to actually start Buchanon over Robinson, but I'd threaten to.

One of the things that puzzled me about the Indy game was how little time Peek saw out on the field. He has played well against the Colts in the past, and he's by far our quickest & best pass rushing DE. Part of his lack of playing time has to do with Indy using a no huddle approach on offense which limited the number of defensive substitutions. However, it seemed as if the coaches were trying to confuse Manning by pulling Babin out of his 3 point stance, and stood him up a few yards back like a LB. He generally shifted back down to the line just before the snap. I think Peek would have been much more effective in this particular role since he actually has the ability to drop into coverage or rush the passer leaving Peyton guessing as to which he would be doing on any particular play. One thing is for sure and that is our defense lacks alot of depth in the secondary & linebackers. Aside from Ryans & DRob I don't think we have much in the way of starting caliber talent.

Maybe you need to take into consideration the two offenses you had just faced. The Colts are just plain scary good, and you had to know that McNabb was coming out to prove a point about last year. From an outsiders perspective, I think your problem is more of lack of pressure on the opposing Qb, than on the secondary themselves. It is not to say you have an upper echelon secondary, but leave any NFL caliber QB in the pocket with lots of time and they will shred Pro Bowl corners. Could you argue that Peyton and Donovan are not top tier QB's who still play well even when pressured? Now picture them against your secondary with no pressure. Williams looks really slow to me, pretty strong, but painfully slow for a DE. If your down lineman cannot get pressure alone, you need to send LB's or once again, secondary shredding time. Oh, you shouldn't even count the Colts game, your damned with Manning if you blitz, damned if you don't. I guess my point is not to be so tough on the D given who you faced so far. The next two games should be a better barometer of your talent level. I really don't think two games is a fair assessment for your team this season, and especially not when considering who you faced. Oh, besides D pressure making your secondary better, your O-line actually looked a little better than last year, except now you have those two big injuries.

I haven't seen anyone mention this but...I don't think Meco got enough credit for stalemating Addai on the goaline...Earl almost pushed him in for the touchdown, but luckily he got the strip...But that play wouldn't have been made possible withouth Meco...I think he's going to be special...

I posted this in another thread but:

Here's an interesting fact:

I don't know if you knew this but...If you have the means go back and watch the Colts game...Mario would have had his first sack when Manning slid down, but he jumped over him and greenwood came in and touched him and got credit for the sack...Rookie Mistake...

1-10-IND18 (14:55) (Shotgun) P.Manning sacked at IND 18 for 0 yards (M.Greenwood).

http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/playby...060917_HOU@IND

Chawky1 said:

Maybe you need to take into consideration the two offenses you had just faced...
......but leave any NFL caliber QB in the pocket with lots of time and they will shred Pro Bowl corners. Could you argue that Peyton and Donovan are not top tier QB's who still play well even when pressured?

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Thanks for chiming in, but we've gone over these games and have concluded our secondary sucks.... I've timed every snap McNabb took, most of his passes were under two seconds, two or three were 2.8 seconds, and anything longer than that, & he was being chased out of the pocket, or threw the ball away.

I haven't timed Manning, but just eyeballing, it looked pretty close to the same. I find it odd, that Mario can chase down Addai, but couldn't catch Peyton.

Personally, I think Mario is everything we thought he'd be, and then some. Our secondary can't cover for 2.8 seconds, you can't blame the pass rush.

Chawky1 said:

I guess my point is not to be so tough on the D given who you faced so far. The next two games should be a better barometer of your talent level. I really don't think two games is a fair assessment for your team this season, and especially not when considering who you faced. Oh, besides D pressure making your secondary better, your O-line actually looked a little better than last year, except now you have those two big injuries.

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Again, thanks for chiming in....... hope you guys do well. With your new reciever....... sounds like you guys can get real scary in a hurry.

eric138 said:

Why not? Everyone hear was saying keep Mario at DE and Kubes said alright.. and did so..

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Because Mario finally said to Kubiak, I want to stay at one spot and get comfortable. Not because of what outsider were saying.

1) Sit C.C Brown
2) Trade Seth Payne for a quality second corner. Then weaver moves inside and start either Babin or Peak outside.
3) Start thinking about next years draft class bc we are going to be picking high again.

blockhead83 said:

I agree with most of that, except I think Babin has stood out equally if not more to me than Peek at this point. But then again I think Babin's getting more snaps, so I'm all for seeing Peek getting some more game time.

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I was going to start a thread about Babin because I've noticed this dude has gotten the closest to a QB than any of our DL.

I want him to play more just for a change.

El Tejano said:

I was going to start a thread about Babin because I've noticed this dude has gotten the closest to a QB than any of our DL.

I want him to play more just for a change.

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I think he started against the Colts, and got more snaps than MArio or anyone else they were saying was a starter.

texasguy346 said:

One of the things that puzzled me about the Indy game was how little time Peek saw out on the field. He has played well against the Colts in the past, and he's by far our quickest & best pass rushing DE. Part of his lack of playing time has to do with Indy using a no huddle approach on offense which limited the number of defensive substitutions. However, it seemed as if the coaches were trying to confuse Manning by pulling Babin out of his 3 point stance, and stood him up a few yards back like a LB. He generally shifted back down to the line just before the snap. I think Peek would have been much more effective in this particular role since he actually has the ability to drop into coverage or rush the passer leaving Peyton guessing as to which he would be doing on any particular play. One thing is for sure and that is our defense lacks alot of depth in the secondary & linebackers. Aside from Ryans & DRob I don't think we have much in the way of starting caliber talent.

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He pulled a groin in the beginning of the 3rd quarter and didnt come back in

mario doesnt look as fast as he did in college, so maybe losing 10-15 would be a good thing

Peak is the elephant in the 43 defense and has to work at the position.The rest of the defense has to compensate to fill the void he makes when he leaves.Mario is going have a hard year getting up to NFL STRENTH!Most big DEs don't show the first year and I think he is still a season away before he starts to dominate.You guys just expect to much from Mario.I just want the guy to improve on his whole game.The secondary is another story..

I dont think Mario has to worry about strenght (35 reps on the bench press), its speed that worries me. You really cant expect a guy to be big enough to play DT and quick enough to speed rush. I think we have to commit him to the DE position, get him to lose a few pounds and start dominationg some right tackles.

run-david-run said:

I dont think Mario has to worry about strenght (35 reps on the bench press), its speed that worries me. You really cant expect a guy to be big enough to play DT and quick enough to speed rush. I think we have to commit him to the DE position, get him to lose a few pounds and start dominationg some right tackles.

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I'm not even sure it's his speed. IMO, his reacton time coming off the snap of the ball is way too slow. I'm not the kind that'll go back and time him coming off the ball, so I'll just leave it as a personal observation. He'll get better. I'm almost sure of it.

PS. I'd like to see him stay at the DE position. I wouldn't be against him moving from strong to weakside every once in a while.