We still haven't given up a defensive TD this preseason but you have to score TD'S if we're going to give up 3 points every drive. We lost 2 games without giving up a TD....not good. Early in the Giants game offense looked good (although I would like to see them go deep. I hope not going deep is by design because we haven't had 1 deep throw all preseason) , but special teams & penalties killed us. Pass Defence looked terrible.
'Bend don't break' is fine if you can score points, but Darnold can't even get a look downfield with pass rushers in his face play after play. His short game has to be on point for him to have success. The only way he seems to get any time is by leaving the pocket... IF he can find a way out. I don't fault the secondary, that's a good group. Without a pass rush they are forced to follow receivers far too long - someone is bound to get open, and they do.
The lack of deep throws has been a concern for me as well. It will neutralize Robby...he will get frustrated and act out eventually if Sam cant let it fly.
I just posted something about this in the "truth about the 1st half" thread. Don't want to repeat myself, but somebody asked Bowles about this last night after the game and he had an interesting answer.
The reason they have a "bend don't break" defense right now is because they have no pass rush. It is the only way to play defense without a pass rush. If you notice, the coverage becomes very good (even elite) when they get in the red zone. It is extremely difficult, some would even call it IMPOSSIBLE, to play good coverage between the 20s when you have no pass rush. Give a QB 5-7 seconds and somebody is going to shake free. Could be the best secondary in football, when you have all that field its very difficult. Just saying....with no pass rush "bend don't break" is what you need to do.
There is so much fact in this. I will add that putting our only two corners with any real skill set but no recovery speed in cover 0/1 all night is a horrible game plan between the 20's.
I agree our OL isn't good, but you still have to take a shot deep every once & a while. The OL pass protection is not that bad. 0 sacks in first half of the Giants game (it's the run blocking I am worried about...I hate ZONE blocking)....I think it is by design that they don't want to have Sam throw deep yet. They want him to get timing with intermediate routes. I know in practices they are going deep. I am anxious to see Sam throw deep, but not worried that they are not in preseason. I am sure they will open it up on opening day.
obj and barkley did not play. bend will break if it spends too much time on the field. we have a swiss cheese o-line. no edge rush means blitzing lb or safeties that expose back end. clueless coaching/ drafting shows up in penalties, special not teams, and even running vanilla game plans.
We will see what happens once Beachum is back, because nothing we had last year is worse than Qvale starting at LT.
Darnold was fine throwing deep in college. He has the arm strength and accuracy. We haven't gone deep by design probably because we don't want to give too much of the playbook away. But I mean this team has Robby Anderson of course we're taking shots down the field
They definitely need Beachum back. Qvale should not be playing LT. He's a serviceable backup at RT and RG, and can play TE on 6 man lines. But LT has been rough. He's not agile enough. I'm surprised they haven't tried Shell at LT reps just in case. I will say that Long has been a massive upgrade over Johnson so far though, and last year both Winters and Shell missed time. Line was in shambles for better part of last season.
