“It’s only preseason” is usually a counter to “Oh no, we suck again.”
Likewise, “it’s vanilla defense” is a common retort to “Rob Ryan needs to go.”
Fan forums have pages upon pages of this back and forth. People spend hours over the course of several days hashing this out until the thread finally dies, and a (un)worthy successor takes it’s place.
There’s truth to both extremes, but both are chasing their tails. I think it would help to recall what where some of the main issues last year to properly appreciate what we’ve seen so far. While this isn’t the totality of our issues in 2014, these are the big 4 in my opinion.
– Pass defense (ranked 25th in the NFL surrendering 251.2 ypg.)
– Run defense (ranked 29th in the NFL surrendering 4.8 ypc.)
– Spotty pass rush (harder to quantify, but finished with 34 sacks, finishing 25th in the NFL)
– Missed tackles (ranked dead last by PFF in tackling efficiency)
So far this preseason, the defensive starters have yielded almost all underneath stuff. They’re not getting beat deep. It’s just not there. The lone exception was Keenan Lewis yielding a 29 yard reception against Houston, but even then, it was good coverage.
The run defense has been stout, even with the 2nd and 3rd string, yielding 2.4 ypc.
The pass rush remains to be spotty, although we saw some signs of life when Jordan and Hicks got some extended playing time against the Patriots, and rookie Hau’oli Kikaha has been generating pressure on a consistent basis. Still, improvement is needed here.
Tackling has improved among the starters, limiting yards after the catch, and meeting ball carriers in the backfield.
Of course, this is preseason, so how much can we glean from it? Are we just going to exaggerate the negatives while minimizing the positives? If the preseason is an indicator that the pass rush will be poor, then why can’t it also be an indicator that we’ll have a stout, sure tackling, bend but don’t break defense?
What’s even more bewildering to me is that expectations for the defense this year were low, so why the group freakout when every single issue that the team had last year isn’t fixed by the 3rd game of the preseason?
If we’re to take anything from the preseason, it’s that the defense has progressed, not regressed, and fans should be thankful for that.
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