During the preseason I was preaching that in order for us to win more games this year than 2018 I thought our defense needed to improve a significant amount. I wasn’t all that worried about the expected improvement in our offense. Oops.
Early in the season, when damage control was the order of the day, Pruitt declared that we were 100 times better than last year, to which, I and many others replied, “Say what?” It has been reported that even Fulmer had some fun with Pruitt in the aftermath of that remark.
Well, with respect to national rankings, it turns out that the defense did improve, not so much the offense, and we did win more games. While we weren’t exactly 100 times better, at least on defense we were more than 100% improved in multiple broad statistical metrics.
Probably the biggest concern anyone had for the defense coming into this year was the loss of Kyle Phillips, Shy Tuttle, and Alexis Johnson up front. It turns out our 2nd year in Pruitt’s system was eventually more than enough to offset those significant losses, just as I now suspect having the same offensive coordinator/system in back to back years for the first time since 2016 could likely do wonders for our offense next year, even after losing significant contributors from this year’s team. jmo.
I realize our pass defense didn't have to face Will Grier, Drew Lock, or Kyle Shurmur this year but even if we had I think we would have done a hell of a lot better than we did in 2018. jmo.
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