In discussing the "need" for Cameron Wake to play I looked over our defense and offense. I've thought that Taylor and Porter have played semi well myself. JT is in a new position for him and I've seen him knock back a few lineman which amazed me. While it is true that they "only" have one sack each, the rest of our defense only has one (Dolphins.com as the other by Ferguson, NFL.com has it by Merling). We really need a push up the middle and OMG do we need a decent blitz from a ILB in at least one game this year. I would put another part of this on the two teams/QBs/OLs we have played so far. Matt Ryan has only been sacked by us while Peyton Manning has only one sack by the Jags. Most of our stats are very good. We lead in rushing yards and average yards per rush 335/4.7 to only 129/3.4 First downs, 43 to 33. Our Time of Possession margin is large, 37.7 to 22.58. Our 3rd down conversions is greater, 19/32 vs 9/22. Pennington is throwing at his normally awesome 69.4% We are doing much better in punt and kick returns. Our corners are doing a very good job against the pass having played against two good QB's. But we have two glaring weaknesses: A very low yards per pass attempt of only 5.7 vs 9.0. And a turnover ratio of -5. Our ILBs and safeties are not covering anyone giving up too many big plays. And we are dropping the ball and getting way too many interceptions. If our defense tightens up and Pennington starts to use his supposed stronger arm more we could be close to beating the pud out of someone.
I think our season will be defined by our LB core. They have no room for unimprovement so one can only hope they step it up a notch or two, or five. I watch all the Miami games on TV and flip between the games between the superfan on my laptop and I can say our LB core is of the worst in the league. (Now there are about half a dozen teams I never watch, so there may be worst, but this is just my opinion based on what I have seen to this point.) They may very well be the difference between a win and a loss again this week.
IMO, and I could be wrong, but I think in a 3-4 defense your strength comes from your linebackers. If your linebackers are weak they become liabilities and it weakens the rest of the defense. Unfortunately Crowder is not a great or really good middle linebacker and is not the game changer we could really use at that position.
I thought we put some decent pressure on Ryan in the first game. Not a lot of sacks but we were putting him on the ground enough to make it hard on him. I felt it was the one aspect of our defense responsible for keeping them under 20 points. And I think they will look better against teams not named Indy. Manning got sacked 14 times last year. His O line was intact Monday night and he was sliding up in the pocket like a master.