Not sure why the defense or Haslett would be taking a beating today...the defense kept us in it yesterday, not to mention looked like it might out score our offense again.
Our defense was fantastic yesterday. I just stole what's below from another site. Have you seen this?
And if so, why would anyone think he should be employed here?
New Orleans: Jim Haslett really began coaching in New Orleans, where he was the linebackers coach. He followed up then new coordinator Monte Kiffin after only one year at the helm. You will begin to see this pattern of following great coaches in the following paragraphs while he builds his career. Haslett, like Kiffin, got only one year at the helm of New Orleans defense and upon inheriting Kiffin's defense produced a team ranked 13th in yards allowed and 20th in points, as well as 28th in takeaways. Not very impressive. Kiffen went on to produce a top 10 defense the next 10 years in a row in Tampa Bay.
Pittsburgh: Its the move to Pittsburgh that set the stage for the grand larceny of Hasletts career. It is his time here that solidified him as a legitimate defensive coach in many minds, providing a secure future, and jobs many years down the line, even with a lack of proven success. Primarily, Haslett has Dick LeBeau to thank for that. See, Dick LeBeau was the defensive coordinator at that time. Dick Lebeau's defense was the start of what would be a dominant steelers defense under LeBeau. They were top 10 in every category for both of his two years prior to Haslett, and that included being 3rd, and 2nd, in yards allowed in 1995 and 1996. LeBeau was lured away to Cincinati(before he came back to Pittsburgh and produced 6 #1 defenses in the NFL in his next 9 years at Pittsburgh), and Haslett began his Pittsburg career. Haslett went straight to work...dumping the defense down the toilet. In his first year Pittsburghs defense dropped to 6th and 11th in Yards and Points respectively, the next year down to 12 and 7, and the third to mediocraty at 11th and 12th. On an average NFL team those were good numbers, and hence why Haslett was then regarded as a legitimate NFL coach. But hindsight is 20/20, and when you look back and see the defense he inherited, and how it plumetted in the 3 years he was at the helm, and how they immedietely returned to prominance the two years following(ranking 7th and 6th in 2000, and then 1st and 3rd in 2001), the picture of Jim Haslett begins to become just a little clearer
New Orleans #2: So it is with this decent resume, though in my opinion not of his own accord, he set off for New Orleans. Mind you, not that it was any fault of his own to accept a great job opportunity given. But for a person regarded as a good defensive coach, he would soon be exposed in New Orleans. Haslett would again follow up a big name coach, this time it would be Mike Ditka. Now Ditka had had a lot of success with the Bears, but was miserable at New Orleans. Jim Haslett began his career there with perhaps his only decent coaching year, coaching them to a 10th and 8th ranked defense in 2000. It went downhill in a hury from there. The next year his defense dropped to 16th in yards and 27th in points allowed. The next year 27th and 26th, and in fact, his defense at New Orleans would only finish better than 26th in points allowed in ONE of his last 5 years there(out of 6). After 2005, he left New Orleans, having coached a very woeful defense.
StLouis: Haslett then got another defensive coordinator job. This was probably because the assumption was because he was decent in Pittsburgh, maybe he just couldnt be a head coach? While on the surface this made sense, this proved to be a very wrong assumption. Over his 3 years coaching the St Louis defense, they were ranked 28th, 31st, and 31st in points allowed. He left St Louis and what should have been his last defensive coordinator job. But the Redskins werent having any of that non-sense talk. They for some reason wanted Haslett, no doubt for top secret insider info on St Louis, who always seemed to beat the Redskins.
Washington: And so, we have his current tenure. It started out dubiously with a defense ranked 31st in yards allwed and 21st in points. It then didnt get much better, with the next year the defense was ranked 13th and 21st, followed up by 28th and 22nd, and so far 27th and 28th this year(Yes, I know its early).
In this context, why would defensive problems surprise anyone?