What Happens If The Offense Does Improve But The Defense Falters Again This Season?

And if we cant sustain drives, our lousy defense is on the field constantly.

Best way to hide your lousy defense, is a clock eating run game that ends with points.

 

Fire everyone and blow it up.

 

I do agree about the offense; they did absolutely everything they could this past offseason to improve the offensive side of the ball. I wish they would've done more for the defense over the past three years. But they didn't, so they should be held fully responsible if the defense is bad again this year. Over a three year time span they couldn't find a DE that makes a difference? A corner/safety?

The reason the team was as bad as it was last season was do in large part to their decisions over the past two years. They let it get that bad.....no more blaming Fisher three years removed, there are no more excuses.

 

There are always excuses, its just a matter of whether there are good ones or not.

year 1 = short off season, late hires, ect. Lets be honest, it was Munch's first year as a HC, with a short off season to work with, and he had to hire a staff.

year 2 = pursuit of jughead.

Whether those are good enough excuses, who is up for each person to decide. I am also not so much trying to make excuses, but just understand the position we are and were in.

They also signed Wimbley, who was considered the 2nd best pass rusher that year that was available, he just hasnt worked out. To be honest, what scares me the a lot at this point about our line, is our run defense. Yes, the pass defense is bad, but we cannot allow teams to run on us at will like the Bengals did. And we had hill and big guy in there, and they still completely dominated us. We signed those to help shore up the running game.

We did sign Pollard (the attitude everyone wanted, but the honeymoon will fade), and Wilson to attempt to fix part of our secondary and also drafted a CB. There were just too many holes to be filled.

It may be scheme, and I will hold off complaining TOO much until the season starts.

Many teams are in the CB and DL market every year, and we had to convince them to come to THIS team, which is not an easy feat to do in my opinion unless we want to overpay for everyone, as we had to this past off season.

We have to start winning if we want to get these big names to be truly interested in us. Yes, we can draw some in with money, but we only have so much of that to spend.

I want to win just as bad as everyone else, but when I look at the entire situation, to me its a little more in depth than "fire everyone"

 

The same thing that always happens... A disappointing, mediocre season

 

I didn't say "fire everyone". If they don't make the playoffs, they should move on from this coaching staff. It certainly wouldn't be the end of the world and it shouldn't set us back at all. In fact they may hire someone that improves the team greatly in his first year. So I don't really view it as blowing this thing up. Munch, to this point, hasn't really built anything to blow up.

He's had a FA period and draft just like everyone else. If they draft/sign a player that doesn't pan out (Kamerion Wimbley, Shaun Smith, Barrett Ruud, etc.) then they should be held responsible. The same goes if they don't even attempt to address an area of weakness. Now this year, there was at least an huge effort to get better as far as personnel is concerned, but they don't get credit for not addressing the defense in 2011,2012, and to some extent 2013. What's more probable, I believe, is that they just haven't viewed the weakness as weaknesses. Or they may have underestimated the severity to which the team was depleted at a certain position. Either way, there were bad decisions made.

They only had to make so many moves this year, because they failed to address those weaknesses for the past two years. They may have tried, to some extent anyways, but they didn't get it right. They signed Wimbley, it was a bad signing. Since then they've had two draft's and a FA period to address DE, they haven't, so if the line is bad this year, it's their fault. The same goes with every position, they've had three years, not one. It's time to get this show on the road, and we've finally reached a point at which the excuses won't hold water anymore.....I hope.

 

a new HC, from outside the organization, will have freedom too actually make changes.

I dont see this happening while BA is still with us. It just is what it is.

 

Didnt mean that you were one of the "fire everyone" people, was just a generalization.

Its not so much that I want to keep Munch, or that i would even have a problem replacing him so dont get me wrong. I would be all for hiring a good coach who we think could actually do something for this team.

Maybe part of the reason MR was fired. It depends on who you want to blame for these decisions and whether they are Munch guys, or front office guys.

In 2011, we were ranked 14th in defense. Not exactly amazing or anything, but not horrible. The real issue I had was when it feel to WTF level the following year. Some bad decisions were made and I do believe you are correct, that some of our weaknesses were not viewed as weaknesses.

Another issue with last year was the offensive line. I dont think anyone could have predicted the atrocious play level of that line, even if we were on backups, and backups backups at times.

I think this is something that gets lost in the fold about our offense. The game starts in the trenches and you will not see a horrible offensive line in the playoffs. Then theres the QB, who got injured, then Britt. Again, it all sounds like excuses, but I believe they are valid ones.

However, Palmer was fired, and Grey was given a babysitter.

Every team tries to improve every year, and many fail. I want one of those competitive teams as much as anyone, and I believe any and all things need to be done to get it but lets not forget one thing. Bud Adams. He is the one who hired Munch, he is the one who went after PM. I do not believe we will be on the level we were in 99, until he is gone or unless a lot of things fall our way (like hiring a guy to build our roster, like Reese did) Maybe webster is that guy. Its the whole cut the head off the snake argument.

We were in the hunt for centers, and we were in the hunt for Mario Williams (whether a good or bad decision, he was that big FA name that people talk about)

Excuses I agree with you 100 percent. However, looking at our drafts

2013 - Warmack (needed), Hunter (could be good, could be bad), Wheh-Wilson (too bad he couldnt be our starter this year) and Gooden (will be a lot like Brown imo, people say WTF, but he plays well) Then theres Schwenke who I hope does well because I love saying his name, and Edwards, who will playing this week I believe, if i read correctly.

2012 - Wright (needed a WR), Brown (no one will argue this anymore), Martin (one of the best rookie DT's in his small time played) The martin pick actually makes me wonder, considering we went and signed Hill. However we will see if that was the right decision as this season goes on. I also believe we have not heard the last of Sensabough, then Thompson, who will replace Craig after this season imo.

2011 - Locker (not going there), Ayers, Casey. There are others but after the 3rd round, the percentages dont lie. You rarely find a ful time starter.

So in the past 3 years, we drafted a CB, LB, DT, LB, DT. Everyone is happy with Ayers, Casey, and Brown. Martin and Wheh are still question marks.

I dont think we have neglected it, we just have not found that DE that most teams look for every year. Munch inherited a bad team and was a first time coach, and went 9-7. Everyone was optimistic. Then last years disaster which can directly be related to the line, as well as the DC, both of which this team. However that team, was so bad, that people are so very displeased that they have lost sight of the big picture, at least in my opinion in which I could be 100 percent wrong.

What I look at, is last year and how much this team has done to improve it and I think it has done everything it could. As for the previous year, the PM fiasco aside, we did get the 2nd best "pass rusher" available. (who did have 6 sacks in 2012, but it wasnt because of amazing play, but more of who he played against) A mistake letting Finny go according to some as well.

That being said... we should ALWAYS be looking to make this team more competative, but we have to have the right pieces in place. If this offense works as well as the paper indicates that it could, our offense will be a good one for several years.

I have Munch 3 seasons, and thsi is his third. After the end of this season, I will have a much more concise opinion on what should be done with him but as for now, I really cant complain about this off season, and have an understanding that you cant hit on every FA, and every draft pick.

 

And FWIW, Im not so much defending, but trying not to be one to over react to our circumstances.


I want to win too.