The Defense of the Future

[kerouac9]

One interesting (and positive note) on Zombie Joey Porter:

According to Football Outsiders, Porter was T9th in the NFL last season in holding penalities drawn. Had as many as Dwight Freeney (4). I don't know if that's because he's still good; I think it's more likely that it was a so-called "veteran move" where he can work the refs and the angles a little bit.

 

[Buckybird]

With all the wailing and gnashing of teeth going on about how our defense is doomed, I maintain what I said in my earlier post. In a game, (that had more meaning than any of the other pre-season games), our defense, (despite only having played limited snaps together), acquitted itself well enough for me to believe that as the season progresses, we will do just fine. This WAS Phillip Rivers, and this was the San Diego offense. Both are more than solid, and we handled them quite well-----(and the coach even agreed with that in his post game presser).

we were on pace to give up 34 points. That doesn't = D acquitting itself well to me.

I agree cheese & until edge rushers are found, things will never change, regardless.

This makes 2 weeks in a row Fish has stated this & I told him last week I wasn't buying it. Lets look:

Rodgers 9-12 1TD 0Int 7pts in 3 series

Rivers 18-28-198 2Tds 1Int 17pts at the half


IMO we're getting torched thru the air an alarming rate when the starters are in the game. Another thing I've noticed is we've basically had no answer when GB & SD went to no huddle or the hurry up offense. We might be slightly better this year defensively but IMO it won't be by much.

 

[AzStevenCal]

I agree cheese & until edge rushers are found, things will never change, regardless.

This makes 2 weeks in a row Fish has stated this & I told him last week I wasn't buying it. Lets look:

Rodgers 9-12 1TD 0Int 7pts in 3 series

Rivers 18-28-198 2Tds 1Int 17pts at the half


IMO we're getting torched thru the air an alarming rate when the starters are in the game. Another thing I've noticed is we've basically had no answer when GB & SD went to no huddle or the hurry up offense. We might be slightly better this year defensively but IMO it won't be by much.

Sign me up for that! Except, I'm not all that frustrated by the awareness that this D will only be slightly improved from last year. I think we made some net positive moves but a brand new DC is going to need some time and some weapons to completely turn around what has been probably the worst all around defense for the past several years. As long as I see improvement, I'm willing to give him and the organization a little room here.

Steve

 

[Buckybird]

Sign me up for that! Except, I'm not all that frustrated by the awareness that this D will only be slightly improved from last year. I think we made some net positive moves but a brand new DC is going to need some time and some weapons to completely turn around what has been probably the worst all around defense for the past several years. As long as I see improvement, I'm willing to give him and the organization a little room here.

Steve

Steve, you can only scheme so much & thats why I say it will improve slightly. The 3-4 D is very difficult to run without the horses & IMO we are missing the most important pieces...edge rushers.

 

[Duckjake]

Steve, you can only scheme so much & thats why I say it will improve slightly. The 3-4 D is very difficult to run without the horses & IMO we are missing the most important pieces...edge rushers.

I don't think the D improves at all now for 2011. Wilson and Adams at less than 100% and Toler out. These injuries offset any gains the D might have picked up from an improved Offense.

It's still a very promising defense for 2012, 2013 and 2014.

 

[Cheesebeef]

I don't think the D improves at all now for 2011. Wilson and Adams at less than 100% and Toler out. These injuries offset any gains the D might have picked up from an improved Offense.

agreed. think about it. with an already very suspect D, we've lost what most people believed are two of our better players in Wilson and Toler.

It's still a very promising defense for 2012, 2013 and 2014.

once they get an edge rusher they will be... but we've been saying that for HOW long?

 

[D-Dogg]

You say that every year.

Yeah but this year it's going to be different.

 

[D-Dogg]

once they get an edge rusher they will be... but we've been saying that for HOW long?

Hey, it took us 20 years but we have a TE.

 

[Cheesebeef]

Hey, it took us 20 years but we have a TE.

we had a TE in 1991?! The last TE I remember was Novacek... until we decided we didn't need that future five time Pro-Bowler because we had Rob Awalt!

man... that 1988 team just had RIDICULOUS weapons. Speed guy in Roy Green, consumate possession WR in J.T. Smith, Two very good TE in Novacek and Awalt and a solid RB/FB combo with Stump and Ferrel... AND a decent-good QB.

too bad that D was about as atrocious as this year's D is going to be.

 

[AzStevenCal]

Steve, you can only scheme so much & thats why I say it will improve slightly. The 3-4 D is very difficult to run without the horses & IMO we are missing the most important pieces...edge rushers.

I think we're going to see continued improvement from Dan and if he can play more than a handful of downs each week, that alone will improve our defense. We may not have that one guy that DC's need to scheme for but we have 3 guys that come close (Dan, Darnell & Calais). Add in the rookies and the improved play of Schofield and I see reason for hope. I don't think our lack of pressure is going to be anywhere near as bad as it has been. We're hurting in the secondary but I don't know if we're going to be all that much worse there than we were last year.

Steve

 

[Buckybird]

I don't think the D improves at all now for 2011. Wilson and Adams at less than 100% and Toler out. These injuries offset any gains the D might have picked up from an improved Offense.

And don't forget the AW injury. He might be a badass in stature, but how well or long he plays when he comes back isn't a given. And he didnt play that well last year, when injured so I'm holding my breath he can even be a factor with basically 1 arm.

 

[D-Dogg]

we had a TE in 1991?! The last TE I remember was Novacek... until we decided we didn't need that future five time Pro-Bowler because we had Rob Awalt!

I rounded down.

 

[AzStevenCal]

And don't forget the AW injury. He might be a badass in stature, but how well or long he plays when he comes back isn't a given. And he didnt play that well last year, when injured so I'm holding my breath he can even be a factor with basically 1 arm.

I think that's called an understatement.

Steve

 

[cardsfanmd]

In my estimation, anyone complaining about how our ones played on defense is just clueless. I include Carter in that mix because he was at the Nose more than anyone else.

San Diego's offense is one of the most prolific in the NFL, and Rivers is one of the elite QB's. They have great personnel (two deep at every position). They have been together for several years now. They all know the playbook. (That alone puts them light years ahead of our defense. Taking all that into account, I feel pretty good about where our defense is at this stage. They played well enough to get a win, even though the scrubs washed that out. I find little to fault about our defense in this game. Those of you who are crying wolf, are simply not seeing what the defense did, they are merely finding things to complain about, much like the haters of our offensive line complain about everything that the O-line does. It's the same ole people complaining about the same ole things, whether or not they actually occurred.

I actually couldn't agree more, well said

 

[dylanbw]

we had a TE in 1991?! The last TE I remember was Novacek... until we decided we didn't need that future five time Pro-Bowler because we had Rob Awalt!

man... that 1988 team just had RIDICULOUS weapons. Speed guy in Roy Green, consumate possession WR in J.T. Smith, Two very good TE in Novacek and Awalt and a solid RB/FB combo with Stump and Ferrel... AND a decent-good QB.

too bad that D was about as atrocious as this year's D is going to be.

Neil Lomax was waaay better than "decent-good"......if he never gets hurt we win the NFC East that year, and would have made some noise in the playoffs....

 

[Duckjake]

Neil Lomax was waaay better than "decent-good"......if he never gets hurt we win the NFC East that year, and would have made some noise in the playoffs....

Jeez, how many times did it look like the Cards were going to have a promising season or they were in position to do some damage in the playoffs and something weird happened.

We have to be the only team in the NFL to have had our season derailed because our QB got drafted and had to report for military duty.

I mean we beat the Cowboys 20-7 and 38-0 and only give up 6 points over a FOUR game span and Dallas goes to the Super Bowl and we don't even go to the playoffs.

Of course then when it looks like Tobin has put together one of the worst teams in Cardinal history losing 38-10 and 33-14 to open the '98 season the Cards win 9 of 14 in miraculous fashion and beat the Cowboys in Dallas in the playoffs.

And you guys make fun of my being so superstitious when it comes to Cardinal football.

 

[Russ Smith]

Jeez, how many times did it look like the Cards were going to have a promising season or they were in position to do some damage in the playoffs and something weird happened.

IN the old days a lot of that was self inflicted though. The worst for me was 84, Lomax, Roy Green, great offense, good enough defense. The stupid draft process results in us passing on Louis Lipps to take Clyde Duncan who holds out and then sucks. Lipps is OROY and exactly what we needed.

In a very cheap move they elect to go with Rick McIvor as the backup QB to Lomax, the 3rd stringer I blank on the name he played as much safety as QB though. So of course Lomax gets hurt during the season, they realize we're dead so he plays 3-4 games where he's taking painkillers to play and is totally ineffective, we lost all of those games. We wound up with that heartbreaking loss at RFK to end the season not making the playoffs.

That playoff year was lost before the season started by those 2 decisions to go cheap at QB and to not draft Lipps.

Glad that stuff doesn't happen anymore.

 

[Duckjake]

IN the old days a lot of that was self inflicted though. The worst for me was 84, Lomax, Roy Green, great offense, good enough defense. The stupid draft process results in us passing on Louis Lipps to take Clyde Duncan who holds out and then sucks. Lipps is OROY and exactly what we needed.

In a very cheap move they elect to go with Rick McIvor as the backup QB to Lomax, the 3rd stringer I blank on the name he played as much safety as QB though. So of course Lomax gets hurt during the season, they realize we're dead so he plays 3-4 games where he's taking painkillers to play and is totally ineffective, we lost all of those games. We wound up with that heartbreaking loss at RFK to end the season not making the playoffs.

That playoff year was lost before the season started by those 2 decisions to go cheap at QB and to not draft Lipps.

Glad that stuff doesn't happen anymore.

That 4 game stretch where Lomax was hurting killed them. They went from scoring 28-31 points a game to 17, 13, 10, 17. Amazing that Lomax still threw for 4,600+ yards and 28 TDs and was selected to the pro bowl.

 

[Mulli]

Whoever loses has to have "<winner> is better than I am." in signature from end of season to draft.

Ha, I like it. It'll make your posts all the more enjoyable. Deal!

i'll take that bet.

How am I doing?

 

[Mulli]

I will wager that the Cards are not a bottom ten defense (based on points allowed).

Are Cards bottom ten in points allowed? (yet?)

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Are Cards bottom ten in points allowed? (yet?)

Actually, the Cards are top 10 defense in scoring right now. (8th with 56 total points)

 

[ASUCHRIS]

Actually, the Cards are top 10 defense in scoring right now. (8th with 56 total points)

Only on account of villainy! I think the Cards have proven themselves to be worthy of a bottom 10 defense label so far. We'll see as the season progresses.

 

[Duckjake]

Actually, the Cards are top 10 defense in scoring right now. (8th with 56 total points)

Yet another Cardinal anomaly. Top 10 in points allowed and bottom 10 in yards allowed.

In 2005 they were bottom 10 in points allowed and top 10 in yards allowed.

But at least they're not bottom 3 in both like they finished last season.

Special teams and Defense produced 10 returns for TDs last season and they still finished 26th in points scored.

They ain't never nothin' normal about this football team

 

[Mulli]

Giants will probably put 40 on them this weekend.

 

[40yearfan]

Giants will probably put 40 on them this weekend.

No they won't. I refuse to let them do that to me.