Tobias-Reiper

... that's great that you listed all those stats and all... I guess I'm getting old... guess nowadays the DE purpose in the game is to sack the QB... my bad.

saintswhodi

I said it before. i'll say it again, TR you seem to have something against Will Smith, or you are trying to cover your point. Will smith had 40 tackles last year, better than Wallace EVER in a season. will Smith had 6 forced fumbles. Wallace has 5 IN HIS CAREER. How the can you say all Smith does is sack? You are an intelligent and very witty guy, but on this I think, no I know you came in and read the title and content of the thread wrong, but now when faced with that refuse to concede you were incorrect and wanna still back your point. Al Wallace is not even as good as Tony Bryant and you are trying to create some ridiculous image of him being better than Will. I have to agree with papz, talking about our lineman covering and all this crap has to be a joke. They may do it ONCE in a game, but no way is this a way this team bases it's defensive scheme, no matter how clowny it may have looked. 3-4 teams tend to employ a strategy similar to that, like NE will have McGinest cover an area or such, but obviously, us nor Carolina run a 3-4. In knowing the kind of guy you have been on here, I can't even believe you are even still trying to push this argument off. Seriously. You have to be bored or something.

papz

You forgot stop the run and create turnovers. Something he's done very well, 6 forced fumbles 40 tackles and 2 pass defensed last year. Hey 4 more pass defensed this year and he'll tie Wallace for his career total... not to mention Smith's 6 FF this year has already surpassed Wallace's career 5. Amazing what he's done in part time work without 2 ProBowl caliber defensive tackles beside him don't you think?

Wow sw ... stop readin my mind. It's like I double posted. I had to edit like freaking 3 times!

Tobias-Reiper

. . the original intend of my post was to state that I was skeptical of the comments of the original article...I am always skeptical of the "we look great on paper" mentality...

.. All things considered, I don't think that Will Smith played any better or that much better than a player on another team. That's that... I don't care how mediocre that player's career has been...

... and I still think stats are for Baseball...

..and yes DE's can help defend the passing game... and no it doesn't mean that the DE has to go chasing a TE down the field...

.. and with that, I agree to disagree...

papz

Yes of course DE's can help defend the passing game... it's by putting pressure/sacking the quarterback.

Then what are you basing your opinion on? Physical attributes? His IQ? Wonderlic score? Intangibles? Do explain. Even all of these categories have numbers.

TR dude, you are ignoring all the facts and stating Wallace is better than Smith on what? Nothing. Nevermind it's like you just want to ignore everything we've said... it's like saying the sky is green knowing damn well it's blue. It's like saying Chase Lyman wasn't going to get hurt again knowing that he would :P But hey, everyone has their own perception on things. If after all that has been stated, and you won't accept that your opinion sounds bogus, then go on with your bad-self. Power to ya my brother!

no_cloning

I know it sounds great, but is it really an effective formation? Or is Howard wasted inside and gets handled by a guard most of the time? I have zero facts to back it up, but I also don't remember Howard's name being called very often when he moved inside.
Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to move Bryant inside on passing downs and simply rotate the three DEs so they are (relatively) fresh late in the game.
Not convinced this is a good idea, just throwing it out there.

AllSaints

Our d-line should be good this year but...

nawlins

The biggest problem over the years with the defense has been defensive gap responsibilities. Linemen are always assigned a gap in defensive schemes. And the linebackers are suppose to adjust once the football is snapped.

Basically, our front seven has bit on everything. There was no concept of team work. No trust. It was just a piss poor attempt at playing team defense. It was easy pickin' for offenses.

The thing that changed over the last 4 games was "coaching". The "scheme" didn't change drasitically ... although it did change. But what really changed was the players learned to stay at home and take care of their "gaps".

My college coach used to preach gap responsibilties. Guess the old fart new what he was talking about

AllSaints

We have the best DE's no doubt but... we have the worst defence. Last year we were ranked 32 last... this year hopefully we can change that.

Danno

Good post. I think Charles Grant went from the attitude of busting upfield to grab a sack to correctly controlling his gap. His sacks went down a bit but he was burned much less on the cut-backs. I think he became a complete DE by years end.

James Allen showed me the same thing. In his first several games at SLB he would too often commit too early and once again the cut-back runs killed us. As the year progressed he started to understand the role of the SLB and played the position very well. He said the exact same thing in an interview with Hoakie/Kenny. He stated the freelance mentality of WLB took a while to break. The SLB is ALL about discipline and assignment. He feels like he understands the position a lot better than he did last year. He also didn't sound "dumb as a rock", which is what many of us, including me, labeled him.

His 1st 10 games keeps me skeptical, but his last 6 give me something to look forward to.

But without question, the biggest question mark on this team is who will step up at DT next to Young?