Break It Down: Redskins 2009 Defensive Stats In Extremely Fine Detail
by Kevin Ewoldt on Feb 2, 2010 10:51 AM EST
in Redskins Analysis
39 comments
Well, we’ve broken down the ProFootballFocus stats for Jason Campbell and the Offensive Line so far, now it's time to move over to the defense. The defense has always been an enigma to me since it's always been labeled a "top 5 defense," yet they're always bottom 5 in turnovers, which is what really makes a defense. Catching an interception and allowing the WR to strip it and run for a touchdown...not so much. Either way, with the overhaul in the coaching staff, it's time to look at players on an individual basis.
A quick look at the chart reveals what we already know. The best defensive players were on the line and the worst were in the secondary. A complete flip from the 2008 season. Anybody care to make the argument now that Albert Haynesworth was not the reason this D played as well as it did? He was a force on the line this year despite all the fans and major media that chose to rather focus on the 33% of plays he sat out. Fletcher, as expected, had another great season and I'll highlight him after the jump.
Let's start with the bottom three:
Laron Landry: His pass rush and rush defense ranked well, but he got a whopping -14.1 for his pass coverage. Not much to say here because it was obvious watching games he was a liability, and it was equally obvious teams targeted him (Raiders continually putting Darren McFadden out wide). The coaching staff never was able to get through to him to make the sure tackle versus the knockout punch. The ball is now in Haslett's court.
My unsubstantiated Evaluation: Move him back to SS full-time and take our chances with Kareem Moore or Chris Horton (assuming Eric Berry is not a Redskin). Chris has proven he has a nose for the ball. There were some growing pains with Sean Taylor at first getting burned, why not give Chris a shot there? It can't get worse than it already is.
DeAngelo Hall: Overall, I thought the Hokie had a good season, but his stats took a major hit week 1. That Mario Manningham play comes to mind where the Giants WR eluded Andre Carter, Fred Smoot, and Hall all on the same scoring play. Hall scored a -5.8 for rush defense and that was evident in the numerous missed tackles throughout the year. That missed tackle on Turner versus Atlanta game comes to mind for me.
My unsubstantiated Evaluation: Definite keeper. He's the only defender the Skins have that can squeeze a ball, so if the new defensive coaching staff can correct the tackling, I don't see why he couldn't compete for a Pro-Bowl spot again.
Carlos Rogers: Loso statistically was a good defender against the run at 1.5. The amount of double-moves he got burned on this year didn't hurt his stats as much as I thought they would. He played a total of 84% of the snaps this year, which is a lot more than I anticipated given his benchings. Either way, Carlos to me is a player that can still improve (off-season #3 I have said this).
My unsubstantiated Evaluation: Keep him. I don't think many teams think highly of Carlos, yet he does so many things well. The days of over-paying are over, so offer Carlos a modest salary. If he wants to leave, fine, but he is a steady CB that can run tackle and defend the pass. The Redskins have too many holes to fix. Carlos can be a holdover until they have time to fix CB. I think the entire OTAs Carlos should be off to the side working with the 5th string QB who simply throws ball at Carlos as hard as he can from 15 yards out.
Reed Doughty: This is a tough situation. He was all over the field and was easily one of the Redskins best tacklers. I can't see Horton and Doughty both sharing the safety position again, so I'll be watching this one closely. He deserves to be a starter somewhere, especially with the great sportsmanship he showed when he gracefully accepted his backup role to Horton last year. In short, I'd be happy with Horton or Doughty as SS, but the Laron Landry situation complicates this even more.
Honorable Mentions: Lorenzo Alexander had a great season even without his special team heroics.
Side Note: Andre Carter. His run tackling is an obvious problem, which makes moving to a 3-4 a little more worrisome for me. If it ain't broken....
As for London Fletcher, I threw together how his overall stats (11.6) against some of the other Pro Bowlers:
Ray Lewis: 30.4
Jonathan Vilma: 1.6
Jon Beason: 7.2
Demarcus Ware: 37.3
Clay Matthews: 20.0
[Source: ProFootballFocus.com]
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Can anyone name the Redskins last defensive TD?
Andre Carter fumbling that 1 ball and DHall returning the INT to the 1-yard line are almost comical to me at this point.
"It was one of those things where everyone in the building was suddenly excited again," Cerrato said. "And all the women in the building were the most excited. They couldn't believe we were getting the guy from "Dancing With the Stars."
if you call
kicks to the nut sack comical, then yea they are.
SpottieOttieDopaliscious
No, that's schadenfreude
Laughing at someone else’s pain. That is funny. It’s not so funny when your nutsack was the target and you are in pain.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Oh yes
but the premise of AFHV is you get to watch other nutsachells get whacked – to laugh at that is schadenfreude (there is no equivalent term in Engrish). When other people are laughing at you, chances are your baggaroo got dinged, in which case you are not likely to join in with the fun. In my experience, anyhow.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Yeah I follow you and agree
noone said it was our own sack being kicked, however—although I assume it was implied.
Seeing as how this is the team we all root for
I though that the implication that our collective coin purses were the ones being whacked.
SpottieOttieDopaliscious
London Fletcher against Arizona I believe
SpottieOttieDopaliscious
You know..
I was thinking about this the other day – and no play came to mind. Are we dead last in scoring defense? Have to be with no points…C?
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Finally more peoplpe are realizing this.
My unsubstantiated Evaluation: Move him back to SS full-time and take our chances with Kareem Moore or Chris Horton (assuming Eric Berry is not a Redskin)
Haynesworth kicked butt, and next year Orakpo will be +10.
Orakpo!!! Russel Okung next year!
Wow Rocky's a liability?
I really can’t say that I remember Rocky doing anything this year but I didn’t think he hurt us either.
Rocky caught
more interceptions than half of our starting Cornerbacks
SpottieOttieDopaliscious
The defense as a unit:
The defense as a unit was positive in the overall ranking. An unfortunate aspect of the defense was the level of penalties which heavily offset the positive aspects of the unit’s play (-26.5 vs. 33.3). If I am recalling correctly, the biggest concern was unnecessary roughness such as hitting out of bounds. Maybe unsportsman-like conduct was #2. Albert Haynesworth, while having the best overall ranking, also had the highest level for penalties.
Enough honking on LaRon – is he coachable? He is one of the fastest guys on the team, but he had a hard time keeping up with a TE on one play that I recall. Doughty (9.0) and Horton (0.9) were positive on run defense, while Landry had a slightly negative, (-0.7). On most of the other defensive backs did not fair that well on defending the run. It surprised me that except for Fletcher and Blades, the other linebackers, McIntosh (-3.8)and Orakpo (-2.5), had negatives on run defense.
Amongst ILB, Fletcher ranked 13 in overall rating – http://profootballfocus.com/by_position.php?tab=by_position&season=2009&pos=ILB&stype=r&runpass=&teamid=-1&numsnaps=25&numgames=1. While known for making a lot of tackles and being the big play man on the Redskins defense, he had the 6th highest number of tackles (102). This is not a disappointment!
I seem to recall no end to the frustration of
seeing 2 really good defensive plays (1st and 2nd down) followed by a WTF for a 1st down or worse.
It would be interesting to see how everyone did cumulatively on first and second downs vs third down. I think we smoked on the former and stunk it up on the latter. Also, I think we were pretty solid on 4th down try defense, though.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
ESPECIALLY on the goal-line
2 really good defensive plays (1st and 2nd down) followed by a WTF
I would get excited because it would look like we were going to hold, and then they would just quit on third down.
Don't think the defense was a personnel issue, more of a scheme theme.
The whole bend until you slightly crack into fissures, but not completely break scheme the defense ran just doesn’t do it for me. The numbers and stats look decent, but watching the games was an exercise in agita. The defense never forced turnovers, it seems like every other team is trying to strip the ball from the ball carrier except for the skins. How many dropped interceptions were there? Does the defense ever practice catching the ball? For that matter did they ever practice tackling? Freakin heartburn is setting in just rehashing the memories.
Please coach Haslett, bring in a defense that is fun to watch and one we can be proud of.
This is a luxury
it seems like every other team is trying to strip the ball from the ball carrier
When you have yet to master the basics of tackling.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
The other thing about that defensive scheme
is that you need an offense that will hold on to the ball and score points. Then the defense will just slow down the other teams offense. Its pretty basic and simple but unfortunately for us, offense wasn’t couldn’t stay on the field or score points…
We needed an attacking defense
that would go out and get our offense the ball in the opponent’s territory on occasion, because our offense wasn’t good at going the length of the field for TDs. Definitely a mismatch of philosophies. We had a bend-don’t-break defense and a drive-don’t-score offense.
If I were the goundskeeper at Fedex
I’d be pissed for them chewing up the middle of the field all day. And you are right. No 3 and outs, no punt returns, no turnovers (need I even mention the total lack of defensive scoring), and we are going 85 yds to start every drive (non-drive).
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Can't we tender Carlos something low
and if someone wants to offer us a second or a third trade him? If it’s only 3M for the highest tender to JC what is a lower tender to Carlos? Not surprising to see Orakpo scoring so bad against the run and the pass if you actually watched games this year. He is about a quick first step, technique and power and should have his hands down every play. Griffin scoring so horrible is no big surprise either if you watched fgames. He blew this year. Golston and Monty aren’t starting caliber either. I am kinda worried about DT depth even if we resign Golston, Monty an Lorenzo. Getting a legit OLB who can cover a little, stop the run and occasionaly blitz could really balance this team out. Obviously move Landry to SS and I kinda like Kareem Moore and wouldn’t mind letting him compete with some midlevel FA for the FS spot.
I wouldn't worry too much about Lorenzo
he’s don’t well when he was inserted into the lineup every once in a blue moon (IMO).
As far as FS, I’d let Kareem and Chris Horton battle it out to see who could do it like someone else suggested. I’d be happy with either, but I admit my bias for Horton.
SpottieOttieDopaliscious
I like Lorenzo he's just not a starter
and I love AH but even I can admit he misses snaps and games so finding a DT would allow us to always be solid at DT instead of desperately hoping that AH is healthy. Obviously we have alot of needs but I think DT is up there with CB and OLB as possible late first early second round needs for this team. We will see how it shakes out. As is the DT situation reminds me alot of the O-line going into this previous year.
by BayAreaBullet on Feb 2, 2010 2:11 PM EST up reply actions
Kareem Really?
I can’t believe you guys are forgetting how bad Kareem looked at the end of the year when he went full-time. He’s serviceable part-time but it’s got to be Horton or someone new at FS. Kareem was a sieve.
our entire secondary was a sieve
so despite his pretty egregious error (ugh), I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. But like I said above, Horton needs to start.
SpottieOttieDopaliscious
I agree O-line is bad
But to concentrate on 1 part of the team always is the ultimate Snyder move. Our O-line got this way becuase Snyder was ignoring all the warning signs chasing his big need of the year like Big Wr’s. I’d like to be a little more balanced so we aren’t always creating these shortcomings. If we went OT in the first, DT, CB, or OLB in the second, and RT or G/C in the 4th I would be cool with that. If we used our first 3 picks on only O-line I would be cool with that as well. Just saying we shouldn’t be short sighted and have tunnel vision and the red flags are all over the place when it comes to the DT and LB situation.
by BayAreaBullet on Feb 2, 2010 3:09 PM EST up reply actions
most definitely agreed
SpottieOttieDopaliscious
DT and LB
are the next dams about to spring leaks. This is definitely a multi-draft problem.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
We'll need to trade back
We’ll definitely have to trade back as often as someone is willing. I think we’ll be stuck at #4 but that 2nd rndr should allow us to recoup a 3rd or a 4th and 6th rnd pick by trading back in the 2nd.
Is
kidnapping a viable player acquisition strategy. Something to think about.
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
I was @ the Raider game
6 year olds were screaming for Tom Cable to get MCcfadden in 1 on 1 scenarios with Laron.
Open competition at SS
and Landry gets no extra leeway. The best player should get the job and the other becomes a backup – regardless of where they were drafted. It’t the only way to build a good football team.
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