Shoe.

For a world-class, experienced, practicing professional in a field full of intense competition, those words are especially troubling to me.

How can you say you don't know where to start? Are there not enough obvious, glaring deficiencies? This dude is supposed to be one of the best on the planet at this particular medium (teaching guys to be better defenders) and all he has to say is, "I don't know."

I'm all aboard the "let's gives Spags time to do what he does" train, but hearing him say he "can't put his finger on" what is going so wrong is very disheartening to me, when many people can clearly see missed tackles (fundamentals), missed assignments (more fundamentals, especially in a zone scheme), and lack of energy from start till finish.

Don't know where to start PLEASE

How many of us would get a strange look from our boss if he came to us to tell us we were doing a bad job, and our reply was what Spags said

SaintsBro

Well. Some of ya'll (not just Shoe, and I mean this in a FRIENDLY way) are just looking for stuff to trip out on... he is not telling you ANY thing different from what you all are saying here, he's just saying it in a more diplomatic or level-headed way!

I mean he has got to be pulling his hair out over this. It's HIS NAME going on the defense in the history books, if this keeps up. You think he likes it?

When he is saying he "doesn't know where to start," he simply means, it's because there are MULTIPLE, simultaneous problems with this defense.

Think of it like a medical patient, who comes wheeling into the ER, and has many, many problems: he's overdosed on pills, which caused him to fall asleep at the wheel and be in a car wreck, he has high blood pressure, diabetes, kidney failure, he's allergic to a bunch of stuff, he's lost a lot of blood, and now he's having a heart attack right there on the gurney because of the stress of the car accident.

Even the best, most experienced world-class doctor is going to have problems with sorting out THAT kind of situation, where to even START fixing the guy on the gurney. Translation: we're fricked.

"can't put my finger on it" simply means, the players suck...that more than one player sucks, and they suck differently at different times...if it was one player or one scheme or one THING that was not working, Spags could put his finger on it and EASILY fix it for us. Or at least make it tolerably bad, acceptable. Kinda like Gregg Williams used to do a lot of.

But it's like Frogger, or that video game where the gnomes come popping out of the holes and you have to hit them with a hammer. He's got to be pulling his hair out over this thing, his hair is practically turning gray before our eyes!

But, he said in the longer version of the interview that he IS in fact losing sleep over this defense, so at least there's that!