Imagine how good the 2022 defense might have really been had the offense shown even the slightest bit of competence?
Yes, I have. Not only did the O pile up three and outs at an alarming rate, the kicking game was losing field position, particularly from
the worst punting we've seen in years. A team is most effective when all 3 phases work in conjunction and it's a tribute to how
good our D was that they kept us in games when they were still sucking wind and nothing else seemed to be helping.
We had the most pressure from the front 7 in quite a while, which was a big part of it, but I thought the D backfield seemed very
well-coached with very few mistakes considering the addition of Jack and Marcus getting a lot of quality snaps as rookies. I don't know what
PFF says, but my eyes told me that we kept plays in front of us, the coverage was tight and, in particular, the tackling was sharp.
I could also point to improvements, some major, from some of the other guys, like Uche, Judon, Wise, Bentley and Tavai. When you've got rookies who
stepped in like that and a lot of guys who had their best seasons without much help from the other 2 phases it's safe to say that those guys
were comfortable with their coaches even if we aren't sure who does exactly what.
Without DMac's experience on the back end it's hard to know what to expect, but whatever happens I expect that this year's D will have a lot more help
from the other 2 phases.
