Part of it is youth, but its mostly coaching and the personality of the coaches. I've said a few times that I think Pete's overall philosophy works. However, he needs coaches and coordinators under him that will demand accountability and enforce the rule of law.
Hurtt looks to be more bark than bite.
Waldron? He doesn't look like he demands respect or commands a room.
Our DBs are coached by D Shead... and I forget who else. ..
Dickerson? He's smart but seems to a cross between Waldron and Hurtt
There's no one in that group to instill fear of failure. And so, Pete is the cherry on top of a leadership tree that a) isn't demanding excellence and b) has questionable ability.
Is Sheaf really qualified to be teaching our guys? Is Hurtt's message getting through? Does he have a message? Or is he still trying to find his place in a coordonator spot. Same with Waldron. I think they're both better suited to be the assistant coordinators than they are head guys. And when yiu get people who are talented, but are put in positions of leadership too early, what ensues under their charge can often look chaotic and disjointed. Thats what I think I see happening.
And I said this before as well... combine the above with the fact taht the team was not deep enough, or overall, talented enough in a few spots and things fall apart quickly. This D has maybe 5 guys that yiu can buikd around...
Williams, Reed, Nwosu, Brooks, Witherspoon and Love.
Also high potential guys in T Brown and Woolen.
But Diggs has put a question mark on his back all by himself. Although I'll admit, the D is one that is robbing Peter to pay Paul, in that they seem either capable of stopping the run, or the pass and I'm not sure how much of his bad play is a result of trying to cover dificemcies in the middle of the D, or whether he's just not as engaged as he should be.
If you look at the list of guys you can realistically buikd around (left Bobby off because of age) and then subtract Brooks and Nwosu due to injury... you are left with good interior line play, no edge play, one every down player at LB, great potential at CB, and 1.5 / 3 solid players at safety. That's not enough to consistently stop an opponent if yiu are also lacking that authoritarian fire breathing hot fear into the guys to get them to perform. Nwosu, Brooks and Adams mitigated that lack of intensity from above a bit, but none of them were on the field Sunday.
And that's not taking anything away from M Jackson or C Bryant. They're nice players. Just not core guys.
Forgot Mafe. Nice player, but right now one dimensional.