Quote:I disagree.

 

The standings reflect the overall health of the team, and not specifically the defense, which despite their numbers were much improved, and headed in the right direction.  The defense showed up extremely well all season long.  They can't control the fact that they were on the field for entirely too long because the offense couldn't sustain drives.  I don't care how good the defense is you're trotting out there.  You can't ask them to spend 65% of the time on the field and expect them to sustain a high level of play throughout.  Fatigue is going to play a factor at some point.  We all saw it with our own eyes.

 

If the offense was even marginally better, say the middle third of the league, the standings for the defense would have been markedly improved.  Unfortunately, that wasn't the case last year.

 

I dunno, boss man...I seem to recall them looking pretty bad the beginning quarter of the season. It was almost like they were astounded at how well they were playing in the first half at Philly then after the half, the wheels just blew out until around Week 6. I very well could be misremembering (if that's even a word), but that's what's in my head.

 

In any case, I think what we saw after they began to get their <expletive> together is a defense that is very capable, even in spite of a stuttering offense. How many games down the stretch did the defense keep us in again?

---