Introducing the Best Defense in the League for S30 and Beyond!
Today I am going to go through and do a deep dive on who I believe will be the best defense in the league for the next several seasons;
THE PHILADELPHIA LIBERTY . To start off with, the Liberty have been in a bit of a rebuild these past few seasons, and should be coming into their own within the next two in order to make a significant push to become the Ultimus Champions. Now the Liberty had a relatively decent start at 3-2 this season (which was kind of a surprise) before falling off of a cliff in several tight match ups (7 losses were one score apart which is pretty unreal, multiple by less than a field goal). This team showed a lot of grit competing week in and week out in what was supposed to be a rebuild season. Though out of contention for a playoff spot early on, the team was able to keep games extremely close and prove to be a contender for future years.
Now if you look at the stats, the defense seems relatively unimpressive allowing an average of 26.2 (#10 out of 14 teams) points per game, alongside 380.3 yards per game of total offense (#9 out of 14 teams). But keep in mind this is one of the youngest rosters in the league, with several players on the defense still within their first two seasons at key starting positions such as Defensive Line, Linebacker, Cornerback and Safety. As the team continues forward into new seasons, as long as these players keep putting in effort and stick with the team, they can only go up from here. Players like Sonjack, Walls, and Roman coming in and showing immediate success (Let's be real, mostly Walls, he had an incredible first 2 seasons in the league), as well as veterans that have already proven themselves in Cross, Fieri, Haywood, Goodman, Wrecks and Desoto, this squad is looking STACKED.
Looking at overall stats from last year, the team excelled at one thing despite their youth; Getting to the passer was the team's greatest strength. With 53 sacks on the season, no passer was safe, recording MULTIPLE GAMES in which the passer was reached 6 plus times the Liberty were fantastic off the edge which allowed for several turnovers as well as drives ending early. This pass rush will continue to remain dominant and they have several players that had multiple sack games. Often times the team was able to capitalize when getting to the passer by forcing fumbles regularly. Unfortunately the team was unable to recover the ball moer often than not, leading to the opposing team continuing their possession. Their leading pass rusher only had 9 sacks on his own (Goodman), which meant the remainder were spread out across the field coming from all positions from Defensive End to Cornerback and Safety. The ability for so many different pieces on the defense to get to the passer means that the scheme is putting players in the right spot to be successful. This pass rush was one of, if not the best in the entire league and should continue to see even more success in the coming seasons as the team continues to progress.
The secondary is one of the areas in which the Liberty could stand to improve, with Defensive backs getting burned multiple times a game for long touchdowns, it was difficult for the team to remain in games sometimes when the score became out of hand. One thing they did do well was make the big plays, recording 11 interceptions, the team was near the top in that category, as well as 102 passes deflected. Although those stats are nothing to gloat about, DBs were able to show some signs of life, and the Liberty do have a true #1 Cornerback in Doy Fieri with several up and comers behind him. I will also say that this is one of the drawbacks of an aggressive blitz scheme, often times players are left one on one, or with no coverage over top due to the oncoming rush. This led to a lot of big plays, which made the secondary look much worse than it is. As long as the Defensive backs are able to contain their man for slightly longer (with some improvement over the offseason, we could see this as early as next season!) then I think it's possible to see the squad be even MORE successful at getting to the quarterback.
Another area that I assume we will see some improvement in coming seasons is in the run defense, the team recorded a very pedestrian 25 Tackles for loss, but they did spend a lot of that effort in getting to the passer. When Running backs weren't stopped behind the line, they often were able to get the ball 5+ yards down the field which can make it difficult to stop the drive of opposing offenses. This could be due to scheme for sure, but it is an area of improvement none the less.
The team was also middle of the pack when it came to top scoring defenses as well, recording only 5 touchdowns throughout the season, but often times the team was able to capitalize after these turnovers despite this. I would take scoring defense with a grain of salt, as it can be pretty fluky as most of the time scoring on defense requires you to be in the right place at the right time. There very much so is a skill involved in taking it to the house after a fumble or interception, but again timing is everything.
I think it is safe to say that the team showed a lot of promise this season, and that if they continue to be successful at rushing the passer while also improving on their weaknesses (such as the run defense and covering downfield on those big plays) then this defense will no doubt be the #1 defense in the league. At the very least, their ability to make those splash plays such as sacks, interceptions, tackles for loss and fumbles will be very abundant in this aggressive defensive scheme. The future of this Philadelphia Liberty team is bright due to the general manager's goal of building a super team to compete for the next few years. The knack for the players to show those flashes of big play ability should give people confidence to take the Liberty as their first Defense off the board for the next few seasons. I predict the Philadelphia Liberty will be the S31 Ultimus Champions, and you can quote me on that!
Today I am going to go through and do a deep dive on who I believe will be the best defense in the league for the next several seasons;
THE PHILADELPHIA LIBERTY . To start off with, the Liberty have been in a bit of a rebuild these past few seasons, and should be coming into their own within the next two in order to make a significant push to become the Ultimus Champions. Now the Liberty had a relatively decent start at 3-2 this season (which was kind of a surprise) before falling off of a cliff in several tight match ups (7 losses were one score apart which is pretty unreal, multiple by less than a field goal). This team showed a lot of grit competing week in and week out in what was supposed to be a rebuild season. Though out of contention for a playoff spot early on, the team was able to keep games extremely close and prove to be a contender for future years.Now if you look at the stats, the defense seems relatively unimpressive allowing an average of 26.2 (#10 out of 14 teams) points per game, alongside 380.3 yards per game of total offense (#9 out of 14 teams). But keep in mind this is one of the youngest rosters in the league, with several players on the defense still within their first two seasons at key starting positions such as Defensive Line, Linebacker, Cornerback and Safety. As the team continues forward into new seasons, as long as these players keep putting in effort and stick with the team, they can only go up from here. Players like Sonjack, Walls, and Roman coming in and showing immediate success (Let's be real, mostly Walls, he had an incredible first 2 seasons in the league), as well as veterans that have already proven themselves in Cross, Fieri, Haywood, Goodman, Wrecks and Desoto, this squad is looking STACKED.
Looking at overall stats from last year, the team excelled at one thing despite their youth; Getting to the passer was the team's greatest strength. With 53 sacks on the season, no passer was safe, recording MULTIPLE GAMES in which the passer was reached 6 plus times the Liberty were fantastic off the edge which allowed for several turnovers as well as drives ending early. This pass rush will continue to remain dominant and they have several players that had multiple sack games. Often times the team was able to capitalize when getting to the passer by forcing fumbles regularly. Unfortunately the team was unable to recover the ball moer often than not, leading to the opposing team continuing their possession. Their leading pass rusher only had 9 sacks on his own (Goodman), which meant the remainder were spread out across the field coming from all positions from Defensive End to Cornerback and Safety. The ability for so many different pieces on the defense to get to the passer means that the scheme is putting players in the right spot to be successful. This pass rush was one of, if not the best in the entire league and should continue to see even more success in the coming seasons as the team continues to progress.
The secondary is one of the areas in which the Liberty could stand to improve, with Defensive backs getting burned multiple times a game for long touchdowns, it was difficult for the team to remain in games sometimes when the score became out of hand. One thing they did do well was make the big plays, recording 11 interceptions, the team was near the top in that category, as well as 102 passes deflected. Although those stats are nothing to gloat about, DBs were able to show some signs of life, and the Liberty do have a true #1 Cornerback in Doy Fieri with several up and comers behind him. I will also say that this is one of the drawbacks of an aggressive blitz scheme, often times players are left one on one, or with no coverage over top due to the oncoming rush. This led to a lot of big plays, which made the secondary look much worse than it is. As long as the Defensive backs are able to contain their man for slightly longer (with some improvement over the offseason, we could see this as early as next season!) then I think it's possible to see the squad be even MORE successful at getting to the quarterback.
Another area that I assume we will see some improvement in coming seasons is in the run defense, the team recorded a very pedestrian 25 Tackles for loss, but they did spend a lot of that effort in getting to the passer. When Running backs weren't stopped behind the line, they often were able to get the ball 5+ yards down the field which can make it difficult to stop the drive of opposing offenses. This could be due to scheme for sure, but it is an area of improvement none the less.
The team was also middle of the pack when it came to top scoring defenses as well, recording only 5 touchdowns throughout the season, but often times the team was able to capitalize after these turnovers despite this. I would take scoring defense with a grain of salt, as it can be pretty fluky as most of the time scoring on defense requires you to be in the right place at the right time. There very much so is a skill involved in taking it to the house after a fumble or interception, but again timing is everything.
I think it is safe to say that the team showed a lot of promise this season, and that if they continue to be successful at rushing the passer while also improving on their weaknesses (such as the run defense and covering downfield on those big plays) then this defense will no doubt be the #1 defense in the league. At the very least, their ability to make those splash plays such as sacks, interceptions, tackles for loss and fumbles will be very abundant in this aggressive defensive scheme. The future of this Philadelphia Liberty team is bright due to the general manager's goal of building a super team to compete for the next few years. The knack for the players to show those flashes of big play ability should give people confidence to take the Liberty as their first Defense off the board for the next few seasons. I predict the Philadelphia Liberty will be the S31 Ultimus Champions, and you can quote me on that!
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