I have been wondering about this and finally looked it up. Pretty dang good job by our beloved Fins. http://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/team-stat/scoring-defense-category Ranked 8th in points per game. Nothing to complain about there, which is hard to believe because based on my memory we gave up every single 3rd and long and let teams run all over us. Guess we did well in the important stat. Too bad our offense was anemic. Also had heard that our D forced a turnover in every game and we were the only team to do so?
I feel as if we always have had a very good red zone defense under Coyle. Teams scored a touchdown on the defense 46% of the times they made it to the red zone. That was 5th best in the NFL. However we were better last year only allowing teams to score touchdowns 42% of the time. In all honestly I feel we are an offensive line away from being a solid playoff team
One of the reasons why I wasn't running around asking for his head on a pike like some other were. We gave up some big plays and we need LB work, especially run D but what matters is turnovers and stops. With the turnovers Id say our D has improved.
I agree. The D performed well enough. They had a bit of a bend not break mentality. Really, in terms of offense and defense, it is about points per game over yards (though there is some correlation, obviously). I would say, an offensive line away and a better RB and we'd have been a solid playoff game. In the playoffs for sure with a better OL. Add a RB and we'd be very good. The problem will be next year - repeating this with 4 starting defensive free agents. 3 of them are 3 of our best players (Grimes should probably be the defensive MVP and then Soliai and Starks are a great DT tandem. The foundation of the D). If we can retain those 3 above - and greatly improve the OL and add a RB - this team could be a serious contender next year.
There were issues with the D, no doubt, the as big a problem as any the D had was this: http://www.teamrankings.com/nfl/team-stat/scoring-offense-category Bottom line is you have to score enough points to win...we didn't... and the closeness of the two stats, likely is the reason for being 8-8...
The fact that we were 8th in PPG is fine, but I tend to be rather leery of a stat like that when there's a big discrepancy between PPG allowed and yardage allowed (21st). There could be a decent amount of good fortune tied into that as much as there has been solid red zone defense. Also it's worth bearing in mind that being near the bottom of the league in yards allowed also means that the field position battle is a lot less likely to go in your favor and hurts an already mediocre offense by forcing it to go even further. Quite frankly, I'm not convinced right now that Coyle is anything more than an average coordinator at best. I'd like to see what adjustments he makes to his system this off-season to make better use of his personnel and to mitigate the poor play by Wheeler and Ellerbe.
Ya I personally like points-per-drive better. Even if Tanny had fumble-itis early in the year, giving extra drives left and right. 12th in that stat feels about right...considering how atrocious our LB play was compared to recent years. When Patterson was in, strongest CB combo around IMHO...too bad he gets hurt so often. I also think the DL wasn't used efficiently, so to be sitting at 12 with all that, that's decent enough...the only true blowout was the Saints.
I think just average linebacker play would be huge for an improved rush defense. Coyle gets a little too much blame imo. The defense was good enough this year to make the playoffs, and I feel like he does a great job in maximizing production from defensive backs.