avatar

Sheridan Gets Chance to Redeem Himself in Tampa

by John Fennelly on February 22nd, 2012 at 5:48 am

Bill Sheridan is back as a defensive coordinator in the NFL. He was hired this week to run the Tampa Bay Bucs’ defense by new head coach Greg Schiano. Sheridan was fired from the same position by the Giants after the 2009 season. His defense was atrocious, surrendering 427 points, the second-highest total in the 87-year history of the team.

The current defense, now under the stewardship of Perry Fewell, is getting high praise, but in reality, they aren’t much better statistically than Sheridan’s group. Ironically, the Giants yielded 400 points this season, too – the 4th highest in their history.

The difference? The pass rush. The Giants were 21st in the NFL in sacks in 2009 under Sheridan. In 2008, they were 6th under Steve Spagnuolo. Under Fewell in 2010, they finished 5th and this year they were second.

Sheridan was in front of the Tampa media this week, who wanted to know what went wrong in his last gig as as a defensive coordinator. From Stephen F. Holder of the Tampa Bay Times:

Why did his defense give up the second-most points in franchise history and look nothing like a group two years removed from a Super Bowl title?

“Even though we started out the season 5-0 and we had the No. 1-ranked defense in the National Football League (at that point), after sustaining a couple of season-ending injuries to some starters … we started to falter and we hit a skid during the middle of the season,” Sheridan said. “In hindsight, looking back, I think one of the things we probably did was we assumed, as a defensive staff, (that) things would get turned around.”

They never did. The Giants would lose eight of their next 11 games, and Sheridan was fired by coach Tom Coughlin after the season. The 427 points the defense yielded was third-worst in the league that season behind only the Lions and Rams who combined for three wins.

Sheridan admitted another miscalculation. When injuries became more rampant, he and his staff began using less complicated tactics to accommodate new starters and new signees, something offenses capitalized on.

avatar

About John Fennelly

Managing Editor of SNY.tv's Giants Football Blog - the ultimate destination for New York Giants' news, opinion and entertainment. View all posts by John Fennelly →
  • Anonymous

    The difference? I know the pass rush was a big difference as you pointed out but the only real difference was that the Giants in 2011 made a super bowl run.  The defenses for 90% of these seasons were the same, terrible.  Just happens this season the Defense turned it around late (final 2 games) to edge into the playoffs where they then took it to another level and won the whole thing.  If they lose that first game to Dallas and miss the playoffs Fewell is likely gone just like Sheridan.