Some things such as the infuriating 3rd and long conversions this year's defense have given up are in serious need of improvement. What I think the overall stats show is that even with those shortcoming this D is still very good. There is definite room for improvement but we are talking about upgrading from something that is already impressive.
Those stats do tell a lot of the story. It's like Special Team stats. 33 of the 74 defensive penalties resulted in a 1st down which ranked 27th (yikes) The others I can't find. advancednflstats.com is a good site but it's blocked at my job.
Just from the playoff teams I think the following have better Ds or are playing better: Pitt bal(they are having some simialr issues as us though) NE Chicago GB Atlanta NO I think we have the ability to be the best or at least a top 2-3 D, we have not playe dup to that ability this season. That was a weather dictated game, neither offense could do anything in the wind. The games where I think we played like a top D for 60 minutes: GB Cincy Miami the 1st Buf game(I cannot count yesterday, it was basically an exhibition game)
NE and NO on that list? you just lost any credibility. even NE and NO fans know their defense isn't good
I think the conditions ploayed a big role but the bottom line is results and they held GB down all game so I'll put that in their good column
In reality, we held them to 6 points. They only got the last FG because we went for a 4th and 11 on our own 20 yard line. They gained 0 yards on 3 runs and kicked a FG with about 30 seconds left. But with that said ... I still have ZERO confidence that this defense can stop any of these offenses in the playoffs ... especially with the game on the line. I saw the Dolphins, Browns, Texans, Bears, Vikings, and Pats all move right down the field with no problem. Even the Steelers moved 80 yards with almost no time left. No reason to believe that Peyton Manning won't be able to do the same thing. We better have a good lead going into the last few minutes on Saturday night because if it comes down to making a stop to save the game ... it aint gonna happen. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see any way we stop them in a big spot.
True, I was going to add that but figured Junc would just pick it apart anyway and he did. Our defense had nothing to do with that apparently it was all because of the rain. Aaron Rodgers goes blind in the rain, I completely forgot about that. lol
Stats are accumulated over 16 games. Just like having no takeovers is part of those stats, 6 takeovers are equally part of em. Nothing is skewed. And we can't discount the 6 takeaways regardless of who we were playing. We had our backup secondary in the game.
I would like to see stats for the second half of the season. Just briefly looking at it, it seems like you guys let up 20+ points to some mediocre offenses (detroit, cleveland, pittsburgh) and when facing better offenses fared even worse (houston 30, cincy 26, NE 45, chicago 38)... in the second half of last season you guys let up 20+ points only once (game 9 Jacksonville scored 22)
actually, the Jets gave of 19.0 ppg and the NE gave up 19.6 ppg. so how would you compare the Jets D to the Pats D?
You mixed up our points scored with allowed on some of those games. (Houston, Cincy just to name a couple)
