Discussion: How much will an improved defense, help the offense?

[Pride]

Something I thought about this morning was that our biggest problem last year... on O and D was getting off of the field on 3rd down to give the ball back to the offense.

Here's how I see it, and feel free to discuss.

The oposing team often drove the length of the field, but settled for a field goal. Thats great that we were keeping them out of the end zone, but there is something else that some of us may be overlooking. After a FG, there is a kick off. This means that on average, we are starting from our 25-30 yard line. That means our offense has to be able to drive 70 yards for a TD quite often.

Now... with an improved defense, things change. With a run stuffing defense, we change quite a few 3rd and 2's into 3rd and 6's. 3rd and 6 against a run stuffing D means more opportunities for passes on 3rd downs. More opportunities for passes means that our DE's have more opportunities for Sacks, our CB's more opportunities for INT's.

Beyond that, if we just "hold em" on third down... now we are in a punting situation, rather than the eventual kick off situation. Typically a returned punt may be placed at the 40-45 yard line (assuming a 10 yard return).

Now our offense only has 55-60 yards to go for a TD. On top of that, simply by using the clock, we may get 3-4 more chances per game to be on offense with that short of a field.

My summary is this. With an improved run defense, comes more 3rd and longs. More 3rd and longs bring more punts. More punts provide shorter fields and more opportunities for the offense to be on the field. Shorter fields provide a greater chance of scoring TD's rather than FG's.

What do you think?

[madness]

Thinking like a defensive mastermind. :up:

[Meathead]

http://www.crashonmyhead.com/captain_obvious.jpg

[Meathead]

lol no i agree. the better any one of the three units the better it is for all the units

but defense is always the biggest key. more often than not its the team with the better defense that wins more often, esp in the playoffs. offense sells tix defense wins games

[zone]

An improved defense will cause the other team not to score as many points and the team that scores the most points is probably going to win the game.

[Romes]

Agreed but the offense still needs to do its part and become better in the redzone.

[gr8slayer]

Not very much, see 2004 when we had the #2 defense and were one of the best teams when it came to turn overs. Our offense was still one of the worst.

[BlackMetalNinja]

Yeah, I think the inverse would have more of an effect. Until we can get a steadily productive offense that can keep up time of possession, the defense is constantly going to be on the field, even if they are doing a better job of holding teams.

Either way, they both effect each other and we need to improve both quite obviously. We're well on our way on the defensive side, but there is still plenty of work to do on offense.

[gr8slayer]

Yeah, I think the inverse would have more of an effect. Until we can get a steadily productive offense that can keep up time of possession, the defense is constantly going to be on the field, even if they are doing a better job of holding teams.

Either way, they both effect each other and we need to improve both quite obviously. We're well on our way on the defensive side, but there is still plenty of work to do on offense.
Yeah there is, it all depends on Joe Montana. If he does well we'll do well.

[colin]

as long as our O is ok we can do very well like that.

from what i've seen, given the right chances our o should be decent this year. our qb and rb are no longer rooks and our line has an extra year together (these are HUGE HUGE things). we need a TE and WR to be added, but there is plenty of time.

so it's not just how a d helps the o, but how our particular d can help our particular o. i think once we get a redzone threat big body, our big line and rb talent can really be a strong compliment to a solid d performance.
a couple long early drives and our d can keep it up all day.

very important to this is special teams. with parrish back there and our kick coverage, winning the feild position battle and forcing punts WILL result in points.

if it just gives us a shorter field we have a good long leg kicker who can turn a drive stalling at the 30 into 3 points and with good kick coverage, the opponents get the ball down at near the 25. now you have another shot at stopping them and getting ball into parrish's hands. it is HUGE to have game changing special teams, that got chicago to the sb and to respectability last season with some horrible qb, rb, and wr play and lots of injuries

so for our team a little improvement in the ability of our O and D can result in a MUCH better team. i'm stoked for this season.

[mikemac2001]

Best thing ive seen in awhile


http://www.crashonmyhead.com/captain_obvious.jpg

[Mr. Pink]

An improved, on paper, defense won't matter much if our offense can't sustain drives and put points on the board.

IMO an improved offense makes a defense look better, not so much the opposite way.

You can have tons of talent on the defensive side of the ball, but if you're losing the TOP battle even the best players will wear down, get tired and give up big plays.

[justasportsfan]

Parrish better be ready to return a lot of punts if the D lives up to it's potential

[Typ0]

I was happy with what TE did with the offense last year...he needs to get the ball in the end zone though. Just like the points you make about the defense the opposite works for the offense. When we score TDs it puts pressure on the opponent to get TDs. We need both. Get the D off the field and score some points.