Mitch---it is soooo good to see your post this week. I just got out of the hospital, but I did get to watch the game Sunday. You and I have VERY LITTLE TO DISAGREE ON THIS WEEK. I do think the guys deserve a Christmas present without big boy pads, but I would like to see Whiz put a little belly fire on the repeat offenders and back it up by setting them down a little time till they GET IT. That did work during the playoff run last year. All this year though the same people have resorted to the same screwups for the most part, and they do it over and over, and I am not talking about Gandy and Brown at OT either. They get waayy more blame than they deserve for what they are asked to do. NO OTHER TACKLES IN THE LEAGUE ARE ASKED TO PERFORM ON THE LONELY ISLAND THESE TWO GUYS ARE. They have played well indeed when give the same help that other teams give their OT's. I also have notice the road grading play of both Lutui and Brown lately, and I just don't understand why we don't run behind them more. They force Beanie to the left and pull Lutui to block into the hole, but Wells, and Gandy/replacement are too often still sitting there with their men unmoved and Deuce just ends up filling the hole up and forcing Beanie outside.
Strange, but I also think that I am seeing a different Warner out there, and part of it is the conservative play in the second half of games. The other part is the hurt part----I think Doug hit it on the head when he pointed out that Kurt took that hip pointer in the second to last series in the Minnessota game. Although he came back for the kneel down series to end the game, it was obvious that it hurt him to kneel and get back up.
Then getting slammed again the the first series on third down against the 9ers on the same hip really showed. I really do think that if given the same choice again, Whiz would have set hm and brought in Leinart. Win or lose, Kurt is too valuable to have play that way. He may have done more to convince Kurt not to come back next year than any of us will ever know by putting him back in the game when he was sick to death on the bench, and they had Leinart warmed up and ready. Since that time, there has been something missing in his demeanor on the field. He almost looks like he doesn't want to be there anymore. His actions, (and reads), are not as quick, nor as confident as before, and the doubts seem to be creeping in more and more often now. The play shows it too, with his holding too long, and fumbling, and with throwing the int's.
I am sorry to say that I don't think we are as good a team as we were last year when we entered the play offs. We have better talent, and better depth than last year, but we are playing hurt in too many places, and Kurt is one of them. If he can't get his mind right and his confidence back, we will not go far into the playoffs.
We are also hurt badly on t he defensive front seven. Two of those injuries are critical and will not heal with a week or two of reduced play. Gerald Hayes has got to be hurting terribly, (probably as Doug said, with a disk problem). He will not heal for a very long off-period of time, and maybe not even with surgery. Back troubles like that are tricky.
Dockett is playing with two partly separated shoulders, YET HE IS PLAYING LIKE A MAN POSSESSED. He is not able to hit and drive anymore, and coupling that injury with Hayes' injury is leaving us open to a good running game. Dockett can still wrap up and tackle, (not so Hayes), but Dockett can no longer hit and drive his man back, and is giving up a body length on every tackle now. That is becoming a killer when he is alone on the tackle. He is playing with the heart of a lion, but he can't do what he does best, stuff the run in the backfield, or at least at the line of scrimmage. Couple that with Ware's injury, with the reduced performances of both Berry and Okeafor and the lack of willingness for DRC and sometimes for Rolle to hit in the secondary, and I just don't us going deep into the playoffs this year. I hope I am wrong, but I will not be surprised if we go out early this year. I also will not be surprised if Warner dicided to hang it up this year, even if we don't win the SB. I think he came real close last year.
I am still hoping for a couple of good breaks along the way, as we sure haven't had many of those along the way during the regular season this year. But I won't be getting down on anybody
playing in the Big Red this year if we do not go all the way. While I believe that stupid mistakes can be overcome, serious injury is a whole nother thing to deal with, and we have that in spades this year. I am not giving up on this team, because they haven't yet. I am just not prepared to get real positive about our chances from here on out. Last year we were unhurt, this year we are not. Big difference. You can only overcome so much handicap, and this just might be too much.
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