Our QB situation is a temporary fix at best. Fitzpatrick is a good QB in terms of short range passes as he's got a quick release and quicker decision making. He's also decent under pressure. But he gambles quite a bit with WR's he feels comfortable with and throws into tight coverage at ill-advised times. and yes he's got poor touch on deep throws. Smith is our backup wether the circumstances behind his injury was on him or not, and he won't get opportunity to show what he has with this offense if/until Fitzpatrick falters hard. we know what he's done, we don't know he COULD do now that circumstances are different, and we may never know. for now, BACKUP. Our Running-backs are an above average tandem with veteran savvy. Ivory might be one of the best pure runners in the game, and his backups are able to spell him with an acceptable level of production on the ground. they are average at the receiving game. Our O-line is an average unit that could afford to commit less penalties but has in general given adequate time for Fitzpatrick to operate and made a few good blocks to aid our running game. Our Tight ends…are nonexistent. huh... Our Wide Receivers are an above average unit with two of the best physical receivers in the game in Marshall and Decker. We arguably have all we need to win with those two and Ivory alone. the rest need to step up their impact in lieu of those two however, as too many crucial passes have been dropped. Its a young unit, they just need some time to get up to speed. Our Defensive line is perhaps the best 3-4 unit there is, elite run stuffers, good at getting pressure, and now Shelly's back. we all know we're good here. Our Linebackers are a mixed unit. they're slower than most, can sometimes generate a good amount of coverage on blitz's, are good in run coverage, and below average at pass coverage. they're the weakest unit on the defense but contribute in its successes thanks to a hearty secondary and beneficial scheme. Our Secondary… is elite. Its one of the best depth charts in the league. They can blitz, they can stop the run, they can pick QB's off a great deal, they're generally good at man to man… they can also afford to shave off those interference calls. Our Special teams needs work in return coverage. Folk is fine, Quigley needs to get some more hang time. Our coaches are sound schematically and in general put our players in a position to succeed. they're mature and no-nonsense without being hard-asses. We are what our record says we are, 3-1, 3-0 in the AFC, 1-0 in the division. We will win more games off the strengths of our coaching, defense and trinity of offensive weapons. We will lose some more games because we're far from perfect and allow mistakes to get away from us. we're playoff contenders, but not playoff assured. In general we're a good team with flaws. darksiders need not fret, we're not a disaster waiting to happen. we're alright.
Special teams is killing us..that's two weeks in a row where lack of coverage and missed tackles on punt returns resulted eventually in scores. Quigley's punts tend to suck as is, so if we can't cover the punt return, it is an automatically a drive starting in our territory (if we are luck). We also have no ability to return punts/kicks, as Kerley/Stacey are not the answer. Simply put, if we are going to compete with the big boys, we need to strengthen our Special Teams play.
If we had a good QB we would be a team nobody would want to play. If we had a great QB then well ..... no point in dreaming that dream. Aside from QB play the only issue I saw was some poor special teams play
Special teams is hurting. Coverage is abysmal. I'm not sold on Galey yet. He's better than anything we've had recently but that's not saying much. A lot of the time I'm left wondering what the hell is he thinking. We really need to demote Cro. He can make plays, but at the cost of giving up a lot of penalties and catches. Demario Davis needs to practice open field tackling. He's seriously regressed. Fitz needs to practice checking down. He's locking in on Marshall and it's hurt us.
This is a very good team that beats the teams it should. We have not played an elite team yet so hard to say how we will match up but I think we can agree that the D is going to rarely be the reason we lose. I disagree somewhat with your QB analysis as you are giving Fitz too much credit. He has turned it over a lot. He is very limited. He did not win this job. He is not good enough for this team to be a contender. If you want a 9-7 team and in competition for the wildcard with limited upside, then play Fitz all 16 games. If you want to see if the team has a higher ceiling with a more talented player, you have to make the move to Geno at some point. 3-1 will be 4-1 after the Redskins game, but after that the schedule toughens and the losses will start coming, and QB play is going to factor into those losses. I expect by week 9-10, in that range, the team will turn to Geno with Fitz faltering too much and the record no longer justifying the decision to play him.
I would disagree. Our biggest flaw is at the most important position in football. We've played 4 teams who played worse than us (not by much) and we managed to win 3 of those games. We're not going to get lucky and overcome our flaws every week. Special teams has been a disaster so far, I don't see a quick fix there. The defense has been both outstanding, and terrible. Ivory has bee great so far, but he's already missed one game, if he goes down again, we don't have a lot behind him. I don't see today's team making the play-offs. Way too many points left on the field this year.
1 Quigley is terrible 2 Punt coverage sucks (42 yards high make them fair catch, also see #1) 3 Like Zac Stacey but he's no KR 4 Kerley hesitates too much on punt returns and seems to always go straight ahead right into the teeth of the coverage 5 Folk having a mediocre season so far
The one thing that can be said for Kerley is that he's steady. He didn't fumble or try to do too much like run backwards and loose yards. But you're right, he's not a game breaker despite his so called straight away speed, he does not have the quickness of the top return guys. However, I recall the Giants won the SB in '07 using R.W. McQuarters returning punts. Also not a shifty guy but steady, never gave up the ball. So I'm okay with Kerley as long as he doesn't cough it up.
We won't play teams as terrible as Miami every week. Seriously, that team has issues. Our deficiency at QB will be exposed against better teams.
I think th eOP underrated our Oline a little....they've been very good through 4 games....2 sacks against I believe? And though we struggled to run last week, they've opened up some decent holes....its better than average
Because the league marginalized Special Teams, the Jets version of it is serviceable. Kerley and Stacey as returners don't scare anyone. As usual, our QB situation is was it is. Serviceable. We know the limitations of both Qb's and we're winning with the game manager. Sadly, we don't know how long that's gonna hold up as the Dolphins didn't stack the box and that in itself was a tactical blunder of huge proportions by the Dolphins. Firing offense for a HC on a underachieving team. Wr's are vastly improved but due to the limitations of our Qb, they will not reach their full potential until another Qb is under center. I would like to see Marshall or Decker take Smith under their wing and school him on what it takes to be successful in the NFL. Speed alone ain't enough. The Defense is solid. Elite in this league so far and with Richardson coming back after the bye, Cro's liabilities are becoming an issue. Time for Williams to start and Cro to sit back. Cro's contract says no way. Well, that's my take. I had this team at 8-8 but now I'll improve that estimate to 10-6 depending on how quickly Fitz learns to throw to another number besides 15.
Way to many penaltys.....I blame the refs for most of them but what was there like 15 for almost 200 yards?It resulted in the only two fins TDs the long PI penaltys.....Bowles needs to clean that up
I agree with almost all of your points excepting the one regarding our offensive line. The line has played very well. They've given up one sack through four games and our running game has been solid.
Random thoughts. We won this game with damned near 200 yards of penalties many at the most crucial time. A least one of the TD by Miami and half of their yards on the drive were due to penalties by us. That is totally unacceptable. That and special teams are our Acquiles heal. Our D is for Real and Pryor is playing lights out in his natural position. Another bad experiment by Rex to fit his scheme. Cro is the weak link in the secondary. QB is not our strong suit but it's also not our biggest problem. Gailey needs to rethink his play calling and utilization of the TE to help Fitz be more successful. Fitz needs to practice long and hard the screen pass. His long ball terrifies me. Kudos upon kudos upon kudos to the CS and front office. The safety pick up this week from Seattle was another God sent. He had a couple of monster plays out of the gate. Keeping the best 52 for this team. Let's stop the BS that every team we play is garbage and give this D and OL and WR and RB some credit. Just yesterday people were stating how they were the better team, with the better QB, etc, etc, etc. At the beginning of the season they were declared the team to give the Pats a run for their money and now they are garbage? If Bryce can learn to play smart like Fritz with his arm strength and accuracy by next year we will be hard to touch. Above all we are winning, ugly, yes but we are winning and we are dominating the teams we should be dominating. Point in fact, it was mistakes that doomed us against the Eagles....so we are our own worst enemy. I'll take 3-1 in a heart beat. .
That should be good enough to make some noise in the AFC this year. The entire conference is beyond average.
Well put LA, you can only beat who's In front of you, we should have won by 30 today, they stink but we played well
It did look like the Dolphins were a bit lagged at the start of the game. Something about them just wasn't in sync at all today. They may not be garbage all the time, but today they were for the most part... garbage.
