Give Credit to Redskins Defense

[Bulldog]

The interceptions by Rob Jackson and London Fletcher in turn tilted the contest towards the Redskins and then finalized things when Cleveland was trying to rally late.

You can add in some nice pass rush pressure in the second half, something else that has nto always been there when needed this year.

After a season of throwing a shoe at the TV over the performance of the D, at least today we can give them a nice shout out.

 

[stevenaa]

Yup. Over the course of the win streak, Haslett has been better with his adjustments. Today the D was huge. Son nice to see them rise up.

 

[Nobody]

There has been very slight improvement in the grand scheme of things. Coming from me, that's a lot I assure you. But until we quit giving up a huge TD every single ****ing week to let the other team back in it, and until we learn to tackle instead of trying to strip the ball with zero success while giving up a score or huge 1st down, I will personally continue to have no faith at all in this defense.

Just in the last 3 games, we have given up TD plays of 31, 69 and 85 yards. For the season, we have given up TDs of 30,31,33,34,48,59,69,73 and 85 yards. And that's not including the multitude of huge plays that didn't result in a TD. We seriously need to work on that. I hate thinking we can be ahead by 3 scores with 10 minutes to play, and still feel like we don't have it locked up.

We've given up more plays over 30 yards in the last 3 games than the previous 8 combined, and we were doing a terrible job then. Something needs to change. I'm just tickled that so far our offense has exploded enough to make sure it doesn't matter.

 

[Rymanofthenorth]

we are still giving up big plays, still unable to stop the run, and we just beat a rookie QB who looks like a rookie, however there has been some improvement overall in the defence, which wasnt hard lol

 

[Beans]

Haslett is still a turd. His unit constantly gives up the big play. I think the Skins could do much better at defensive coordinator.

 

[Neophyte]

we are still giving up big plays, still unable to stop the run, and we just beat a rookie QB who looks like a rookie, however there has been some improvement overall in the defence, which wasnt hard lol

I'll give you the big plays, Ryman, I don't get the comment about being unable to stop the run. We gave up a total of 58 yards on 15 runs from scrimmage, one of which was a 16 yarder to Cribbs on a Wildcat call. That is 3.8 ypc. Richardson went 11 for 28 and half of those yards came on one play.

Seems like a pretty good day to me.

 

[tshile]

they played well on the road against a team that wasn't supposed to be easy.

i wasn't so sure haslette should be fired before, but i need to see more over the next 3 weeks - yeah, 3 weeks - before i'm willing to say for sure he should stay.

 

[redskins26]

We have our opponents right where we want to be
Haveing a top ranked defense doesn't matter anymore in the playoffs as New Orleans won with a 25th rated defense
Both the giants and New England had the 27th and 31st rated defense last year
The key is to have a good to above average offense

 

[redskins26]

We are currently the fifth ranked team against the run so we do stop the run

 

[Nobody]

We are currently the fifth ranked team against the run so we do stop the run

It's a smoke and mirrors stat. The ONLY reason we are ranked 5th in rushing defense, is because every team on the planet knows you can throw on us all day long, so they do. Look at the number of running plays we've faced this year, I'd be willing to bet it's probably 40% or more lower than any other team in the league. If nobody runs on you, of course you'll have good numbers.

 

[redskins26]

It might be skewed a little bit because when teams fall behind by 14 or more they start to pass more we had a 16 point lead late in the third on NO
We were up 21-6 on the rams at the half
We fell behind cincy
We were up 21-3 on bucs
And the falcons game wich was close but they did have a high pass to run ratio

 

[Ax]

No credit. Cash only.

And, we're cashing in on opportunity.

Beat the Eagles.

Nothing else matters.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

This may be sacrilege on this board, but I think Rob Jackson is a better player than Orakpo...certainly in coverage.

No chance...thankfully the dropoff isn't huge, but Rak is a better player than Jackson. One interception does not mean he's better, lol.

 

[tshile]

what about 3 interceptions?

That's 3 more in 12 games than orakpo has in his entire career.

I don't see teams running his way successfully like it seemed they did against orakpo.
I don't see a guy that gets stuffed by the same move when rushing the passer - game, after game, after game.
I don't see a guy that looks completely out of place and unable to make a play in pass coverage.

I seriously doubt Jackson is the better athlete - but it seems he's the better outside linebacker in a 3-4.

3 ints, 5 pass defensed, 4.5 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, 1 TD.
he's started 12 games.

for comparison purposes, orakpo had 0 ints, 5 pass defensed, 9 sacks, 3 forced fumbles, and 0 TD's while starting in 16 games last year.

he's definitely taken a while to start playing better, no doubt about it. but he seems to be making more and more plays as the season goes on.

 

[Henry]

We stop the run fine. We are 13th in yards per attempt against. It's not just that teams pass on us a lot. When they do run they don't get a lot.

I baffled anyone could look at THIS game, where Richardson got 2.2 yards a carry or something, and suggest we 'still' can't stop the run.

The defense isn't great, but at this point it's picked up enough that it doesn't suck. During the past five weeks the Redskins have given up an average of 20.4 points a game. That's ninth best in the league and the best in the division (by miles) over that span. I would call that an improvement.

If we continue to play like a top ten defense and our offense keeps humming along like it has been, we can go toe-to-toe with any team the in the league.

 

[Lanky Livingston]

The DTD went right to him, forced by a Kerrigan sack; not even really sure why you mention it.

Running Orakpo's way successfully? As Extreme said, they aren't running this year as they don't have to - our secondary is giving up a billion yards a game. Not to mention, Jackson doesn't get the pressure consistently that Orakpo gets; I know a lot of you are hung up on sack numbers (however 4.5 sacks over 12 games projects to 6 sacks over 16 games, just FYI), but Rak is much more than sacks. He consistently got pressure with "the same move" which flushed QBs from the pocket and into other players' arms. This is clear from the 16 fewer team sacks we have this year from last year - they'll probably get closer over the last few games, but I doubt they'll average 8 per game against the Cowboys & Eagles...

 

[riggins44]

This is a tough crowd. We've won 5 in a row and won't finish no worse than 500. Considering where we were 6 weeks ago I feel great.

The D is playing a lot better. Yesterday I was impressed with how well they tackled and played overall. They repeatedly got off the field on 3rd downs. This is evident in the time of possession.

Enjoy the moment and support our guys.

 

[Goaldeje]

This is a tough crowd. We've won 5 in a row and won't finish no worse than 500. Considering where we were 6 weeks ago I feel great.

The D is playing a lot better. Yesterday I was impressed with how well they tackled and played overall. They repeatedly got off the field on 3rd downs. This is evident in the time of possession.

Enjoy the moment and support our guys.

Yes. YES...

I know Haslett isn't popular, but there is less than a 5% chance he is fired at the end of the season. Sorry guys. Unless the D implodes over the next two weeks (and we miss the playoffs), I can practically guarantee he is back. And he should be back. No one likes to hear this, but injuries have decimated his unit, and he finally has compensated and is producing a unit that is making plays. We're not dominating anybody, but we are playing VERY solid D, well good enough to win.

Haz ain't going anywhere, guys. Sorry.

 

[tshile]

Henry - the defense played very well this week, all the way around.

but i'm not going to get too carried away with how good we are at stopping the run when teams don't need to run on us, or can't run on us because they have to score quickly to get back in the game.

just like I wasn't jumping all over kyle shanahan for not calling runs when we were down and trying to get back into games earlier this season.

when they show me they can consistently stop a team trying to bleed the clock by running, i'll be willing to declare them great against the run.

that's not to suggest they aren't, they haven't had many of those opportunities. i'm just not willing to hang my hat on it. ray rice destroyed us in his first 5 carries two weeks ago... I feel we're lucky their dumb coordinator decided to start passing in the second half...

The DTD went right to him, forced by a Kerrigan sack; not even really sure why you mention it.

Running Orakpo's way successfully? As Extreme said, they aren't running this year as they don't have to - our secondary is giving up a billion yards a game. Not to mention, Jackson doesn't get the pressure consistently that Orakpo gets; I know a lot of you are hung up on sack numbers (however 4.5 sacks over 12 games projects to 6 sacks over 16 games, just FYI), but Rak is much more than sacks. He consistently got pressure with "the same move" which flushed QBs from the pocket and into other players' arms. This is clear from the 16 fewer team sacks we have this year from last year - they'll probably get closer over the last few games, but I doubt they'll average 8 per game against the Cowboys & Eagles...

that's fine, I prefer turnovers to sacks and orakpo is lost in coverage. I think he'd be better as d linemen where his responsibilities don't involve pass defense.

not to mention the gap in what we pay the two...

 

[Rymanofthenorth]

im not as concerned about average per carry as I am with being able to stop the run when we need to , I also think that the fact that teams pass on us at will and this affects the rush defence because really few teams have to run on us. we did a good job against richardson, except in the red zone and on key downs.