Which isn't primarily tooting my horn. It's a point about perceptions and assumptions responding to an erratic track record.
For 3-4 years our defense has shown flashes of excellence and developed some fine, or at least talented, players. AT TIMES they have shut people down.
Yet, throughout that time, they have also broken down often enough to fall into the middle of the pack. They have had spectacularly bad games AND spectacular collapses. Yet this has too rarely been perceived.
Consider the last 2 games. They got torched by NO. But let's not forget the previous games.
In that game, they shut the opposing offense down for 3.4 quarters and took a 13 point lead into the last 7:00.
Then they completely collapsed. And we lost the game. And as someone pointed out, our O had a slight edge on TOP in that game.
I've said it over and over again, especially in preseason. Ours HAS NOT BEEN a Top 10 defense, let alone a great one. Truly excellent defenses DO NOT collapse for entire games nor do they give up late leads anywhere near as often as ours does.
For years on this and another board, I have tried to draw attention to another point: each year, we have LOST several games from WINNING POSITIONS even with bad QBing. That is NOT solely about the offense. It is also about a defense that does not know how to be clutch. They know how to get hot in certain games. But not how to dig down and be clutch on a consistent basis.
Looking at this defense, it is wrong to forget either side of the equation.
- They ARE an extremely talented defense with some brilliant players.
- They are ALSO erratic, unsound, and prone to ignominious collapses.
Both are true. And, for me, a unit with both of those characteristics is a unit that is poorly coached. Good coaching simply does better with our raw materials.
I think Williams is a ridiculously overrated coach who does not understand how to maximize the impact of our talent and whose schemes are inherently unsound and prone to collapse.
And I think Fisher's reputation as a defensively oriented HC is a joke. Together, the 2 are a disaster. ON DEFENSE as well as in total.
