Offline
A 32nd ranked run defense says it isn't all about injuries. If this defense doesn't make a 180 in a hurry then getting all the walking wounded back won't make any difference.
While it's true that the run defense and defensive issues in general isn't all about injuries, I think the loss of Werner was bigger than most thought it would be. He's not flashy, but he's always where he is supposed to be and essentially always makes the tackle. A lot of the issue with our run defense appears to be a lack of maintaining gaps and bad tackling once they are through the gap. Werner will help with that. The other part was lack of effort which resulted in bad tackling.