Gunther

[jspchief]

In a post game interview, it was clear that Gunther is starting to realize the mountain he's faced with climbing.

He talked about how they practiced the plays Carolina ran all week, and practiced the exact short pass play that Denver and Carolina both scored on. But the guys just keep making the same mistakes. He also threw McCleon under the bus...keep your eye out for Bartee in the starting line-up soon. Talked about how poorly our secondary played (#44 being the one bright spot). Also mentioned the shitfull tackling.

It's obvious that our guys in the defensive backfield suck. Barber is non-existent. Mitchell and Beisel both over-commit on every misdirection play. Our safeties are soft, and can't hit or tackle. McCleon is not suited to be a starter at this point.

The tackling is fucking brutal. How hard is it to teach these guys to wrap up? Why do we never lay good hits? Why does our entire secondary stand and watch when we get the QB in trouble? This defense isn't getting better. Until we can cover downfield, all the QB pressure in the world won't save us (as Delhomme demonstrated).

I was wrong. It's not the scheme. It's the players.

[HolmeZz]

Originally Posted by digi2fish

don't blame on the D, they scored equally to the O today.

That's not a good outlook on it when you take into consideration that our offense took on one of the best D's in the league, while our defense couldn't handle an offense that's below average, even WITH their best receiver and running back. No question our offense hasn't been what it can be though, and they'll need to step it up if this team has any real aspirations of winning a ring this season.

As for this topic, it's clearly the players and not the scheme. I do happen to think GRob's a dumbass and that his scheme wouldn't have worked well even with average-to-above average players, but when you can't make tackles then the scheme matters very little.

I think our inability to tackle is just a side effect of being way too slow on defense. When you can't get to gaps quick enough to slow down blocking schemes, you're leaving yourself vulnerable. I think that's one reason why read-and-react didn't work last year. You're spending too much time reading and not reacting, to put it simply.

I think I saw a few bright spots from our D today though. There were a handful of times that we took down Foster for losses. On their first couple of possessions Foster would run for like 5 on first, and then lose 2 or 3 on second down. That works for me. It just seems like on 3rd down we just have to cross our fingers and hope a receiver drops a pass. Until we can get rid of that type of mindset, I don't have huge expectations for the team this year.

I'm happy with the play of Dalton and Warfield though, to take a positive outlook on the game.

[Hammock Parties]

We're only two games into the season.

The defense DID make a lot of plays last year to get us to 13-3, remember?

[Coach]

Originally Posted by JBret

We're only two games into the season.

The defense DID make a lot of plays last year to get us to 13-3, remember?

And our Defense is making the play (Ex. Warfield INT's)

The problem is the offense. I mean, somebody please post how many 3rd down conversions the Offense had? While you're at it, please post the TOP.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Coach

And our Defense is making the play (Ex. Warfield INT's)

The problem is the offense. I mean, somebody please post how many 3rd down conversions the Offense had? While you're at it, please post the TOP.

TOP was about even in Denver.

We lost TOP by ELEVEN MINUTES against the Panthers.



3rd down conversions we are 7 for 25 on the season. Abysmal.

[The Bad Guy]

I love it when people say "they have to deprogram themselves from GRob".

The guy left here in January. It's September. If this defense didn't get motivated by blowing a SB chance and embracing this new scheme then they need to go.

It's not like GROB was their coordinator their whole lives. He was here 3 years, and he's been gone for the last 8 months.

8 months is more than enough time to get a shitty coordinator out of your system.

[The Bad Guy]

Originally Posted by Coach

And our Defense is making the play (Ex. Warfield INT's)

The problem is the offense. I mean, somebody please post how many 3rd down conversions the Offense had? While you're at it, please post the TOP.

The offense should shoulder the blame, but the defense still has to accept some of it as well.

Giving up over 320 yards to DeShaun Foster and Quentin Griffin is friggen unacceptable.