JSeahawks":r3kz3lqk said:
I think it has a lot to do with opponent. I think we saw almost all of what you're talking about from our defense, on the road, at Carolina. Our D was physically and mentally dominating the Panthers that day.
I would say our D also was just as dominating against Skelton and the Cards as the 49ers were. It wasnt until Kolb came in taht they really moved the ball on us.
Lastly, i would say that success breeds swagger and intensity. If youre getting your ass kicked all over the field like we were against Detroit yesterday youre not going to see the D amped up like they were when they were kicking Carolina's ass all over the field.
I think the genesis of this thread is rooted in precisely what you're talking about, J.
First off, we still have a very, very good defense. No, it's not quite on par with San Francisco's defense yet, but the SF defense is more seasoned by far, so that plays into it. And it's probably better coached.
But consider that our defense did pretty damn well against Arizona in Week 1, and it fell apart when Kolb came in (and if I recall correctly, we started playing zone). As it turns out, stopping the Arizona offense really shouldn't be too complicated. SF performed better at that job than we did for a couple of reasons... they got the Cards in the middle of the season after the unpredictability of Week 1 was long gone, and they've got a better pass rush.
And now SF's performance on D is compounded by the fact that our D just laid a bit of an egg in Detroit. When lining those two games up side by side, all of a sudden you get the big "OMG our D is light-years behind the SF D!" type of posts, but it's not an appropriate comparison. The 49ers were playing a struggling Cards team while we were playing a desperate Lions team (again, a playoff team from last season) with a much, MUCH better offense.
Accounting for opponent, our defense isn't as far behind SF's as Week 8 made it seem. We've seen the Seattle defense put up stellar performances this season, both on the road and at home (though home is better, obviously). And I fully expect further stellar performances from them, with continued efforts to improve the pass rush and correct the 3rd down snafus.