That was on Leonard Williams I think...little too excited. Marcus Williams did a poor job playing safety last week (last man back missing tackles=free trip for 6), albeit not his normal position (corner).
In any 3-4 defense, the '4' is much more important than the '3'. You have 3 BIG lineman taking up blockers with dbl teams, opening holes for the '4', which are supposed to be strong FAST LBers blasting through the holes pressuring (sacking) the QB from anywhere on the field. We have the 3 BIG lineman. But we DON'T have the 4 FAST LBers blasting through holes. Trying to stick a 4th BIG lineman out there (none of which were born with the natural speed to sack the QB) doesn't replace the need for FAST LBers. It can actually make things worse, because now you have 4 BIG lineman occupying blocks and one less LBers doing the real work. This may be OK against a team the loves to run the ball, but against most teams that actually try and pass the ball, look out. There's a BIG difference between 3-4 D-Lineman and 4-3. So simply throwing one more out there won't get the job done.
Team that's been rich in history at LB, now we have next to nothing...see Kyle Clifton, Mo Lewis, Lance Mehl, Bob Crable, Ralph Baker, Al Atkinson, Larry Grantham...etc
We've been so enamored with our D-Lineman, MoWilk one of the best, Sheldon getting DROY, drafting Leonard, etc, we kind of forgot about the 4 guys playing behind them. Would you swap Copels for JJ Watt? Exactly. Macc's job now is to retain as much of our D-Line as possible while building a formidable LBer cores. He have Harris in the middle which is excellent news. He leads the NFL in tackles year after year. Now we need SPEED to get off the edge and take advantage of our great D-line, so that becomes priority #1 in the coming year.
Its what happens when your starting SS and backup SS and FS are all injured. You bring in hit or miss guys like Dion Bailey and when you're not satisfied with them you bring your fourth corner. Marcus simply isn't a safety and never will be, much like AA will never be a CB.
Exactly. Mouldin and that other guy may develop into edge speed, and hopefully good enough to stay on the field on 1st and 2nd.
you are both correct. which is why i would change both olbs who start. put rielly and the 3rd round pick in there , to rush and cover. pace and couples are certainly not getting the job done. eagles killed us with tes and swing passes to rbs, and both pats and raiders picked up on that. plus cro blowing long pass coverage and all-around horrible tackling. no playoffs spots for that mess.
all of your post on 3 different threads i read have been right on the money! congrats. unlike a certain banned poster who often confused raw stats with impact. holding a team to few rushing yards , while getting killed with the pass is hardly anything to brag about. see the recent pats game for reference.
Exactly, if you gave up 450 yards passing and held them to 16 yards on the ground you still gave up 466 yards
I do too. He is strong and fast. I was pretty close to him at the London game during warm-ups...he is freaking jacked. We weren't sure who he was at first. That special teams penalty on him was pretty bad though (block in the back)...The guy on Oakland is showing all back and Mauldin just obliterates him.
Getting the feeling that TB likes to stick with the vets bc it would seem some younger, faster hungrier players should easily be able to unseat Cro, Coples and Pace....and maybe Demario Davis too.
Dunno about Reilly but Mauldin showed a burst getting around the edge in the number of snaps he played. Certainly more burst than Coples has ever shown playing the OLB position.
Sorry but none of these guys are worth the big money if they can't get to the QB ever, every 1st round draft pick can't get pressure on the QB and I have to hear BS about it being the system, etc... Sorry, you're big, on the D-Line, and you want that massive contract, get to the QB and make his day unpleasant. The more the season goes on the more I realize how much of a paper tiger this defense is, even Revis is getting torched.
