I'm looking at defensive stats on yahoo and shaking my head. A lot like the offense last year, we're not getting point results commensurate with yardage.

We're middle of the pack in terms of total yardage allowed, 7th in run defense, tied for 7th in sacks (one more and tied for 4th), fumbles/INT/defensive TDs we're basically middle of the pack. Pass defense sticks out.

The part that I really don't understand is how much each of these factors impacts this result:
- lack of pass rush
- youth at corner
- poor play at S
- great opposing QB (and passing teams...great QB, pass protection, WR, TE, etc.)
- game situations (e.g. teams coming from behind or in a shootout with us)

I really gave a lot of credence to the 4th option, but:
- Brady had his 3rd-worst rating of the season against us
- Brees had his worst against us
- Philip Rivers had one of his lowest against us
- Peyton, however, had an amazing night against us

In the end, I think it has a lot more to do with the lack of a consistent pass rush throughout the game and poor play at safety. When you play the best QBs in the league, they're going to get you sometimes...but we've shown we can shut them down for halves at a time with heavy pressure. Rookie corners have been inconsistent, but the safeties have allowed every talented TE to go crazy on them.

I don't know that our safeties are all the sudden going to get too much better at covering tight ends, so is our best bet to improve the pass rush?

Peyton didn't have an amazing night against us...he had an amazing handfull of plays and four or five perfect throws. He was certainly efficient but you'd expect that from him.

Perhaps it's a matter of perspective.

I think that throwing for 300 yards and 2 TDs in the time he was allowed to touch the ball is amazing. We held their running game to 61 yards and he wasn't utterly unstoppable throughout much of the course of the game, but he directed 2 TD drives in the 4th quarter and ended up with a 133 rating and a ridiculous 13.6 yards per attempt.

I think it was amazing, given the circumstances.

I think it's mostly the pass rush. Sacks are not a good measure of a pass rush. It's really about hurries, pressures, and knock downs. For the most part, it seems we have guys who will beat their man cleanly enough times that our sack totals are fine. But, on way too many passing plays, the QB is allowed to stand there in a perfectly formed pocket and deliver a perfect pass. We need more constant disruption, forcing the QB to move his feet and to throw it before he wants to.