Quote:The theme all year is teams coming in struggling and leaving with a victory.  It seems no matter how bad a team has been when they face the Jaguars it's and instant cure.  Just bad overall football.

Yes, it has been this way for years now. We're the 'bench mark'... the definition of a bad team. We're chronically sporadic; one game we will play well... beyond our actual abilities almost. The next game, and against a team which 'should' be within our ability to defeat, we fold like a cheap jacket.

 

But lets face it; all the wins we've had this year have been against teams who were down at the time. We haven't been competitive against an actual 'good' team. The irony for us is that most of the teams we played this season were down on their luck when we played them... and yet we still have a losing record! That's what bad teams do... they lose to teams they should've defeated.

 

We've witnessed enough good things from parts of our offense to rightly think that we have the core pieces in place there. The continuing problem is and has been the defense. We simply don't get pressure on opposing quarterbacks very often, which allows them too much time to pick apart our soft zone defense. When we do 'bring the house' we are very obvious about it... so not surprisingly, we seldom get to the quarterback in time and we get burned as a result.

 

Our 1st string defensive line is manned by players who would be on the second string or backups on other teams. We have no one on the line who is able to get pressure on the quarterback consistently. Any NFL quarterback, given enough time, will pick a zone defense apart. We've observed it over and over again; it's third and long and..... they convert for a 1st down. It's really a wonder that the game yesterday wasn't a much higher scoring affair for the dirty birds.

 

Our defensive demise is the direct result of a lack of talent and a stubborn refusal to depart from a defensive scheme that simply hasn't been and isn't working here. That falls on the head coach and defensive coordinator. The lack of talent on defense is the result of selling out to build up the offense; that much at least is understandable. Dave perceived someone like Bortles isn't on the table all the time so he felt compelled to get him. We did get Fowler but... well, somethings happen we just have no control over.

 

The point is that with our offensive core pretty well set now, we can concentrate on defense. In order to successfully run the seattle defense, you really need top tier level defensive players, and they just don't grow on trees. As a result, I'm of the opinion that the GM needs to get coaches who can and will run something other than the soft zone, cause unless we win the lottery of drafting and every player we get is a star defensive player, the zone won't work for us; plain as that. Does that mean a new HC? I don't know, but I do know Khan has, for better or worse, let it be known he intends to stick with Gus for one more season at least. If that is so, it's possible we may see the same kind of buffoonery on defense next season we've been witnessing here since Gus became our HC. We hope not, but...

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