13-14 Hawks defense vs 2015

The defense is still very good, they are ranked #2 and play pretty solid. But they just dont seem as dominant as past years. 2 years ago or even last season hawks never would have let chase keenum and todd gurley score 24 points, they also probably wouldnt have let big ben and his offense have over 500 yards passing or given up all of those 4th quarter leads early in the season which made them lose games. Most of the players are still there so what is the issue, is the defense just going to keep getting worse from now on?

We are quite thin at the d-line. I'm sure they will sort that out this year. Remember the year we won the bowl we had Bryant, Clem, Avril and Bennet. That year the amount of snaps were much more equally divided, I think everyone was around the 40-50% range. This year Bennet and Avril have logged in more then 75% of the snaps. Clark is still a Rookie, but looks very promising. Jordan Hill seems like a nice addition with the pressures he gets. We need a mauler though, just like Bryant was. Some beef on that line. That can take double teams and allow our other guys to just rush hard. Bane has been a great player for us but he's getting old and is usually a 2 down guy.

Also, Kam hasn't played some games this year and the Cary Williams was just horrendous.

The draft will add more depth to this, this offseason.

Greed, attrition and depth.

The defense held them to 17, but were also forced to defend a couple short fields. If we had recovered one of their fumbles, and not turned it over on O, this game would have been very different. Look at the Rams actual offensive production statistics... it was quite poor. I'm actually pretty happy with our D this game.

Ad Hawk":fb1l03qt said:

The defense held them to 17, but were also forced to defend a couple short fields. If we had recovered one of their fumbles, and not turned it over on O, this game would have been very different. Look at the Rams actual offensive production statistics... it was quite poor. I'm actually pretty happy with our D this game.

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Its not just this game though, there have been alot of games this season where they just looked average at times.

For example against the steelers, they let johnny football score a TD on the opening drive. Gave up alot of 4th qaurter leads also. Also let nick foles look like he was tom brady.

I loved our SB team D-Line.

Did Clark even play yesterday?

A lack of interior pass rush is holding back the defense. Avril and Bennett are killing it this year but QBs can just step up into a cushy pocket cause there's no one there. Jordan Hill can be huge for the team but can't stay healthy. If QBs have nowhere to go forward, they'll have to go lateral and we'd be seeing much bigger numbers for Avril and Bennett.

I think that's the biggest thing going into the off season to improve on followed by upgrading at center *cough Alex Mack somehow*

I think you guys pretty much nailed it. No interior rush unless Hill is magically healthy. Guys who are suppose to be our depth seem to be alittle underwhelming so far, Marsh as a rusher seems to always be a step late for a sack, KPL who I thought our coaches said in camp would be seeing alot of time seems to not be able to find the field unless ST. Lastly Shead is a huge improvement over CW but he just never seems to get his head around in time for a pick, plus being razor thin in the secondary, our fave Terrell taking up a spot and most the young guys on D we liked in camp all got poached by other teams (McGill, Martin, McNeil). We definately miss McDonald and the three headed monster of Clem Avril and Bennett.

2Cool4School":7tsiz2dg said:

Ad Hawk":7tsiz2dg said:

The defense held them to 17, but were also forced to defend a couple short fields. If we had recovered one of their fumbles, and not turned it over on O, this game would have been very different. Look at the Rams actual offensive production statistics... it was quite poor. I'm actually pretty happy with our D this game.

Click to expand...

Its not just this game though, there have been alot of games this season where they just looked average at times.

For example against the steelers, they let johnny football score a TD on the opening drive. Gave up alot of 4th qaurter leads also. Also let nick foles look like he was tom brady.

Click to expand...

you mean the browns right? not the steelers. johnny football plays for the browns. anyway look we cant keep that defense from a couple of years ago forever. teams are going to figure us out. this is the nfl. our defense is still playing well, well enough to be #2 in total defense. there is some fixes that have to be done but for the most part i am happy with our defense. we cant shut every team out every week. there is going to be teams that lite us up aka steelers its going to happen. everyone on here would be concerned if we were getting lit up every week which is not the case.

hawks85":958dst7t said:

2Cool4School":958dst7t said:

Ad Hawk":958dst7t said:

The defense held them to 17, but were also forced to defend a couple short fields. If we had recovered one of their fumbles, and not turned it over on O, this game would have been very different. Look at the Rams actual offensive production statistics... it was quite poor. I'm actually pretty happy with our D this game.

Click to expand...

Its not just this game though, there have been alot of games this season where they just looked average at times.

For example against the steelers, they let johnny football score a TD on the opening drive. Gave up alot of 4th qaurter leads also. Also let nick foles look like he was tom brady.

Click to expand...

you mean the browns right? not the steelers. johnny football plays for the browns. anyway look we cant keep that defense from a couple of years ago forever. teams are going to figure us out. this is the nfl. our defense is still playing well, well enough to be #2 in total defense. there is some fixes that have to be done but for the most part i am happy with our defense. we cant shut every team out every week. there is going to be teams that lite us up aka steelers its going to happen. everyone on here would be concerned if we were getting lit up every week which is not the case.

Click to expand...

I meant steelers and browns. I know johhnny football plays or the browns lol.

Jordan Hill returning would really help this D Line. I wonder if Cassius Marsh has been slowed by an injury? He hasn't seemed as effective lately.

ivotuk":nepbt0ch said:

Jordan Hill returning would really help this D Line. I wonder if Cassius Marsh has been slowed by an injury? He hasn't seemed as effective lately.

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Marsh seems a bit thin to play as a d-line man. Maybe if he's able to add some bulk in the off-season. I know last year they were talking about his great hands, but that's kind a moot point if he's losing the lb v lb battle.

2Cool4School":g8stspio said:

The defense is still very good, they are ranked #2 and play pretty solid. But they just dont seem as dominant as past years. 2 years ago or even last season hawks never would have let chase keenum and todd gurley score 24 points, they also probably wouldnt have let big ben and his offense have over 500 yards passing or given up all of those 4th quarter leads early in the season which made them lose games. Most of the players are still there so what is the issue, is the defense just going to keep getting worse from now on?

Click to expand...

In all fairness, the D didn't allow 24pts. One TD came from the fumble return, so they 'gave up' 17pts with the FG. A comedy of fumble recoveries (their fumbles as well as ours) kept STL drives alive. I will agree that our D isn't has good as previous seasons, but this game shouldn't even be included in the mix.