There are some interesting things going on with the defense.
But the question becomes, is that a result of the defense changing in the 4th or simply the reaction by the opposing offense? It feels like our defense has people in position to discourage the offense taking shots in certain directions but if the opposing team is behind and needs to score, and thus willing to take those chances, scores can be had.
The other issue is we are getting stops in the 4th, just not enough of them. And if the other team gets enough shots to beat on the door, it eventually opens.
But I still assert that it does not help when the opposing team scores a TD and we answer with FGs. In most of our losses, we lost by a few points, with time winding down. It stands to reason, if we had bothered to score more points, it would have been harder for the other team to come back and we would not be having this conversation.
Clearly the defense has issues, but with a rookie DC I am confused that people are surprised by this.
The larger question is whether :
1 - We have the ability to start scoring more, so this gap becomes harder to close.
2 - We can score reliably when behind, so that when an opposing offense breaks the wall (defense) it does not automatically doom the team.
3 - The defense can identify if it can close some of the gaps, so that less of these scoring trips in the 4th are successful.
It feels like getting Lynch back as a scoring option near the goaline addresses #1, whether #2 or #3 factors we can address is another point. But to go back to the door analogy, we have to give the other team less shots to bang on the door, as well as make it harder to open. That means the offense is going to have to start doing its job, which it has not done in any game this year.