Later in the season coach Fisher started to call the defense, right? He's still going to do whatever he can to help the team win, but he'll still try to save face as well.
Walton will be given every opportunity to figure it out (maybe even more than he deserves) before a change will be made.
Fisher did NOT "start to call the defense" at any point in the season. And for those who continue to think that this somehow is Walton's scheme, you couldn't be more wrong. This is, has been, and will be Fisher's defense. The only thing that was ACCUARATELY reported, was Fisher getting more hands on in the GAME PLANNING aspect of the defense later in the season.
Upon hiring a titled Defensive Coordinator, one who was familiar with the terminology, scheme, and nuances of THIS defense, Fisher admittedly was less involved THIS YEAR than last, when due to the suspension of Williams, he was forced to be more hands on. With Assistant Head Coach Dave McGinnest, former DC Chuck Cecil, LB Coach Frank Bush and DL Coach Mike Wauffle all on board, why would Fisher think he needed to be as involved in the game planning now? Everyone of these assistant coaches had previous experience under Fisher in THIS DEFENSE.
The one variable that was different, was it being Walton's first go at being the DC and game day play caller. IMO, this situation was not much different than last year's when there were many who were concerned with NOT having a coordinator at all. The defense LAST YEAR started off the year with lackluster performances, only to come together and improve dramatically as the year went on.
Now, because they didn't pick up where they left off from the END of the year in 2012, it somehow must be Walton's fault. After all, we now have a single person to BLAME. But we tend to overlook the FACT that they had no less than FIVE new starters at the beginning of the season, 4 of which were rookies or first year starters.
Moving forward to 2014, with the expected turnover of personnel being minimal, and with Walton now having a better grasp of what this personnel is capable of, there is no reason to think they shouldn't be able to continue to develop. Rather than being so basic is what they are able to do in terms of scheme, they can install and grow the scheme to include many of the combination coverages, and blitzes they just weren't able to expect the young newcomers to grasp THIS YEAR.
