Opinion update at the bye week...

[Gaz]

Okay, we have that critical first win under our belt.

The Defense continues to improve and held Lewis to 73 yards on his home field.

The Offense showed that diverse attack that tore up the NFL last season.

The Special Teams…well, I’ll have to get back to you on that…

What is the current weakest point on the team. And, has this changed since pre-season?

xoxo~
Gaz
Aware of his critical need shifting from WR to LB to ST coverage.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Tinlar

But you can't remove that misdirection play, it was legal and part of the game. They practice those plays, our defense practices to deal with plays like them and when the two hit those plays, like all other plays, can go either way.

I will not defend our defense by only talking about three quarters of play or ignoring plays. Especially when they had god things enough to talk about already, like key end of the game stops. But our defense did not dominate, or offense did an amazing job controlling the clock.

That was the FIRST PLAY OF THE GAME. It was clearly an aberration considering what Lewis did on his next seven carries (jack shit).

[jspchief]

Originally Posted by JBret

That was the FIRST PLAY OF THE GAME. It was clearly an aberration considering what Lewis did on his next seven carries (jack shit).

Like the abberation with Deshaun Foster? And Quentin Griffin?

[HolmeZz]

Originally Posted by Tinlar

But you can't remove that misdirection play, it was legal and part of the game. They practice those plays, our defense practices to deal with plays like them and when the two hit those plays, like all other plays, can go either way.

I will not defend our defense by only talking about three quarters of play or ignoring plays. Especially when they had god things enough to talk about already, like key end of the game stops. But our defense did not dominate, or offense did an amazing job controlling the clock.

I'm not discrediting it. I'm saying AFTER the first play of the game, we held Lewis to 55 yards on 14 carries.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by jspchief

Like the abberation with Deshaun Foster? And Quentin Griffin?

There's a huge difference bewteen 70 goddamn yards and 18.

We never held any of those backs to 11 yards in a span of 7 carries.

[Rausch]

Let's look at our major areas of weakness on defense and how our defense has progressed each week.

Week 1: 34 pts Allowed. 199 rush yards allowed (including plummer's scrambles.)

Week 2: 28 pts allowed. 184 rush yards allowed.

Week 3: 17 pts allowed (the defense did not throw the INT for a TD) and 56 total rushing yards allowed.

Week 4: 17 pts allowed (the defense did not allow a KR for a TD) and 80 total rushing yards allowed.

Over that four week span you can clearly see a big jump in defensive performance in the areas we were weakest last year. You have not seen a huge performance by one single player, true. You have also not seen a completely dominant defensive performance, but the Baltimore game was close.

And THAT is why I feel this defense has improved and will continue to improve. Last year even POOR offenses would put up big numbers against our defense. Even poor QB's and RB's would have big days.

That isn't happening this year. Outside of week one we've played good against good teams, and even great against a 500 team and a top 5 back in the NFL. We are stopping teams we SHOULD be able to stop, which we didn't do last year.

[Calcountry]

Definitely the Special teams coverage.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by Rausch

Last year even POOR offenses would put up big numbers against our defense. Even poor QB's and RB's would have big days.

Actually, you're wrong here. That was the MO in 2002, but not last year. Last year the D was average to dominating against most teams. Where we struggled was against top notch O's (Green Bay, Denver, Minnesota).

I do agree with the rest of your post. We're showing improvement, and its not just because of the level of our opponent.

[jspchief]

Originally Posted by JBret

There's a huge difference bewteen 70 goddamn yards and 18.

We never held any of those backs to 11 yards in a span of 7 carries.

Oh really?

Deshaun Foster
17(but we throw out the big ones)
-3
6
-3
5
2
1
-2

Total = six yards in 7 carries.

I could go on, because there's plenty of stretches where we shut Foster down. Difference being, Carolina got more chances (because our O didn't dominate TOP), and they stuck with the run. We held Foster to 89 yards on 23 carries..then he ran for 71 more on the next carry. Did we shut him down?

You can't ignore our TOP and the lack of carries Lewis received.

[Tinlar]

Originally Posted by Rausch

Let's look at our major areas of weakness on defense and how our defense has progressed each week.

Week 1: 34 pts Allowed. 199 rush yards allowed (including plummer's scrambles.)

Week 2: 28 pts allowed. 184 rush yards allowed.

Week 3: 17 pts allowed (the defense did not throw the INT for a TD) and 56 total rushing yards allowed.

Week 4: 17 pts allowed (the defense did not allow a KR for a TD) and 80 total rushing yards allowed.

Over that four week span you can clearly see a big jump in defensive performance in the areas we were weakest last year. You have not seen a huge performance by one single player, true. You have also not seen a completely dominant defensive performance, but the Baltimore game was close.

And THAT is why I feel this defense has improved and will continue to improve. Last year even POOR offenses would put up big numbers against our defense. Even poor QB's and RB's would have big days.

That isn't happening this year. Outside of week one we've played good against good teams, and even great against a 500 team and a top 5 back in the NFL. We are stopping teams we SHOULD be able to stop, which we didn't do last year.

I with you, like I said; If the defense that played Baltimore shows up for the rest of the season I will not bitch. I will not call them the dominate force of this team, but I'll smile when they take the field as oppsed to takin an extra shot to dull the pain (that was called for last year).

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by jspchief

Oh really?

Deshaun Foster
17(but we throw out the big ones)
-3
6
-3
5
2
1
-2

Total = six yards in 7 carries.

I could go on, because there's plenty of stretches where we shut Foster down. Difference being, Carolina got more chances (because our O didn't dominate TOP), and they stuck with the run. We held Foster to 89 yards on 23 carries..then he ran for 71 more on the next carry. Did we shut him down?

You can't ignore our TOP and the lack of carries Lewis received.

They got more chances because we didn't get them off the field when they had third downs. Baltimore was 1 for 8 on third down.

The D against Carolina was also hung out to dry by the offense. They allowed 2.7 ypc in the first half, but were on the field for too long due to crappy O.

[jspchief]

Originally Posted by Rausch

Let's look at our major areas of weakness on defense and how our defense has progressed each week.


Over that four week span you can clearly see a big jump in defensive performance in the areas we were weakest last year. You have not seen a huge performance by one single player, true. You have also not seen a completely dominant defensive performance, but the Baltimore game was close.

The two weeks we showed marked improvement came with improvement from our O. More 3rd down conversions, and better TOP.

I won't argue that our D isn't improving. I'm just saying the 74 yd stat from the Baltimore game is misleading. Lewis ran fairly well against us when he got the opportunity.

[jspchief]

Originally Posted by JBret

The D against Carolina was also hung out to dry by the offense. They allowed 2.7 ypc in the first half, but were on the field for too long due to crappy O.

Hung out to dry? Yes. But you're admitting exactly what I've been saying all along. Our D benefitted greatly from our O consuming an absurd amount of the clock. Sure the D had to force the punt, but you can't ignore that our O then ate up more TOP than they do in some of their best games.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by jspchief

Hung out to dry? Yes. But you're admitting exactly what I've been saying all along. Our D benefitted greatly from our O consuming an absurd amount of the clock. Sure the D had to force the punt, but you can't ignore that our O then ate up more TOP than they do in some of their best games.

Sure...but I think if the O had only held the ball for 30 minutes we'd still have been fine.

[Hammock Parties]

Originally Posted by jspchief

Lewis ran fairly well against us when he got the opportunity.

He had plenty of opportunities in the first half. He did nothing.

Basically our D shut down the Baltimore run game apart from one drive and one carry. That's damn good run D.

[jspchief]

Originally Posted by JBret

Sure...but I think if the O had only held the ball for 30 minutes we'd still have been fine.

Fair enough...I think that had Lewis received 10 more carries he may have lit us up for another 74, judging by what our run has shown late in games when backs get 20+ carries.

It's all speculation, by both of us.