I'm honestly very confident the defense will improve vastly and become a top 5 unit. Pees makes in-season adjustments very well and these players are talented.
As for Joe, I think that he's able to get the most out of his receivers, but I don't know if he has that ability to make them better. This OL hasn't been great by any stretch, Stanley has been a disappointment and the only guys who've turned in good games was Howard and Jensen. They've both been what has kept this OL unit stable at this point to go along with Yanda before his injury. I think Stanley needs to step up if we expect improvements.
He doesn't get a pass though, a little over 100 yards by your WRs? That's mostly on Joe and the OC. You need to find ways to get the ball in the receivers hands. Look at what the Green bay Packers and New England Patriots do. Geronimo Allison just entered the game vs Cincinnati after being inactive and put up 122 yards receiving, next game he was held catch-less. What Greenbay and New England manage to do is scheme their guys open and have their QB put the ball in their receivers hands, we can't seem to do either. Are we going to argue that Geronimo Allison is better than Mike Wallace or Jeremy Maclin? Also, this may be unfair to Joe, but sometimes your QB is going to have to buy more time. You're not going to have a clean pocket and will need to rely on your QB to make plays, it's why they get paid so much, they have to make something out of nothing more than anyone else on the field.
As far as the OL goes, hopefully this is the unit we finish the year with. Stanley should get better, him and Howard should have the edges sealed off and Jensen looks like he's going to be a rock in the middle of the OL. I honestly have no idea what the guards will do but I'm just hoping that Hurst continues his decent season and that who ever starts at RG doesn't screw anything up.
