Plenty of reasons for failure, but no excuse. This is the NFL. You can't be giving up like 1000 yards and like 78 points in 2 games and be considered "good" or even OK. This defense is BAD right now. We can hope that they will "gel" and get their heads out of their asses soon, but reality is that we'll have to score 30+ to win consistently with this defense. That ain't good.

Granted, they went up against 2 very high powered offenses, but shiiiit...they have to do better. I hope I'm wrong. I just don't see much sunshine here...

Yeah, there's a lot of room for improvement

Considering the pace that the offense is scoring at we give the other team a million possessions and a lot of time.

I mean, it's bad for stats but a recipe to go 12-4.

This defense has stepped up when it mattered and that’s all I care about.

I don’t give a shit about 23 garbage time points that were scored when the game was over.

It's been 2 weeks. Things will settle down. It's hard to call things "best" and "worst" after 2 weeks, especially since we haven't even faced an average QB yet, only top-flight ones

I mean, KC is averaging 40ppg, but I doubt that average continues throughout the year. I mean, statistically Mahomes is the best QB so far, but no one would rank him over Brady or Rodgers

Cool. "They've statistically been so awful that there's no way it continues for the whole year" isn't anything to be happy about. They need to get their shit together now, or we're going to start losing games when Mahomes comes back down from outer space.

There are only a handful of teams with defenses good enough to stop us and offenses good enough to put up 35+ on us.

This also assumes that Berry doesn't return. Replacing Murray with Berry probably shaves off a touchdown per game

The defense will never be good this year, but it can be better, and will if Berry and Sorensen return.

How many defenses would be good if they lost both starting safeties at the start of the season and had to face Big Ben and Rivers on the road? Most fans would be calling for 0-2, yet here we are, 2-0

It’s all about situational stops in the playoffs.

They haven’t been bad in this department, but the rest is AIDS.

At this point I'm not looking for "good". I'd be content with not dead ****ing last by most metrics.

Too small of a sample size. Vermeil's 2003 defense got quote a few turnovers but they were awful against the run and pass. They gave up like 5.5ypc on the season.

I mean, we played 2 top offenses from 2017. That'll hurt your rankings

I don't really know what you expect. No fan expected the defense to shutdown Rivers and Roethlisberger. Many fans (after the Bears game) expected LA to drop a 50 burger. Few media pundits expected us to even have a win after 2 weeks

Getting Berry and Sorensen back, and playing fewer talent-laden offenses, should certainly help our overall statistics for the season

Yay. So if we run into a high powered offense in the playoffs we're ****ed unless either Berry or Sorenson come back and make a big difference or Mahomes is still playing at an unsustainable rate. Yippee.

The playoffs are a LONG way away. Hitchens is new and didn't play in preseason. You have to think Berry will be back. Scandrick, Ward, and Lucas just got here and are still adjusting.

I mean that's just a few of the things that are likely to change, and potentially improve, as the season goes on. I'm not big on the draft but some of those guys are likely to contribute at some point.

I don't like the way the defense is playing but we have a long way to go before it's time to talk playoffs.

This is why when If we get a big lead Andy needs to pump the breaks a little and start running the ball. We have an embarrassment of riches In our RB group so getting our run game going Is gonna be key.

These were the points the Pats conceded In their first four games last season

42= vs Chiefs
20= vs Saints
33= vs Houston
33= Panthers

And everyone was saying it's a "historically bad" defense. But from that Panthers gone onwards, they became one of the top defensive units in the league which took them to the superbowl. So there is a clear example of how things can turn around quickly.