I'm sick of hearing bad stuff about our defense

[display name]

For any of you who are all caught up in the [i]Offense Shreds Defense[/i] articles that come out every weak, please remember that:
1) They are about evenly matched.
2) The defense was not at full strength.
3) It's just assumed that the defense beats the offense, so when they do you don't hear about it that much.
As for the losses of Jarret Johnson, Cory Redding, and Terrell Suggs for an indefinet amount of time, we have plenty of young players completing to help replace them. Please remember:
1) Terrell Suggs should not miss the whole season.
2) Like I have said before, we survived the loss of Suggs and Haloti Ngata for part of the 2009 campaign and did no worse than the rest of the year. Ed Reed was out for 6 games in 2010 and we went 4-2. Ray Lewis missed 4 games that year and we were undefeated.
3) Haloti Ngata is healthier than he was for most of 2011.
4) If somehow runningbacks get past Ngata, they still run into #52, like they have for the past 16 years.
5) We have the best secondary in the NFL.
So please, is that enough? We will be fine!!!

[cobrajet]

For what it is worth, I agree with you. Our secondary has me really excited.

[Crabcakes&Football]

If the offense is doing that well then it's a good thing.

[berad]

Most balanced team in the league, the O is going to get the better of the defense once in a while. I think nothing of it, I'm sure they'll be trashing Atlanta on Thursday.

Also, your numbering is crazy lol

[PurpleCorsair]

[quote name='display name' timestamp='1344105933' post='1109986']
For any of you who are all caught up in the [i]Offense Shreds Defense[/i] articles that come out every weak, please remember that:
1) They are about evenly matched.
2) The defense was not at full strength.
3) It's just assumed that the defense beats the offense, so when they do you don't hear about it that much.
As for the losses of Jarret Johnson, Cory Redding, and Terrell Suggs for an indefinet amount of time, we have plenty of young players completing to help replace them. Please remember:
1) Terrell Suggs should not miss the whole season.
2) Like I have said before, we survived the loss of Suggs and Haloti Ngata for part of the 2009 campaign and did no worse than the rest of the year. Ed Reed was out for 6 games in 2010 and we went 4-2. Ray Lewis missed 4 games that year and we were undefeated.
3) Haloti Ngata is healthier than he was for most of 2011.
4) If somehow runningbacks get past Ngata, they still run into #52, like they have for the past 16 years.
5) We have the best secondary in the NFL.
So please, is that enough? We will be fine!!!
[/quote]

Uh, The articles are mostly hi-lighting Joe's progression as a QB and a leader on the field. They aren't a slight on our defense.

[Corvus]

Well the bottom line is the media is going to grab onto and story lead they can find for every team. In our case, the only issues our team has are McKinnie getting going andthe Suggs injury so they're obviously going to home in on that kind of stuff. Every wise Raven fan knows that the defense will easily be a top 10 unit again from top to bottom. But like I said, the media is going to run with the Suggs headline for our team until the regular season starts and our D comes out and shows that nothing has changed. The media also doesn't realize that our defense is based around scheme more so than players and as long as you have guys who are eager to learn, battle, and fight for success, individual talent doesn't factor in as much as they think. How much success have all of our former defensive players had with other teams? No big success stories come to mind. On the flip side, the last season our defense was a mess was '07 and 3 of our 4 defensive stars in Reed, Suggs, and Ngata played all 16 games that season, so why the decrease in defensive ability?

Let them talk, the fans aren't worried at all about the defense and the ones that are clearly don't know our team that well.

[usmccharles]

i think its hard to say we arent worried about the defense, with who we lost in FA and then suggs, thats a lot of production to make up, i mean suggs is the DPOY. In a way im excited though because we get to see upshaw in action earlier and more often. This isnt like the 2000 team when its all about the defense, we actually have a powerful offense which helps the defense. Only thing im worried about is getting pressure on the qb, yea our secondary is great but you give any qb and wr 7seconds consistantly they will get open.

[Gordo52]

I'm not worried one bit about our defense this season.

[Blex64]

The concerns at OLB are reasonable. I'm not saying the defense will be anything close to bad, but Johnson was the best edge setter in the league, and Suggs is completely irreplaceable. Nobody is going to come here and duplicate Suggs's production, but we have a more then adequate OLB corps and I expect them to do fine.

Corey Redding was also fantastic last season. Really under the radar, but quite outstanding. He was always a stopgap for Jones though, and now that McPhee has burst on to the scene I'm not worried about it at all. Our Dline should be one of the best in the league again this season.

[raybaby]

I mean it's been reported that they've both gotten the best of each other. They might have been highlighting the offense a little more but that doesn't mean the defense is getting shredded. Mink said overall it's been even which is a good sign for the offense because at this point of season they weren't in the past. Sounds to me like we're just a very very balanced team.

[Gordo52]

Heres how I see our OLB's doing this year.

[u]Upshaw[/u]- Has chip on his shoulder falling to 2nd round. Beast at run stopping, would like to see him lose some weight. Should put some sacks up in our style of defense. Should also force alot of fumbles.
[u]Kruger[/u]- Should have a break out year, I see him as a faster JJ, better pass rusher, every down player, plus he's in contract year.
[u]Kindle[/u]- Make or break season for him everything to prove, world of talent who is finally healthy and has the playbook down. Should be a situational pass rusher this year.
[u]Suggs-[/u] I think he will be back around week 10-12. Whether he can come back to his 2011 form is TBD, no matter what when he comes back he will contribute and be a big boost for our defense.

I'm not worried at all about our OLB's. I think they will do a really good job this season. Such a good job that we won't have to rush Suggs back, and it won't hurt us at all.

I think they'll replace Suggs and JJ's 16.5 sacks, 8 FF, 126 tackles. And then some.

If they don't do a good of job as I expect them to do, I'm still not concerned. Our secondary is loaded. Even if they have trouble getting to the passer, WR's are going to have trouble getting open with DB's like Reed,Webb,Smith,Pollard & Williams running around.

[SecretAgentMan]

It's not that the d is bad it's that the offense is probably really frickin good

[big hits and ball hawks]

I thought the D looked really good today at practice. They may have edged the offense out today, but, then again, the offense did pretty well too. From what I saw, there's nothing to worry about. We'll really be able to see how we're looking when the preseason gets under way.

[Free Agent]

If we have a top 10, if not top 5 defense, and Flacco and the offense is shredding them, then Im pretty pumped about our offense.