Idk, sometimes those stats are skewed as well. Like the Jets only had 1 more sack than the Pats in 09 but their defense was leaps and bounds better at getting pressure on the QB. It'd be interesting to go back and log each sack throughout the 06 season to see if they were just padding their stats against bad teams, like Banta-Cain did vs the Bills this year with 5 sacks against them in two games, or if they were legitimately great at getting to the QB.
Regardless, I think we all agree an improvement from 09 is a MUST if this team is going to go anywhere this year.
I agree on some more aggressive scheming. I've been talking about it since the middle of last season. Hopefully it will finally happen.
1) The Jets had just one more sack than we did last year, but they were the first ranked defense in terms of points allowed. I think there are two critical elements to their success. The first is that last season was the first time anyone had seen the Jets deploy this type of defense under Ryan. At this point in time, everyone now has had a whole summer to study tapes, so their long term success remains to be seen. Also, you will recall that the second time we played the Jets, we fared much better.
The second is that the type of defense the Jets play is a high-risk, high reward type 46 that attacks frequently shifts weakside or overloads, often leaving their CBs on an island, and for the most part this has worked for them (e.g. Revis), and this coming season seems to be even better, with the addition of Cromartie.
However, again this is high-reward/high-risk defense in that it depends on many factors to be successful: youth, athleticism, avoidance of injury, contract issues. It certainly looks much sexier than the Tampa 2 where you sit back and react. However there are glaring gaps in this defense. The open side corner has no safety help, the closed side DE must play man coverage over the TE (presumably Hernandez). There could be a lateral play to the RB, etc.
In short, they are one injury away from being an average defense.
2) In regard to our defense, the biggest obstacles i saw us having the previous season was first and foremost, leadership. Second, getting the techniques and assignments down, and third, maturity.
Last year we didn't really have anyone on the defense willing to call anyone out for missed assignments and consequently few players felt a sense of obligation or responsibility to not repeat the same mistakes. Wilfork was in the middle of a contract dispute, Springs was the most senior DB, and Thomas was the senior LB.
Like it or not, at least half the players on last year's defense were young or were new to the system, and this is going to continue into this year. What everyone seems to forget is that the same thing happened before the superbowl years. Does anyone remember Bruschi blowing assignments or making mental mistakes (as inconceivable as that is)? No, but it did happen, and it does happen to young players.
Now, think about this- is the answer to this to give them more aggressive assignments? To have them blitz more? To keep looking for the magical OLB? Tell them "oh we're gonna try one gap now because we have no patience"? They've been drinking milk for two years now and suddenly we're going to start giving them orange juice because we're not happy with a young defense coming in at no. 5?
Last year at New Orleans, the defense got baptized. There were many missed handoff calls. On more than one instance, the LB corp failed to communicate the correct coverage to the DB. Meriweather whose job was to drop to his landmark and buzz his feet and read, let himself be goaded by a Brees pump fake when he knew his own CB was slant-blitzing weakside. That is a stupid mental mistake which we will see less and less of as this corp matures. That game was, I think, a benchmark, a turning point for the defense. It was a slap in their face.
We are not going to see a philosophical change in the defense. We will see more complicated schemes.
However I'm going to say it again and again until I'm blue in the face, the "magical" pass-rusher is NOT the answer to our "defensive dilemma." Why? If the other team knows who the pass-rusher is, they either stone him or play away from him. Simple as that.
The best pass-rushing is when you don't know where it is coming from and therefore can't scheme for it. And schemes were our achilles heel last season, but we know it won't last for long because our players are only going to get better, wiser, and they will mature as they master the nuances and timing of their assignments and schemes.