BillyCarpenter1

I think we all went into preseason with one big question on our minds. Has the defense improved? Well, not only am I still asking that question, I'm also asking myself if they are worse than last year. Can that be possible? Well I went back and looked at last year's defense and here's what I saw as the areas that needed to be improved. I also listed them in order of weakness.

1.) Run defense- Let's face it. If you can't stop the run, it really doesn't matter if you can stop the pass or not.

2.) Quarterback Sacks- This is the one thing that all good defenses are able to do. Being able to get to the QB helps out the secondary so much and dictates to the offense what plays they can call. In other words, it puts them in known passing plays, which usually leads to more sacks.

3.) Pass Defense- Gave up way too many big pass plays last year.

Now, did we improve in any of those area? Here's what I THINK.

1.) Run Defense- Looks to be much improved. With Grady Jackson, Johnathan Sullivan, Kenny Smith, Darren Howard, and Charles Grant, I feel we will be able to stop the run. At least they have been able to do it in the preseaon games, which is all I have to go by.

2.) Quarterback Sacks- Have seen nothing in the preseason to show me that this is going to be any better than last year and this could be the case. However, this is one area that I don't feel like we have been able to judge effectively, because there have been no blitzes to speak of and Grant and Howard have hardly played. One plesant suprise is that Grady and Kenny Smith have showed they can get to the QB, which has to make us feel good. Looking at the preseason games you would think that we would never get any sacks this season. But, did Howard and Grant suddenly drop off in talent that much? Did Venturi forget that blitzing was part of the game plan? I think not, and I think we will be stronger in this department.

3.) Pass Defense- No other way to say it, except they have sucked in the preseason. Have we improved or are we worse this year? We still have the same cornerbacks we had last year, so I don't think we are going to be worse at that position. The only player we lost in the secondary was Sammy Knight. Do you think getting rid of Sammy made our defense that much worse? Getting rid of Sammy argueably could have made the defense worse but do you honestly think it made us look as bad as we have looked in preseason? I think not.

Was Tebucky Jones a mistake? Was Jim Haslett and Rick Venturi that wrong about Tebucky? Well, if they were, so were the coahes for the Patriots. They thought he was good enough to slap the franshise tag on him. I have a hard time beleiveing that all those coaches were wrong about him.

Bottom Line is this. We have the same cornerbacks on the roster that we had last year. We have an improved defensive line. We have an improvement with Tebucky Jones. So, this defense might be no better than last year (which I doubt) but I think that there's no way that the defense we have seen this preseason will be the one we see come next Sunday.

One last thing. Rick Venturi might be the worst Defensive Coordinator ever, but he's not inventing defenses here. Also, Jim Haslett has been a very successful defensive coordinator in this league and I have a very hard time beleiveing that he suddenly forgot how to coach defense. Ultimately, Jim Haslett calls the shots for all phases of the team and this includes defense. I also have a hard time beleiving that Haslett would let Venturi screw up the defense as badly as everyone says he has and is going to do.

[Edited on 29/8/2003 by BillyCarpenter1]