Quote:
Originally Posted by Southpaw
I know what his argument is, and it's still purely conjecture. Washington is seventh in rushing YPG allowed, and tied for 13th in YPA allowed. They are also tied for ninth in rushing TD's allowed. All of those numbers refute the idea that the Redskins would have the worst rush defense in the league if other teams would simply hand the ball off more often.
Yes, they were torched by and elite back in Ray Rice, but earlier in the season they held Adrian Peterson to less than 80 yards(the last team to hold him under 100) without a touchdown, and held him to his third lowest YPA for the season.
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Tied for 13th also means they are tied for 16th. Two ways to look at that stat.
Adrian Peterson only got the ball 17 times and rushed for 79 yards for an average of 4.6 yards a carry. They just did not give him the ball enough. Mainly because they were losing badly. We were up 24-9 by the middle of the third quarter. Teams are not likely to run the ball against you if they have to catch up from that deficit. I do believe that the defense has improved and they are creating turnovers. But one also has to realize that the reason our run defense looks good is because teams often have to play catch up. The saints and the cowboys both ran the ball around 10 times each. When teams stuck with the run, Like Carolina, Pitt, NYG they have had success. Baltimore was tearing us up, but Cam Cameron always does the same thing and that is put the game in Flacco's hands, and of course he got fired later for this. If we have to play a run oriented team in the playoffs (if we make it) like Seattle and they stick with the run I don't believe our defense can hold up.