Will Defense improve enough?

I see there are a number of threads on individual positions in the defense. But I would like you guys to give me your opinions on the overall state of the new defense. I know this may be premature before camp opens.

But I got to thinking about SF and how strong they look on both sides of the ball. Will our defense be improved enough to match theirs?

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I don't see our defense matching SF's. That would be a pretty tall order. But I think we will be much better than last year. We basically have no where to go but up.

Yes, its premature – the reason for optimism is the infusion of talent from the draft, UFDAs, and three free agents and the hope that returning vets play better. IMO at this point all we have is a realistic hope for improvement.

In the 2011 regular season, the Packers averaged 35 points/game and surrendered an average of 22.4. The 9ers averaged 23.8 ppg and surrendered 14.3. The Packers point differential was 12.6 while the 9er’s was 9.5, so while the Packers have to improve their defense, 9ers fans should be asking themselves will their offense improve enough for them to get to the Super Bowl. IOW the Packers defense doesn’t have to match the 9ers’ defense, it “just” has to improve significantly.

San Francisco was strong defensively, but was hardly an offensive juggernaut. They dumbed down their playbook and mostly took the ball out of Smith's hands, relying on a strong run game to help reduce turnovers. In terms of overall offense, they were one of the worst teams in the league in total offense last season, ranking 11th in scoring, 29th in passing and 8th in rushing. Defensively they were 16th against the pass, but were 1st against the run. This plays into our strengths more than it exploits our weakness.

As for our defense, while we finished last in yards allowed, we finished the year 19th in points allowed, in large part due to leading the league in interceptions. As far as being "Improved enough," I believe we will be. When you're last in yards allowed, there's really nowhere to go but up, so I expect to see a bit of improvement.

I'm not sure how to define "Significant improvement", but looking at the difference in terms of total defense, the 16th ranked Chargers allowed an average of 65 fewer yards per game than we did. I honestly don't know if that's considered significant or not, but my thinking is any improvement in reducing the yards allowed will help us tremendously, especially if our offense can repeat 80% of what it did on the field last season.

Woodson will continue to slide. The safety position will improve. Tramon will step up but not to his 2010 dominance. Perry will show promise but not dominance. D line will improve surprisingly.

Depends on Tramon Williams' shoulder. The pass rush should definitely improve though.

"Nowhere to go but up" Unless we set another NFL record for poor defense. Our defense can slide MUCH more. I can't even say that there wasn't a worse defense last year, we just got exploited because we were usually ahead. Chalk it up to a bad year, stats can be deceiving.

Sorry to pick on you, because you're far from the only person saying it, but I just don't buy this argument. "Teams passed more because they were behind." So? The Packers knew they were going to throw, so they should have been ready for it. Our defense just didn't get the job done.

What gives you the idea that SF was strong on both sides of the ball? They were only 26th in offense and 29th in passing offense.

As for the original question, I think our defense will be greatly improved. The main issue last year was lack of pass rush. I have never seen a team acquire more pass rushers in the offseason that we did this year. If only 2 or 3 of them can contribute, our entire defense will benefit. There's a good reason why Vegas currently favors us to win the Super Bowl.

Giants didn't have a very good defense last year.

The exact same thing happened with the Saints and Patriots last year. Teams were forced to pass pass pass against them too. It's not a coincidence. Just because you know something is coming doesn't mean you're going to stop it all game long. Pass plays tend to be big plays. If the other team hits on 2 or 3 of those (which is much easier when the defense is playing to the sidelines to keep the other team from running out of bounds to stop the clock), suddenly your defense looks a lot worse than it is. If you have a mind for statistical analysis, have a read:

http://www.advancednflstats.com/2011/12/epx.html#more

There were several defenses worse than ours last year. That is, unless you think yards is all that matters. The worst defense by far was Tampa Bay.

You have to consider how much of those yards were trash time yards though. We were top 15 in yards allowed per quarter for the first 3 quarters (top 10 in the 2nd quarter). In the 4th quarter we were around 30th. The Saints and Patriots had a similar pattern. Quite simply, all three teams gave up a ton of 4th quarter yards in the middle of the field because the priority is to keep the clock running by protecting the sidelines. If that results in some meaningless yards and a score or two when you're already up by 20, then so be it.

Prior to the final Lions game (in which none of our Pro Bowlers played and only a few of our other starters played more than a quarter or so) we were about 10th in points allowed.

I've said it a thousand times but I could care less how many yards we give up when we don't give up a ton of points.

But the team can improve rushing the passer, we just weren't getting pressure last years. It's amazing we still got all those turnovers when Qbs just sat in the pocket.

Looking at yards given up and points given up its clear that yards given up doesn't hinder you if you are at the bottom of the league in that. It's being at the bottom of the league for points given up that kills you.

Closer to 14th going in to the game, but your main point true. We sat Pickett, Woodson, Williams and Matthews in that game, which obviously weakened our already anemic defense.

You raise some very good points, and our team is one of the most opportunistic in the turn over department by far. Unfortunately I don't feel like we can completely count on getting turnovers as a way of bolstering our defense. As you said above, we can definitely improve in the pass rush department, and we're going to need to moving forward.

I actually think that the additions of Perry and Worthy will be amazing to this defense.

I think we will improve to a middle of the Pack (no pun intended) defense. If they had been that last year we would have hoisted the trophy again.

It's pretty much a given in the last 5 years or so that you have to be the lowest seed in the NFC if you want to get to the Super Bowl for some reason.

13th actually, according to this article http://smartfootball.com/stats/the-...ds-than-theyve-gained-but-what-does-that-mean