I have always felt Sutton's defense's was all smoke and mirrors for the most part. That 2014 defense with supposedly high rankings and players in their prime gave up a 28+ lead in the playoffs.

2015 was probably legit and definitely their best year overall defensively. Been all downhill since.

Those teams just forced a bunch of turnovers didn't they?

2014 they didn't get many turnovers and were 30th in the league. They were 5th though in 2015

IN SUTTON WE TRUST

No, I see the writing on the wall. Everybody is looking for a scapegoat. People don't want to think about the chance that 8-9 guys on this defense need to be replaced.

Firing Sutton is the easy play. Too bad it won't fix anything but hey, gotta give the masses their pablum.

And 4th

QFT

They replaced that many starters this year.

Not a good sign then, is it?

It's called an upgrade.

I think

Probably not for Sutton if it continues.

Reid is very loyal though and remember he made an O-line coach his d-coordinator in Philly and had to be forced to fire him after it predictably went bad.

It isn't Sutton's fault that Speaks is slow and KPass has zero pass rush moves.

It's just depressing. This team can't draft defense worth a crap.

Unless we start forcing turnovers, or the offense continues to score 30+ per game, this will be like the second half of 2003. This defense is predicated on forcing turnovers and field goals. Neither of which it is accomplishing.

And our third down defense looks pretty stellar when teams have only faced like 5 of them all season.

A five minute Field Goal drive to start the third would have made a huge difference, at some point the Offense needs to learn ball control imo.

I mean, every single drop of evidence to the contrary, I guess you're right.

When Bob Sutton had actual players in his defense who were explosive and/or assignment sound, he was the architect of one of the most aggressive blitzing teams in football and was routinely playing super-aggressive press-man coverage on the outside. Is it your position that he simply forgot about all that? You think Andy burned the game tapes or something?

No, Sutton is not dropping guys because he wants to do it that way. He's dropping guys because he HAS to do it that way. And when you bitch about the long conversions you're disregarding just how ungodly awful this team is at tackling. He had plays dialed up that would've stopped at least 2 of those long conversions last week had 1 of 2 guys just made a goddamn tackle.

Sutton's doing what his personnel and his offense say he should be doing. But he doesn't have anyone that can create a turnover (which is what the blitzing would help him with) and he doesn't have anyone that can actually finish a play. He can't blitz when his CBs aren't going to snag an errant pass without holding and aren't going to make a tackle if they end up in a 1 on 1 situation in space. They'll end up getting Conte'd like that poor bastard last night and a 13 yard gain goes off for 75. And of course you'll be the first person to blame Sutton for leaving a man isolated on a poor tackling team. Because evidently it's just his fault for not putting 13 guys on the field.

I mean shit, Nelson's holding for no reason to erase interceptions in the end zone. Scandrick is holding for no reason and erasing defensive scores. They're getting the QB to roll one direction and then chasing their coverage assignment across the field so they're abandoning backside zones for easy completions.

This is blown assignments and a bunch of guys who don't have a nose for the football. Murray, Nelson and Scandrick are not ball-hawks. Fuller's average and Parker's lost a step. Hitchens isn't a coverage backer. They aren't a team that's going to generate a bunch of turnovers because that's just not who their personnel dictates they'll be. They are a team that has to play assignment sound, fundamentally strong football. They have to be where they're supposed to be and make the tackle when they get there.

They're doing neither. That's not on Sutton. And with his history as a guy who prefers aggressive man coverage out wide and exotic blitzes up front, I have no idea how you can argue that this is what he WANTS to be doing. But with 2-3 score leads and iffy personnel anywhere, of course this is what he is resorting to.