IMHO, the bitch for our "style" of defense does not fall on Morris. It falls on McVay/Snead. You can't ask Morris to play an aggessive style defense without adequate Edge players and experienced CBs. So the bend but don't break approach was employed. And if you look at the numbers, it worked:
#19 in yards allowed
#16 in offensive points allowed
#9 in offensive TDs allowed
So the yards yielded were just over "middle of the pack".
Points allowed were exactly middle of the pact
And offensive TDs allowed were top 10.
Progressively better in each catagory.
Those numbers suggest, though giving up yards, they didn't give up many TDs but they did give up field goals. And what is the common statement when you're facing a prolific offense? "FGs aren't going to beat this team". The numbers suggest the only thing missing from the equation.....put up points and give up field goals rather than TDs.....is the putting up of points. >>>>>>
Our offense ran up 4700 yards (#32), scored 31 TDs (#26) and kicked FGs (#17)
The TD output alone was 20 less than 2021 which in itself was enough to doom the season but we also kicked 4 fewer FGs.
But the majority of the blame goes towards Morris.....for doing what his head coach probably asked of him. I know, I know, the retort to that is "we all know how bad the offense was but the end result was a combination of the two". If I were to attempt a percentage designation, it might go something like this:
85% offense, 10% special teams and 5% defense!!!!
Yeah, yeah, I know. "If we would have only won that Tampa game and got to that magic 4-4 number, things would have been different". Yeah, ah, NO. We would have been 6-11 instead of 5-12. The following week we had Jugs Gun John Wolford playing and he put up a massive 147 yards passing prior to our last possession which started with us trailing 27-10. Though our offense didn't approach the level of failure in the Tampa game (twelve 3 and outs), it wasn't for lack of trying. Our first 6 drives amassed 88 yards and 3 points. Our next 4 drives amassed 100 yards and 7 points. So 10 drives, 188 yards (19 yds/drive) and 10 points (1 pt/drive). And the final drive which skewed the actual performance towards one that appeared better, we went 70 yards, scored 7 points while Arizona was playing prevent. "But Morris' D made Colt McCoy look like Tom Brady!!!".