I know where you are going with this and I agree with alot of it. Imagine how good the secondary would be if they did have a legit pass rush and as you said, the defense would look even better with just a middle of the pack offense. Sometimes I think our corners would be better receivers than our own trio. lol. That being said, lets remember this group as a whole is very young and will continue to get better.There have been talks about how great our defense is this year, maybe the best in the league. How if we had a decent offense we would win games. The latter may be true, but when you watch them play, they just aren't scary. They don't have the look of a legit top defense.
They don't have an insane pass rush. They don't have a dominating run defense. The secondary has proven to be a liability at times. As much as I hate to say it, nothing about this defense is great. The slate of quarterbacks we have played this year is honestly sad, and without a doubt makes the defense look better than it is. They are good at forcing turnovers, which half the time seems to be the only thing keeping them from being exposed. Its easy to forget all the mistakes when you intercept a pass or force a fumble at the end of a drive. But backup QBs can also be faulted for a lot of those turnovers. How good is this defense really? We don't even know.
Don't get me wrong, this defense has massive potential. And some great pieces for the near future. They've even played some games this year that make you say wow, when they are clicking on all cylinders, they are almost impossible to score against. But the pass rush really worries me at times. When guys have 4+ seconds in the pocket its not gonna end well. Its gotta be fixed. This team doesn't belong in the playoffs. But if we make it, I fear a good offense with their starting QB wipes the floor with us. Because our offense is certainly never gonna help out.
How do backup quarterbacks, at times, seem to be able to drive straight down the field? How are we giving up big runs that we just weren't allowing last year? How do we improve our pass rush? Fire Dean Pees? Limit ZDS' snaps? (Yes) Play our younger guys more?
Are you content with our defense? If not, what do you think the problems are? I'm interested to see everyone's opinion on this. I know maybe I'm being overcritical, but it honestly feels like last years defense was better. And that shouldn't be.
Go back to the Saints defense the year they won the super bowl. The defense is very similar as it allowed yardage, but made turnovers everytime you blinked an eye. This is a very opportunistic defense and we are doing it without a great pass rush.