I remember the Friday PC presser where he said the Hawks will definitely feel not having Jason Jones and something to the effect that it would fundamentally change some of what we could do on defense. Could the element he brings to our DL be the reason our pass D kinda stunk it up today? Stafford had time for coffee and cigarettes back there.

no

ensett wrote:no

Thanks for the valuable insight, Etchersketch ;-)

The element he brings could be the reason, yes.

HawKnPeppa wrote:

ensett wrote:no

Thanks for the valuable insight, Etchersketch ;-)

rofl....
no.


I Think regardless he was better than scruggs so I would have to say that his absence was felt.

Most definitely. It is THE reason our defense has been so weak. Prior to his injury, we could mount a four man rush and still stop the run. Since his injury, we can't get enough consistent pressure on the QB. They can dink and dunk and we have to hang back because we'll give up the deep ball if we don't - and still do anyways because the QB has time. He brought enough pressure that it allowed the other three to penetrate, not giving the routes time to develop, which meant the secondary could play tighter.

This defense requires a great pass rush.

@Salish, that's kinda the direction I was going with this. Ya can't 'plaster' very long, so ya need that pressure. The coaching staff was commenting that Scruggs is a better pass rusher than they had anticipated, but not on the same level as Jones. And let's face it, Jones brings another element to the table with his long body and arms...not to mention the DL is more used to playing with him.

Hopefully he gets healthy soon because there is too much of a dropoff with him out. It's obvious that we're not done addressing depth issues on the DL.