[Dr. Defense]

I beleive that we haven't gotten better than we were last year. I believe that we lost some key players and if anything we are only where we were last year. But before I do that I'm going to take some time to "discuss" some of the problems that scodanri brought up. First of all, all of our problems came from the worthless man known as Maramie. He was 194 years old. He was trying to take his system and force it down the defense when our defense wasn't made to play that type of game. The defense is still trying to change since the days of Lovie. Back when he was in-charge, the hard-hitting lay you out guys were replaced with the quick fast guys that could intercept the ball and get the god of all offenses back out onto the field. Since he's left and Maramie came in, the defense has yet to be defined. We lost the mind behind the scheme and the players lost their speed. Leaving us with slower players that can't hit the ball carrier hard.

Then we have guys that we had that did hit you hard. They were Adam Archuletta and Ryan "Grease" Pickett. Adam was the safety that everyone wanted. He reminds me of Ed Reed. The hard hitting, pass intercepting, call seeking player that we all admired. And if you didn't cheer when you watched a Rams game and Archuletta layed someone out..........then something is very wrong with you. Ryan Pickett was a great player. He was the kind of player that we needed. He would play hard every day. He took up size and area, and was always around the ball.

As for Claiborne and Coakley. Claiborne was never played. He was taken out of the game day in and day out. They always chose to go with Coakley and "Tino". So he never saw any playing time. Not his fault that they DB's were so bad that they needed 5 people to cover the pass. Is it also "Tino's" fault that he had no blocking up front and that was the only good LB after Coakley went down for the season? I wouldn't be talking smack about Anthony Hargrove either. He took on Steve Hutchinson one game and pushed him backwards. As if that wasn't enough, he went around him and tackeled Alexander in the backfield. He shared time with Green all the time. So how do you expect him to show what he can do, when he always has to share time.

In my mind, we made a significant upgrade at the defensive position the minute that we let go of Maramie. He was worthless. I think another big mistake was letting go of Archuletta. Chaveaus is not an upgrade over this guy at all. If anything he just matches his skills. I can't really comment on if Witherspoon is an upgrade or not, because we never really saw Claiborne in the games. The defensive line took a hit. We lost 2 DT's. But Glover definately was a great addition. But in the end, I think we'll just have to see what happens. They could end up being very good or matching the quality of last years team.