...in the 3-4 defense. Why does Mangini refuse to play Pouha more? Watching on TV all season it always seemed to me that the run defense appeared to be a bit better when Pouha was in the game instead of Robertson. I was at the game yesterday; it is blatantly obvious when you watch from the stands. Robertson is the only 3-4 NT I know to rarely touch the ground during a play. It's hard for an interior defensive lineman to keep his uniform clean but Robertson manages to do that. He plays the 3-4 like he is playing the 4-3. I watched him solely the entire game. He was trying to beat his man or the double-team on everyplay with swim or hook moves instead of taking them on at the point of attack and filling his 2- gap responsibility. It's like he is constantly pass rushing even on obvious running downs. As he was busy doing that Portis was running by him all day. I swear that he and the team would be better off if he just fell to the ground at the snap of the ball. At least this way he doesn't get moved completely out of the play and takes up space. I don't know what Mangini or Sutton are doing but Pouha should be the guy in the base defense during running downs and Robertson in on the passing situations.
and you know this...man. Thing is, the guy was out all of last year and has never really had a full or even half a workload. He will need all of this year and the offseason, and maybe even next to really get conditioned to a full workload over the coarse of a season...he's a big guy.
I'm not asking that he takes on the full work load. He's really just a 2 down kind of player. Put him in on 1st/2nd and 10, then take him out. He doesn't move at the snap and frees up the inside LBs. At some point during the game I thought D-Rob got hurt. I got excited because I thought they would have no choice now, just like Vilma's injury gave Mangini no choice but to play Harris. That excitement quickly went away once I realized it was Revis.
Honestly this is the type of sh%t that really pisses me off about this team. It's different when you getting your a$$ handed to you and you have no one on your roster that can help; that I can live with. Guys like Clark and Hobson need to be replaced but who we don't have capable replacements. However, when there are have solutions on the roster and do not take advantage, that's inexusable. 1. It's obvious that Chad limitations are too much for a team that's already hurting on talent to overcome but you wait until the season is all but lost before making a change. 2. It's obvious Vilma is struggling mightily in this scheme and you allow an injury to make the decision for you. 3. Robertson is clearly overmatched at NT. Pouha, when given the opportunity has shown he is a better fit, and we do nothing. This is no different than what Herm did.
Does Mangini know that? Apparently not. He thinks that DRob> Pouha,Mosley. He also must think that Bowens=garbage since he never gets to play in spite of his big salary. And Bryan Thomas is a better playing on the left side than the right side even though he played well on the right side last year and he is invisible on the left side this year. And he also thinks that the 3-4>4-3 even though the 3-4 gets shredded every game.
I've been willing to give D Rob the benefit of the doubt and time to develop and all that, but from what I've seen this year I'm agreeing with you legler. especially since at this point, there is nothing to lose
I've been saying this all year, Pouha improves our run defense significantly EVERY time he is in the game. I challenge someone to go back and look at the tape and convince me otherwise. Mangini needs to take the blindfold off and cut ties with his guys from last year like he did with Vilma and Pennington.
my dead grandmother > robertson I agree with all above comments, Everytime I watch DR, he just stands there at the line of scrimage..never makes penetration....it gets me sick.
