I'm not giving Schwartz a full pass. No way. Coaches must be held accountable. You know me better than that after how I've called out Fisher (who I think is on a much hotter seat, btw).Riverman said:
I just think it's insane to point the finger at one person and blame him for everything for failures any more than you do for success.
You don't think the injuries of '04 impacted what happened that year? Do you remember how Nickey and other scrubs were starting late in '04? Eight regular contributors missed time during the season. Four of the Titans top five secondary players and three of the top four linebackers failed to make it through the season because of injury. We're not talking about one or two players here.
Are you saying that losing Carter, Rolle, Schulters, Dyson, having Williams and Sirmon coming off an ACL and starting two rookies at CB didn't impact last year? The Titans D starters averaged only 3.5 years of experience. Haynesworth was once again out a number of games.
It baffles me how anyone who watched the defense the past two season can say it all falls on Schwartz.
What's amusing is that Schwartz gets no credit for '02 and '03 because the Titans were loaded his first two seasons yet is the blame for '04 and '05 when the Reese drafts from '03 and '04 hadn't produced squat and the team goes through a cap purge.
TitanJeff said:
That's the first I recall hearing you say that he doesn't get a pass. I'm much less agitated now. In regards to talent, I fully agree the talent pool is down, but talent has very little to do with aggressiveness. The past couple of years we have fielded very "non-aggressive" defenses- that have gotten pasted by Manning and seemingly every other QB. More irritating is the fact that our style has gone from an aggressive "snot-snocking", blitz every series that was very effective to "cover 2" etc. Add to that poor technique with angles etc.
Coaches should be able to at least have their low and medium talent (NFL relativity) play aggressively, have some blitz packages to slow offenses off balance and coach/maintain proper technique among their players. So, I'll acknowledge that talent has something to do with play-making but not mistake-making. I pin that on the coach, specifically Schwartz has tolerated/been neglectful of too much mistake-making.
Listen- I'll be the first to congratulate Schwartz when our defense keeps the opponent to under 100 yards rushing and under 20 points. Those are my criteria that a good DC should achieve even with medium talent. What are yours?
Aggressiveness in what way? I think there are times patience is as important as being aggressive. For example, Fisher said Tulloch was extremely aggressive in the first game but he wasn't playing team defense.Riverman said:
I think you have to keep it in context. Many people have problems with Schwartz's semi-prevent back in '03 when the Titans had a 10-point lead with eight minutes left in the game that would lead to an opponent scoring with two minutes left in the game. You can go back to some old threads (search "GoT", "der Schawartzie", "prevent", "pantie-waist", "walk down the field").
Point being, I think you have to look at a lot more than yards given up and final score to judge a good defense. As much as I hated that semi-prevent, it did what it was designed to do by killing the clock.
Offenses are supposed to kill the clock, OUR offense, not other teams offenses. C'mon TJ, you're losing me here, so do you want our guys to get off the field on third down, or just keep "milking" the clock?
As hard as it is to believe, there are situations where a conservative defensive plan which gives minimal risk to giving up a big play and quick score is preferred at certain times during the game.Jwill1919 said:
TitanJeff said:
did not see the Skins game, I bet Williams D gave up those points by being aggressive instead of the slow-painful-wussified death of 1000 cuts Schwartzie method.
TitanJeff said:
I think Schwartz was hired based on his immediate access - Schwartz was named very quickly without the normal league wide search.
The 2003 Titan O scored 435 points handing the D a favorable situation in most games. Titans scored less than 20 points in 3 games winning 1 of them 10-3 against the hags. The 300+ points the D allowed ranked them 13th in the NFL. The #1 run D was smoke and mirrors pure and simple. Even with the O lighting up the league for 27 ppg the D still managed to rank 30th in passing yards per attempt, meaning that even thou the O helped to make the opposition one dimenisional Schwartz had a bad go of it JUST defending the pass.
Also I agree with some previous posters that in 2003 the Titan D still had some aggression left. At this point they have been completly Schwartzified and I doubt they would fare well in Bum-Fight videos
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