DoddPower
Nick Perry is watching you, NFL QB's!
It doesn't sound ridiculous at all to want CONSISTENT 3rd down stops as opposed to living or dying by the turnover, which is exactly what they did. If they couldn't get a turnover, the drive was almost always going to end up in points or at least keep Rodger's off the field for awhile. Way too many gambles, which resulted in way too many big plays. Obviously a turnover every drive would be better than a sack and a punt. The point is, that's not going to happen. No team is going to be able to always get an interception when it matters most, especially against elite teams. I'll take my chances of a consistent and relentless pass rush over hoping for turnover. Thirty one interceptions does not a good defense make by itself, last season being a perfect example. Giving much credit to the defense for the 15 wins doesn't make much sense to me. The offense very obviously carried this team. The Packers defended a total of 1049 plays last season. 1049 / 31 turnovers = almost 34. That means the Packer's got one interception out of every 34 plays (or ~3%). What about the other plays when teams are driving up and down the field, with little or no pressure, keeping Rodger's off the field, and scoring a significant amount of points? I understand other things can factor into that equation like sacks, etc., but that's obviously not something they were very good at either and the point still remains the same. I don't mean to minimize the importance of interceptions by any means, but I'll take a team that pressure the quarterback, tackles well, and is assignment sure and only gets ~20 interceptions than one that is none of those and get's 31 interceptions. One of the main reasons they won the turnover battle is because the Packer's only threw 8 interceptions all year. Most defenses would win the turnover battle with passing stats like that.
It doesn't make any difference to me if anyone thinks we weren't as bad as other teams. I don't use other crappy teams to justify my teams play. I know what I saw on the field and it was a BAD defense. It wasn't the worst ever and perhaps not the worst in the league, but it was still bad. Definitely not a championship defense. They don't even have to be elite for the this team to win the Super Bowl, but in my opinion, they have to be much, much better. Everyone is welcome to their opinion, but mine won't change on this topic because I know what I saw on the field. I'm not using yards or points as the basis of my opinion. Just my interpretation of what I saw on the field.
It doesn't make any difference to me if anyone thinks we weren't as bad as other teams. I don't use other crappy teams to justify my teams play. I know what I saw on the field and it was a BAD defense. It wasn't the worst ever and perhaps not the worst in the league, but it was still bad. Definitely not a championship defense. They don't even have to be elite for the this team to win the Super Bowl, but in my opinion, they have to be much, much better. Everyone is welcome to their opinion, but mine won't change on this topic because I know what I saw on the field. I'm not using yards or points as the basis of my opinion. Just my interpretation of what I saw on the field.