Our defense yesterday was a clown fiesta. I think Mike Smith is horrible... but even if he isn't fundamentally bad... the defense under his leadership has played bad. Not sure how/why anyone would parse that difference. With the money and draft picks invested in the defense, it should be much better than it is. Unless something gets a lot better next week, we need to make a change.
Your objections (with my responses):
1) "We don't want to confuse the players by making changes." The defense literally couldn't have played worse in the opener, so what is there to lose? I mean, if the defense was "confused" yesterday, would they have played worse? In what way?
2) "The defensive line just needs time to jell." This is a HUGE load of poop excuse. Did Mack need time to jell in Chicago this week? How about the Chicago rookie, Smith? How about when Joey Bosa finally signed his rookie deal and played stealer right out of the gate? Jelling is not really much of an issue on the defensive line (unlike the offensive line, that always needs to jell). Someone please give me 3 solid examples of how a defensive line, with the same line-up, all of a sudden began to "jell."
3). "The defensive players just aren't that good." This is also untrue. There is plenty of talent on the defense. JPP, McCoy, and Curry should be really really good. Hargraves is better than Smith has made him look. Our rookie corners are better than they looked yesterday. Our safeties are plenty good. This should be, at the very least, an above average defense. Smith isn't putting the players in the right situations to succeed.
That's it. Nothing more to say. Give Smith one more shot, this week, and if it doesn't work, we need to make a change.
