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Ok, yes that is a good point. My argument, and one that I made in another thread is that I am postulating that since we return only 5 starters from last year (four for the Jets, with Mayo being out) this squad is relatively young/inexperienced and we may be playing conservative until they become acclimated.
I do agree that our running game is lacking right now.
That's one possible theory as to why we have been so vanilla and generic on defense so far. I've outlines some others in another thread:
I agree with your comments up to a point.
First, I think that recent history in the NFL suggests that BBDB defenses don't work very well. Defenses have to be proactive and disrupt offenses in order to be effective in the pass-happy rules of the modern NFL. The teams that have won the SBs since 2001 have all features physical defenses which rattled opponents and disrupted the offensive game flow. That's how we beat the Rams in 2001 and how we dismantled the Colts offensive juggernaut teams in 2003-2004 that so many in the media favored to win it all. That's also how the Steelers and Giants won their SBs in 2005, 2007 and 2008. The 2006 Colts were much more balanced than their other teams on both offense and defense.
Second, I have felt that since 2004 we have lacked the defensive personnel to effectively attack, due in part to our loyalty to aging but slowing warriors such as Bruschi, Vrabel and Harrison. We just didn't have the speed to attack effectively. Certainly in 2008 we didn't have the secondary. So I understood why we played a BBDB defense, but it was by necessity, not by choice. I've been hoping for several years now that once we reloaded the defense we would get more aggressive and disruptive.
Third, I felt this preseason that we finally were close to having all the pieces in place to play an attacking defense. We have much more speed and talent on defense than we've had in a while, and a lot of players who give us versatility. I thought we would see more attacking (selectively, not necessarily an all out blitzing defense), more defensive looks, moving players around, etc. What I've seen so far has been a lot of the same vanilla BBDB defenses. They haven't been bad, because our players are athletic and have been making plays, but they have been much more limited than I expected. I've been personally pleased with the players so far, but not thrilled with the play calling and defensive scheme.
There are several theories that have been floated on this board to account for this:
1. BB and company are conservative about bringing the defense along with so many new and young players, and are starting out very generic. They will introduce more twists as players get comfortable with the base D, and by the end of the season we will see a much more aggressive defense. Just give things time, and we'll be fine.
2. BB and company intended to do some of the above, but injuries to Mayo and Meriweather have robbed them of the core players they need to do some of this. Once those guys are back and players get comfortable wit hthe base D, we should see a much more aggressive defense. Just give things time, and we'll be fine.
3. BB and company are lost in a time warp and are clueless as to how to build an attacking defense. We need a major overhaul of our defensive personnel and approach.
Theory #3 clearly seems a bit alarmist at this time. However, I would say that I haven't been overwhelmed with the defensive play calling since 2004. I keep waiting for the day when we will let the dogs out of the kennel and attack, and it hasn't come yet. If we don't see it by the 2nd half of the season (when we hopefully have key players healthy and by which time the new guys should be more comfortable with the schemes), then I will feel that the problem is more with the coaching mentality than with the personnel.
Personally, I much prefer us to win than to lose, and I have a lot of confidence in BB. I'm hopeful that this team will be very good by season's end. But I have seen a few things so far which disturb me, and I'd like to see a few things change before I have your level of confidence that all will be well.