Soooo.... Who??

Granted, I dont know the rest of the NFL like many of the people here. I know we have holes, but most teams do, and basically I am to the understanding that the JS defenders are saying "we have the worst "talented" defense in the NFL and thats why we are ranked 32nd".... is that correct? Im not on the hire/fire bandwagon of anyone, just curious. Could it not be both? (serious question)

 

Um...

There defense was better than ours and they had a lot of injuries. What's JS' excuse? He doesn't have 11 pro bowlers?

Gut

 

Wait for Romeo Crennel to be fired and bring him here as DC to run a 3-4.

 

like I said : "Where is he going

 

I'd like to see a good 3-4 here
we better get some more (and fast) LB's
and a monster nose tackle too

 

What?

Philosophically, he attacks on defense rather than play deep and let the other team march up and down the field playing zone and then explain away giving 400+ yards of offense or 40+ points saying the D was too tired.

Too stupid not 2? That's a new one. So tell me, is JS smart when he blitzes or not? On the one hand you say we don't have good players, in another thread you said we only have 3 bad players....which is it? And if we have a lot of bad players, why does JS blitz at all? And if we have at least a decent quality in players, why doesn't he blitz more? You keep going back and forth on this talent thing.

Interesting...please explain how Schwartz has adapted his scheme for the players at hand? As far as I can tell, he hasn't adapted his scheme at all for the players at hand. In fact, he appears to run the same exact scheme while putting worse players on the field than we actually have (kind of like your criticism of GW benching Arrington). Is connover one of the best 11 defensive players we have? No. But he's been starting.

REALLY??? There are numerous examples that don't agree with you. Let's take how the Pats went half a year, the playoffs and the Superbowl (which they won) with an undrafted rookie free agent CB and an old WR playing nickel for the first time. Funny how the Giants beat the Bills in the Superbowl by slowing down the best offense in the league. They didn't do it with the best defensive players, they outschemed the Bills. And what turned a good Chicago Bears defense from a good unit into perhaps the best one there's ever been? SCHEME!!!

But you're only half right. There are actually 3 parts to a good defense. Coaching, scheme, and personel. A fatal flaw in any will wreck your D. AVG in everything will net you an avg D. Certain pieces of excellence can overcome problems in another areas...as exemplified by superior DC's and their schemes taking avg talent and making a good D or taking a good D and making it great. Without looking you probably can't name the starting CB's on the Bears '85 Superbowl team. They didn't have Hall of Fame players everywhere. And he certainly didn't have Hall of Fame talent in Arizone when he coached the Cards and yet they had a good D because of a few key pieces on D, excellent scheme and excellent coaching.

We have at least avg talent on D except for RE (LaBoy/Connover), RH and LT. He could have schemed so they were protected and not in positions to give up huge plays...he didn't. There is no law that says your 'FS' has to be the one playing deep...especially in an excessive zone d. He doesn't do that...and if you can tell me why playing LT deep half instead of Pacman on 3rd and 15, I'd love to hear it.

This is a kindergarten argument. Yes, any offense thought up by a relatively knowledgeable football fan who's out of college will probably work with the 11 best players in the NFL playing offense and the best 11 defenders in the NFL playing D. Unfortunately, no one gets that kind of talent in the NFL.

If you look at the best defenses in NFL history, you'll pretty much find a good combo of a few dominant players, a good scheme and a good DC.

We have a few dominant players (at least very good ones), so what does that leave us in explaining a D that ranks last or near last in most categories?

Gut

 

and that's a nice little group
4 of which are All-Pro caliber guys with the other one not far behind
sure would like to have one more of each of them

 

Btw...

Again, you've stated we have 3 below avg starting positions (and 2 of those have players capable of perhaps being better). If he's an avg DC and has an avg scheme, why don't we have an avg defense???

Have you watched Archuletta play this year? He's been terrible! And for playing horribly, he got benched. Are you suggesting that he shouldn't bench players who are performing terribly?

To me, that's one of the biggest problems with JS vs GW. GW demands accountability. That doesn't mean you'll always be perfect, but if you stink up the joint, you'll get benched and he'll try someone else. JS doesn't do that. LT blows another big play...just like he did the week before or two weeks earlier...no problem.

Gut

 

Sk...

Actually, it's because our bad players are not limited in exposure in the defensive scheme. RH and LT can't be completely, hidden, but they can be given help...especially in obvious situations. You say GW is too stupid not to blitz, well how come you don't slam JS for being too stupid to throw an all out blitz leaving RH and LT singled up? Or how come when we're not blitzing on 3rd and long RH is somehow left man for man down the sideline with no S help? Or how come LT is given deep responsibility on 3rd and very long plays while Pac is covering the flat at 5 yards?

Everyone has players with flaws and that includes every defense in the NFL. Hiding flaws and putting players in position to utilize their strengths is what being a DC is all about. JS has shown he has no clue how to do that. But yes, it's all the player's faults.

So Schwartz doesn't have any say as to who plays on any of the defensive schemes? That doesn't sound right. If Schwartz is the DC and brings in more of a zone scheme (the Titans had always been a predominant man to man cover team previously), you're telling me that Fisher is the one who decides every player for every formation and every matchup? What does Schwartz do, sit at home and wait for gameday? Please give me some evidence that Schwartz has no say as to who is on the field at any time for the defense. So what you're saying is that Fisher has come up with this scheme because he's the one responsible for all the matchups? If that is the case, then Schwartz should leave and find a new job because I wouldn't stand for a HC forcing me to play LT. But if that is the case, how come GW got to choose which players he started? Or did Fisher just do this for GW and decide at the same time JS was hired that we'd dump the man cover D that worked so well in the past and go to a predominant zone D Fisher's never run?

First, this defense should be an avg or better unit. We don't have tremendous talent, but LT is the only guy who's terrible and it's hard to believe Lowry and Fuller would be that bad. But even if we played LT we could drop him down in coverage to play a curl or flat instead of being the deep safety which would make him less exposed in the passing game. Playing more man coverage with him over the top of pacman (2 deep safeties) would also lessen his exposure. Or when we go 3 deep have Hope be the deep S down the middle. Or does Fisher control that too?

Many defenses have had holes on their D (like the Pats) and overcome it with good scheme and playcalling. You might have noticed the Pats didn't ask Troy Brown to cover Marvin Harrison or Reggie Wayne one on one down the field with no safety help...and yet, that's what he asks of RH. That's the difference between a good DC adapting his scheme and playcalling to hide 'holes.' Schwartz clearly doesn't do that.

Secondly, any of the players on our D could start on other teams except for LT, RH, and LaBoy. That's 8 out of 11 players...12 if you add in Finnegan.

Gut

 

Imagine my surprise when clicking around on my musician's forum I find this post by someone who has zero interest in the Titans:

While looking for this post just now, I find this response:

I think this sums up the feelings pretty well.

Hey...I got a new sig...