The Demise of the Defense?

[Guest]

Overall our defense was a disappointment during the regular season, but they stepped up in the playoffs.  They played a great game against Brees and NO and were responsible for getting us into OT.  Against the 49ers despite the offense not be able to keep them off the field, they did a decent job in the 1st half and put us into position to tie the game before the half.  With our offense going 4 straight 3 and outs to start the 2nd half there was no defense that would have been able to hold up.  

[Guest]

@Jor-El said:

Admittedly the last 3 years have shown more attention to the OL, but those were each following a season where the offense was clearly the weak unit and the defense very strong. That narrative has switched, so I expect the attention to OL (which always seemed given grudgingly) to end. You rightly cite coaching improvements, but that can only do so much if the basic talent is weak. I fear that Rick and Mike feel Kubiak and Dennison can turn poor talent  into quality performance - ZBS saves the world!
I'll accept Joseph as a bit of a reclamation, but he wasn't a cheap one - he was our main FA spending that year. Newman was picked initially by Zimmer and followed him around to Cincinatti and here, and Stephen was a Zimmer player that just came back. I don't see anyone - with the possible exception of Joseph - who fits the bill of "veteran brought in cheap and improved by Zimmer"...and no likelihood of any contributing immediately.
Zimmer has a fine defensive mind but he reminds me of the old Steve Martin routine, "How to Be a Millionaire: Step 1, get a million dollars." I think the Vikings said, "Mike can you give us a great defense?" and he said, "Sure! Just get me a bunch of great defensive players to start with."
We'll see what they do. Always fun to kick around.

Nothing new about that though is there? 

I luv a good game-plan, but also have contended for years that players make the coaches in the NFL...