Quote:
Originally Posted by mlmdub130
how does a defense that played stellar last year end up ranked 13th? basically middle of the pack, and that what i rememeber from last year. this team is and has been filled with mediocre players for a while now. even when we were in the 4-3 we were still middle of the pack. a stellar defense is one that creates its own points and can get to the qb, we haven't had that here for some time now.
is shanny to blame for where we are player wise? i think yes and no. while he has been here for almost 3 years now, thats not a lot of time to enact a culture change and completely retool the roster. especially when we didnt have all of our draft picks and then the 18 mil fine we got slapped with this year. and to be fair some of that blame fails on shanny too, the mcnabb trade the hanyesworth handeling. but at the end of the day he can only go after players that are available and use the resources at his disposal.
i think shanny has another year to show more improvement, but i think haslett could and should lose his job by the end of this season if no improvement is shown. from the outside looking in it seems like he really doesnt understand the ebb and flow of the 3-4. and his biggest flaw is not being able to make in game adjustments. unless there is marketable improvement in the last half of the season firing haslett is a no brainer.
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By what I meant by stellar was the sudden improvement from 2010 to 2011. Maybe stellar wasn't totally the right word to use, but this defense did get turnovers and being on the other side of 16th ranked is a little beyond the middle of the pack. Let us remember that when the Redskins faced the NY Midgets in NY last year in week 15, the Redskins entered that game ranked 10th in the league in total defense.
Shanahan is not without fault, but I view his switching to a 3-4 as a needless move like a lot of Redskins fans do. But I like the 3-4 defense now and I would prefer Kerrigan and Orakpo as OLBs instead of DEs. I think the defensive front is decent but the lack of rush without Carriker and B. Orakpo is hurting the overall defense.
If the Redskins don't start hustling more within the defensive secondary and keep getting beat consistently then Haslett will indeed be gone. Even if they somehow improve I don't see them making that much more improvement. Jarvis Jenkins is not having an impact. Barry Cofield is not a conventional NT, but he's solid and Stephen Bowen is solid. The LB corps are okay but London Fletcher's age is starting to show and there's no telling how much longer he can play. I'm not even going to emphasize the secondary. This defensive unit won't be any better than 23rd or 22nd ranked for the remainder of the year. If they improve, that will be the best that they'll be able to do based on what we've seen in the first 9 games. But if they can start creating more turnovers and get the ball back in the hands of the offense then the Redskins can run the table and perhaps end up 10-6.