5 Rings for Brady!! said:
I said mainly, not 'only'. If you simply review the big plays we have given up this year, they mostly revolved around missed tackles in the secondary. Or cornerbacks in position to make plays but didn't.
We have had an anemic 3 man pass rush for several years, but when our secondary is hot, or when we blitz extensively, we have been okay.
When was the last time that we had a really good pass rush from just the front three? Add up Warren, Seymour, and Wilfork's sacks, add in Ted Washington's and Traylor's and Jarvis Green's. I think Bobby Hamilton had as good a year as we have seen in D-Line pass rushing. It has always been the LBs that get our sacks.
The fact is that this pass rush we have is nothing new. But we don't have a fully healthy Rodney, a Ty Law, or a healthy and effective Wilson, or even a completely healthy Hobbs or Hawkins or Gay.
In the past, we would hit QBs from the LB position because our secondary was so good that we made QB's hesitate so they wouldn't throw a pick. Coverage sacks. Remember those? Those days are over. Harrington can complete passes on us. Even our 'patchwork' secondary of 2004 kept the play in front of them and gang tackled people, as well as creating turn-overs. Pretty much the same D-Line we have now, except Washington instead of Wilfork. Neither of whom rack up many sacks.
Nothing has changed in our pass rushing abilities, same D-Line as before and only aging Wille out of the picture. We never have generated a ton of heat from our front 3.
The secondary is not in shambles or anything, but I will not try to pin their missed opportunites on the pass rush, which is pretty much the same as it ever was.
I started to break down the big plays, but that's honestly not what I'm even talking about. Yes the secondary has had breakdowns that have resulted in big plays. But the plays I'm talking about are your average 'move the chain' plays (not to say that pressure wouldn't have helped on those big plays, but still, let me make my point).
Take, for instance, Miami's TD drive that resulted in Ronnie Brown's TD run. The play that set up the TD was the great catch over the middle by Welker. On that play is a good example of the lack of pressure making the secondary look bad.
Hobbs had his man perfectly. He was in the WRs hip pocket. The safety help was late getting there, granted, but the QB had time to take a nap, eat a sandwich, and then pass and yet still he had absolutely no pressure in his face.
This lack of pressure resulted in a perfect pass and a great catch that even good CB coverage couldn't stop.
There have been points in this season (and much of last season) that look like that. Think of the San Diego game last season if you need several instances in the same game. Think of how well the Bills moved the ball in the first half if you need some more recent evidence. Or think of the Denver game. Or the second half of the Jets game. Or points in the Dolphins game.
When the QB can just stand there and not worry at all about getting hit, he's going to be very accurate. Our defense has lulls (some longer than others) where we get absolutely ZERO pressure, and that is usually when our secondary starts to look bad.
Again, I'm not exonerating the secondary. They've blown some plays too and had some instances where the coverage wasn't what it should be. But for much of the time when the secondary has looked really bad, getting beat over and over to sustain drives, it's been because QBs are just sitting back there waiting for an opening, not even worried about the rush.
It's not been as bad as early 2005, but it's very inconsistent. I can't wait until that TEAM defense shows up a little more evenly through a 60 minute game.
