Togetherness

[Harry]

One of the things I've noticed through the years is how important it is for units to get time playing together. You see it often in O-lines where even in a tight space, knowing what the guy next to you is going to do is critical to success. As such it should be noted that's the Cards' defense is a work in progress.

They have a new starter at every level. With a new NT, a new OLB, a new CB and a new S it should not be surprising they seem to be disjointed. This is a problem only time will cure. On several plays Bucannon seemed to hesitate to see where Jones was going. Since read and react time is critical this has caused several observers to criticized Bucannon's performance. I saw the same issues with the safeties. This was aggravated by TM not playing in preseason so he seemed out of place at times too. Unless Jefferson was blitzing I thought he moved awkwardly.

Hopefully this week will be a step forward. This is a very dangerous opponent if the defense doesn't get it together.

 

[JeffGollin]

Harry, taking your observation a step farther - do you think it's possible that the coaching staff was blessed by an embarrassment of riches and spent so much time playing mix 'n max with their versatile "toys" that, too many times, they put members of their secondary in unfamiliar situations where they were confused, blew assignments, failed to communicate or, at the very least, were forced to "think" and, therefore, were a step slow to react?

Just wondering.

 

[Harry]

Good observation! They played vanilla defenses in preseason, then tried to play more sophisticated schemes in game one. Tough to do based on practice. You could see watching the offense that even players like Palmer & the receivers who'd worked together a ton in previous seasons had trouble anticipating. It's not surprising the defense did. They should have been ready for BB to cause this defensive confusion and expect to have to outscore him. BA didn't have the offense ready and that was the main factor in the loss IMO. We can yell at Bettcher all day but he had a much tougher task than BA.

 

[oaken1]

Good observation! They played vanilla defenses in preseason, then tried to play more sophisticated schemes in game one. Tough to do based on practice. You could see watching the offense that even players like Palmer & the receivers who'd worked together a ton in previous seasons had trouble anticipating. It's not surprising the defense did. They should have been ready for BB to cause this defensive confusion and expect to have to outscore him. BA didn't have the offense ready and that was the main factor in the loss IMO. We can yell at Bettcher all day but he had a much tougher task than BA.

at this point our offense is a pretty well oiled machine...on the verge of getting greasy,lol.... but even an old hot rod has to be run around the block once in a wheel to keep the lubrication in all the right spots so the gears can mesh properly...


easy to blame the defense...we made "huge" upgrades there...and they were just grade school nasty as a result.

but the simple fact is, in any sport other than golf, you win by out scoring your opponent..

we did not do that

 

[Blotto]

Last week I spent most of the game watching Campbell get dominated over and over. Amazing he still wants another big contract.

 

[Cardiac]

Last week I spent most of the game watching Campbell get dominated over and over. Amazing he still wants another big contract.

Really??????? Not at all what I saw.

 

[Cardiac]

The reasons I'm not all Chicken Little at his point are:

Patriots are always for real and never an easy win.

Per you point Harry, the D simply needs some time to gel.

The offense only scoring 21 points is unacceptable.

 

[kerouac9]

Last week I spent most of the game watching Campbell get dominated over and over. Amazing he still wants another big contract.

This is not what I saw at all, either.

 

[Jetstream Green]

Last week I spent most of the game watching Campbell get dominated over and over. Amazing he still wants another big contract.

Sacks are not the only stat to suggest a player made an impact, and that is what I glean from your statement. It seemed the makeshift line was having some problems with Campbell but the rest of the DL did not take advantage of the situation in my opinion and exploit their concerns over one guy

 

[Buckybird]

Sacks are not the only stat to suggest a player made an impact, and that is what I glean from your statement. It seemed the makeshift line was having some problems with Campbell but the rest of the DL did not take advantage of the situation in my opinion and exploit their concerns over one guy

I still say our Dline isn't athletic enough & while Jones is an upgrade over what we had at OLB he's still not in Houston, Millers or the upper echelon edge rushers consistently IMO. Scheme could make up for it, but Bettcher isn't in Bowles class as a DC

 

[JeffGollin]

Think the preponderance of NE 3 and 5-step drops may have been why our sack total was SO low?

 

[Cardiac]

Think the preponderance of NE 3 and 5-step drops may have been why our sack total was SO low?

Absolutely. If BA had allowed more man coverage then we could have made JG hold the ball longer and then maybe the pressure gets there.

 

[Blotto]

I'm not talking just sacks. There was a few times last week he was on his back.