* shit - can a mod please fix the title to read: All Phases Have Shown Promise. * Run Game - When we've been able to commit to the run we've had good success at doing so. Prior to last nights game that turned into a shoot out quickly, the team was averaging 4.4 YPC on the groud. That's plenty good enough. Pass Game - The pass game has shown flashes but hasn't been nearly consistent enough yet. We should have expected this to be the phase that took the most time to gel. Last night they were able to get a lot of reps and hopefully build some much needed chemistry. Run Defense - When Jenkins is in the game the run defense has been very stout for the most part. The exception was when the Pats ran the same damn draw play over and over against us - I think we MAY have been in a nickel for a lot of those. Poor coaching not to adjust on that. Pass Defense - Again, when Jenkins is in they were able to cause a lot of pressure creating a number of hurries and sacks. The Chargers did a great job picking up pretty much every blitz we sent last night. Sutton needs to do a better job of either disguising them or coming up with new ones so that we can continue to get to the QB. The secondary has looked suspect when we do not get pressure and in the seams. Special Teams - After a woeful first couple of weeks the ST unit rebounded strong last night. I am going to make the assumption that Westhoffs presense has taken effect and hope we don't experience any more special teams woes. I think they've shown they can be playoff caliber in each phase of the game so far, but have yet to put it all together on the same day. The passing game is the only possible exception, but even there you can see that it's just a matter of time IMO. I look for improvement this week in the passing game and hope for the other phases to all show up at the same time. Hopefully they can pull a win out this week to go along with it. After the bye week they should be able to put it all together with all phases of the game playing well.
Well we improved from what we did wrong in week 2 (conservative play-calling and penalties), but we took steps back in other aspects (turnovers, offense looked out of sync, defense played poorly) i really feel like we will be a completely different, and better, team after the bye. However, with that said, we need to be able to win next week to get some momentum going (2-2 and 1-3 at the bye is a HUGE difference)
Not having Jenkins was obviously HUGE. I think the offense being out of sync was mostly because we were passing the majority of the time and the passing offense just isn't there yet. It's hard enough to be successful passing the ball all the time when a defense KNOWS it's coming when you have great chemistry. They've shown flashes of what the passing O can be, but have yet to consistently pass the ball around. It's clear they're not on the same page (Favre & receivers). All the passing yesterday should have helped that. Correcting the penalties is a good point too. I think the refs were pretty lenient for the most part yesterday and let the teams just play (which I absolutely prefer). That doesn't change the fact that we didn't have multiple delay of game/false fart/too many men ...
Also, i know the "what-ifs" and "should haves" don't mean jack shit, but i think we could have scored A LOT more points. 1. Right before half, Favre got sacked to put us out of field goal range. We ended up punting the ball away, thus getting no points. A FG would have been big there, giving us a little momentum going into halftime. 2. Our first, maybe 2nd drive of the second half. We were driving pretty well down the field and were stopped close to the red zone. We ended up going for it on 4th down instead of taking the FG. We were unsuccessful and came away with no points again. 3. We missed two 2PT conversion attempts. One was 1 foot from the endzone! 4. Clemmens threw an int at the end of the game in the red zone. Favre gets us a TD 75% of the time in that situation. Say we kick those 2 FGs, make 2 extra points instead of going for 2 twice, and get that TD at the end of the game. That's 15 more points! we would have only lost by 4 or so. Granted we had 4 turnovers, that's not bad.
I'm not a big fan of what if's either. The Chargers clearly outplayed us yesterday and deserved the win. It's a matter of putting together everything at once and continuing to grow in the passing game for us right now IMO.
2-2 is a huge difference from 1-3. I agree. 2-2 would leave the team set to pick up some wins in the next few games and still have a chance to make the playoffs. 1-3 presents a much tougher challenge and undermines morale, not just among the fanbase, either. This CS in case you have noticed has not been doing so great getting the most out of this team. It gets harder each game south of .500 they go.
This is exactly why I've refused to get too down on this team. We knew the team would take time to develop into its full potential. The San Diego game showed that we are not ready for primetime. Hopefully, that can act as a wake-up call, but we've shown flashes of being very good. If we lose to Arizona, 1-3 is a tough hole to climb out of. Not impossible by any stretch, but that would put us far behind the 8-ball. 2-2 with that schedule is fine. Is it ideal? Obviously not, but we knew this team would take some time. If Jenkins is healthy, I think our defense can be very good. If he isn't, we'll have some trouble.
Defense looked sorry as hell. we couldn't touch rivers, tomlinson (injured), and that other back ran all over us. Defense looked so sorry it was pathetic.
Jenkins is certainly a key piece but not the only one. If either of the starting CBs gets hurt, I think we get lit up. I really like our D with all of those pieces. I am afraid of our short passing D. TEs, backs and slot receivers seem to catch the ball at will against us. This is really hurting our ability to limit the opposition to three and outs. I really hope the coaching staff is finding a solution to this problem.
