Maybe this secondary just doesn't have the talent or skillz to play man coverage but aren't coached up to play Cover-2.
I think we all need a refresher/reminder of the mandatory qualifications demanded by Todd Bowles to play in his defensive backfield: 1) Be able to always run 5 yards BEHIND the wide receiver, and 2) Be good at yelling for help early and often.
Far too many mental lapses, blown assignments further compounded by poor on the field communication and coaching. While he was often underappreciated/undervalued by many Jets fans who didn't understand his principal assignment to set the edge and contain the outside, none of our current crop of OLBs have been able to fulfill this role nearly as effectively. And while we couldn't afford to keep him, I believe the loss of Snacks has not been compensated for by his replacements with the residual impact adversely affecting the effectiveness and stamina over 4 quarters of play for Wilk, Leo and Sheldon whose jobs were made at least slightly easier by having Harrison consistently taking on 2-3 blockers per play on essentially all 1st and 2nd down (and short yardage 3rd down) plays. Other than Lee, our LB corps are slow. Skrine is an excellent nickel corner as we saw last year but is frequently over matched as a starter. Pryor just seems lost. He's not the punishing hitter we expected him to be and is sub par in coverage. Is he being used/deployed correctly? Originally, we had him playing deep center which many felt was contrary to his natural abilities as a thumper playing closer to the box and earlier in his career, we saw evidence of him laying wood but that's seemed to have disappeared after his early injuries. Pryor, who was supposed to be a critically important and major impact player on our defense (if not an outright star) is basically a ghost and I think his position needs to be addressed. At this point, I'd like to see what Miles and Middleton can do.
Miscommunication. They fall down. (Pryor is a genius at this.) The zone coverage sucks. And there is always a missed assignment for major yardage or a TD. After watching the Ducks play under Helfrich and then this shit.... It's seriously screwing up my weekends.
In one season we've seen a pretty good defense turn into one of the league's worst. I think it's simplistic to blame the players only so I think the coaching staff has in large part led to the demise of the team. I would love to see if there's any game film comparisons between last year and this year and whether people are playing out of position or what's going wrong on the field. Also, isn't it interesting that we had 7 sacks against the bengals when Sheldon Richardson was out and ever since then we have been mediocre in getting sacks and qb pressures.
On every touch down i see guys pointing to each other in confusion. We've had SO MANY mental lapses in our secondary that led to HUGE TD's. It's not even our opposition drawing up great plays or making miracles happen... we just are breaking down way to often.. The communication on zone plays SUCK!!! When we play man we leave our guys on an island with no safety help and they get burned deep with ease. I've seen wayyy too many wide open WR's to blame the players in the secondary... that's just bad coaching and bad play calling... bad is an understatement actually. I blame Todd Bowles and whatever the hell the DC's name is i dont even care he's ass.
The best news is TB is helping out with the offense this week because he's done such a great job with the defense
The secondary didn't get bad this season, they were bad last season too. Just a weak schedule masked how bad. What's sad is how much focus is being placed on covering the middle of the field and still can't cover there either.
We've gone back to that fucking technique of reading the receivers eyes and not turning around... How many fucking times do we scream "Turn Around" watching games? There is also ZERO disguising of coverage and IMO that is one thing that made some defenses great. When the QB has to think for another second or 2 is what gives your D-line time to operate.
Yes, there have been blown coverages and assignments but the main reason the secondary is ineffective is the lack of pass rush. I've always maintained that DB's are overrated in a defensive scheme. I don't care how many Revis' are in your defensive backfield, if you give a pro QB time to throw, he will shred it. One Darrell Revis can negate a good receiver, but a top pass rusher puts pressure on the QB and makes all 4 DB's more effective. If I was putting together a defense, I would rather have one good pass rusher and 4 average DB's than no pass rusher and 4 good DBs.
It's one of those questions that probably doesn't have a single answer but it probably a combination of a bunch of factors. I happen to think that opposing teams have exploited weaknesses and have learned how to attack our defense. Furthermore, Revis has regressed to now be a pretty average CB, Gilchrist has also regressed to his poor play that resulted in his departure from SD, and Pryor seems to have this cycle of good play versus bad play. I have heard that he is playing as more of a coverage safety, rather than an in the box safety which he excels at. Marcus Williams is a ball hawk but I have always thought that he's not as sure of a thing as many have claimed he was and Buster Skrine is more of a slot corner that I think is still playing better than the rest. Our d-line allows all day for opposing qb's to throw the ball so it leaves the cb's out to dry while WR's eventually shake free. All around, bad mix of things
