I don't think what we are seeing has anything to do with the ability of the DBs. The DBs are being told to stay behind the receiver in order to avoid big gains. W. is willing to give up the 5-10 pass on the assumption that our opponents aren't able to keep this up an entire game. I don't know if this is because W. has no confidence in the DBs or he has some kind of phobia from his youth about big gains.
Either way, W. is running a high school defense, not a college one. In H.S. you can get away with this because most teams usually don't have enough talent at QB and ends to consistently hit short passes with light pressure. W.'s defensive strategy is good enough for the weenie games, but the better teams in the conference usually break his defenses with ease, which is why our opponents have such a high percentage of success on third downs.
It seems like the pass defense has been a little stouter in the middle this year, but it's hard to tell against the weenies. Also, if our DL from Georgia is a good pass rusher, it might be enough to alter the mix so that the soft coverage might work.