[The Goat]

Per the criticism of Fletch, especially regarding his tackle stats, allow me to retort.

When we run the more traditional 3-4 base, especially on early downs, you have to account for the fact we don't have a D line that commands multiple double-teams, and sometimes not even one double-team. Bowen is probably our best D lineman, and while I've seen o lines assign two blockers to him it's not consistent because a good LT will handle Bowen alone. There's certainly nobody on the D-line who offensive lines consistently see fit to assign two blockers. In short, there's always, always at least one o-lineman, and often two o-lineman headed to the 2nd level to block and they obviously key on Fletch.

Compare that to the D lines of Pitt and Baltimore, both having personnel up front always requiring two blockers. And the bottom line is something I've said a long time:
We...don't...have...the...right...personnel to run the 3-4 successfully. Period. If our base front 7 was always Kerrigan, Cofield, Turd Ferguson, Orakpo on the line and Riley, Fletcher, Rob Jackson behind we'd be a better run-stopping defense and most definitely a better pressure defense.

Regardless, our run defense isn't as bad as this one stat would lead someone to believe. Most of the time when Fletch gets blocked Riley or another steps into the gap to make the tackle, so focusing on this one stat is like staring at a tree in the forest. Secondary was/is the real problem, and that has everything to do with lacking a FS who can capitalize on bad throws etc.