I was thinking just now--what has changed from 2nd half 2009 to now?? Man, DeMeco Ryans and Dunta Robinson make a *huge* difference, don't they. I'm preparing to swallow some crow concerning Dunta (though I'll never say his play is worth $10M). Meco is still the bigger influence--but I don't think any of us, including Dunta's biggest apologists, could have predicted a falloff like this. Holy crap.
They sucked with DeMeco, though. They were giving up an assload of yards when he was out there, as well.
Don't forget: They played without Cushing for four games, too. The bigger difference, though, which I just stumbled upon: They didn't play against good QBs last year. At all. They had 3 games against QBs with 90+ ratings last year - and two of those, of course, were against Manning. So the pass defense simply wasn't exposed because they didn't play a host of QBs that could exploit it. This year, though - good lord. They've already faced the 2nd, 3rd, 8th, 9th, 10th (twice) and 11th-ranked QBs - all with ratings above 92.0. And they still have to face the 1st, 2nd (again), 5th (twice) and 7th - plus Flacco, who has a 90.1 rating currently. Potentially 12 games against QBs with a rating of 90+, including 10 against top 10 QBs.
But I think a lot of those numbers are skewed. You've got to figure that a lot of those QB ratings would be lower if not for them having the unfair advantage of getting to play against the Texans defense... McNabb's season average is 75.5. His rating against us was 119. (that's about 40 points higher than his next best game of 79.7 against the Rams. LOL) Cassel's season average is 94.5. His rating against us was 122.9. Romo's season average is 94.9. His rating against us was 127.6. River's season average is 102.9. His rating against us was 137.2.
Interestingly, of the 3 you listed (I'm not counting McNabb because he's not an elite QB - though probably better than half the QBs they faced last year), neither Cassel nor Rivers posted their highest rating of the year against the Texans. Neither, btw, did Garrard, Peyton (2) or Eli. Only Romo enjoyed his best day of the year at Houston's expense.
I noticed that too, and was a little surprised. The NFL seems to be in a very offensive cycle over the last few years. Of course, those numbers are probably skewed this year as well - because of the Texans defense. But it is rather telling that (I think) every QB we've faced this year has had a higher rating against us than his season average.
Well, yeah - the defense is terrible. I just don't think any of us realized *how* terrible because we didn't face that many good QBs last year.
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