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We (me included) have been whining about our porous D that we have been seeing the last few seasons, THIS one included. Harrison came out and said, "It is the players, not Lebeau" who are the reason for such a soft D. Cowher came out and said this D was soft. But you know what? They are all wrong.
This D may not be among the top in the league. But, that's not relevant. The fact is ANY D can be made to look soft, because with the rules and the refs' interpretation (obviously, in accordance with the NFL powers) we will no longer see ANY defenses that can hold today's offenses to 10 points or less on a steady basis.
What we say yesterday is a case where, even though the D gave up 30+ points, it was still a modern-day version of playing good D. The formula of a D consistently holding opponents to 14 or less points, and the offense scoring 20, no longer wins in today's NFL. So, since it's not realistic to consistently win in such a fashion, it's time to scrap that model. It's not sustainable. The Colts came in as the #3 D in the NFL. All Ben did was torch them for 522 yards and 6 TDs. Does that mean the Colts' D is terrible? Nope. It just means they faced an offense that kept the ball all day. The Colts will have other days where the D keeps their opponents score down; but today, no such D exists that can do that every week.
The truth is, an effort like we saw yesterday, against a franchise QB, will now be considered decent. I said early on that we have to score 35+ to win the game. We won't every week; we played the #1 O and won't every week. The point is, we need a new paradigm to judge what is and what is not a decent D. In hindsight, even though we gave up 34 points, the D was not all that bad, all things considered; they hit Luck all day long, mostly bottled up the run, and even got some turn overs. If we need our D told opponents under 20 points to win, then we can expect losing. That model simply doesn't exist any longer (unless playing the very worst teams). So don't expect it to. We are seeing record points, record come backs, etc. We will need offensive output to put up 30+ points, or we can expect to lose.
This D may not be among the top in the league. But, that's not relevant. The fact is ANY D can be made to look soft, because with the rules and the refs' interpretation (obviously, in accordance with the NFL powers) we will no longer see ANY defenses that can hold today's offenses to 10 points or less on a steady basis.
What we say yesterday is a case where, even though the D gave up 30+ points, it was still a modern-day version of playing good D. The formula of a D consistently holding opponents to 14 or less points, and the offense scoring 20, no longer wins in today's NFL. So, since it's not realistic to consistently win in such a fashion, it's time to scrap that model. It's not sustainable. The Colts came in as the #3 D in the NFL. All Ben did was torch them for 522 yards and 6 TDs. Does that mean the Colts' D is terrible? Nope. It just means they faced an offense that kept the ball all day. The Colts will have other days where the D keeps their opponents score down; but today, no such D exists that can do that every week.
The truth is, an effort like we saw yesterday, against a franchise QB, will now be considered decent. I said early on that we have to score 35+ to win the game. We won't every week; we played the #1 O and won't every week. The point is, we need a new paradigm to judge what is and what is not a decent D. In hindsight, even though we gave up 34 points, the D was not all that bad, all things considered; they hit Luck all day long, mostly bottled up the run, and even got some turn overs. If we need our D told opponents under 20 points to win, then we can expect losing. That model simply doesn't exist any longer (unless playing the very worst teams). So don't expect it to. We are seeing record points, record come backs, etc. We will need offensive output to put up 30+ points, or we can expect to lose.
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