That last play was just a mess. Brown's man went wide, and he forced him back to the inside. Fitzpatrick unfortunately stepped up (and even worse, stepped left) and into the path of the oncoming defender. If Brown had kept his engagement at that point, it would have been a holding penalty. Things would have been OK if Fitzpatrick had tucked and ran it (which he looked like he was going to do), but for some really he pulled up and re-cocked the ball. Zero awareness of the man barreling down on him. Blam, sack fumble. Hopkins had a chance at the ball, but saw two massive Colts going for it full-tilt for it and apparently decided his chances of getting injured were better than his chances of recovering the ball. I don't think DeAndre would've got the ball, but to see him not even try is disheartening.
Truth. That was my thinking on the play, he didn't want to dive in and possibly harm his hands i.e. his $$ makers.
so much blame to go around before you get to Fitz Secondary O-Line (Brown in particular) Special Teams eff up onside kick Cushing nonfactor
Clowney injured, hasn't played. XSF and Fido haven't done anything. Nix on IR, doesn't seemed like he had impressed the coached before then in the least. Blue and Hal have contributed some. And hopefully Clowney can come back and play up to his freakish potential. But this draft class as a whole is starting to look pretty crappy. If this was supposed to be Rick's chance to run the show without Gary pulling the strings, it's not looking too good for him right now.
Fitz was fine yesterday, he threw the ball down the field and make some nice back shoulder throws. Tackling, Oline , special teams all bigger issues...also dear O'Brien when the toss is won let's defer please..the offense has sucked early all year why receive and just give it right back to them.
Was Hopkins effort weak on that play? Yes. But can we agree the bigger problem on that play was Fitz fumbling the ball? Who's to say Hop would have recovered the fumble anyway. Dont fall behind 24-0 in the first quarter and you wont have to worry about trying to go 90 yds with no timeouts with a below average qb.
Hopefully Rick gets promoted after this season and we get an independent GM (not a NE buddy of OBrien) that comes in.
Fitzpatrick just tried to do too much, he should have taken the sack but it is hard for me to blame him considering he knows he not going to have any time on any play to drop back and pass. I was saying in this game thread all night if we can give him some time to throw he will make the throws we need, he has a good arm and andre was abusing that corner all night. When he had time we saw what happened, we got the ball downfield pretty quickly. It just sucks that andre dropped that ball and IMO it should have been incomplete. Plenty of blame to go around though, our secondary was flat out little league caliber for most of the game. Someone needs to chew these guys out for continually trying to hit high even cushing missed tackles due to that, thats just fundamentals. Bright spots: - this guy Simon really looked good to me especially after just being signed this week. - mercilus was applying good pressure but i dont see him keeping it up. - Foster is flat out amazing with the football, watching him run is a thing of beauty - jj watt is still godlike - before the fumble andre was looking really good and i hope we continue to try and feed him more like last night.
Agreed. The biggest issues last night were the defense and the offensive line, both of which got run off the field in the first quarter.
Glad somebody else said this. Why do we choose to take the ball early? Our 1st 3 drives were quick 3-and-outs. Plus, when we finally got some momentum before the half, we had to kick it off to them to start the 2nd half.
Agree with you 100%. I think the reason people agree with the call is because the steps he too but the steps dont matter if you never fully tuck the ball, this was mentioned by the official expert on air he was pretty convinced it was incomplete.
IMO he did. Took two whole steps with the ball under his clear control (he has both hands on it and is moving it towards his body with absolute intent). Third step, the ball squeaked out. I can see how some see as an INC because it was SO fast. But in judgment calls like that, sometimes it's not going to go your way. P.S. I wonder if Andre is going to have to buy the team a new bench. After he got back to the sideline he smashed his helmet into the bench so hard he left a sizable dent in it. Maybe he was imagining Finnegan's face there
I know safety is a very hard position to find good players at and is not the highest on the priority list for most teams, but I am tired of this franchise having piss poor safety play. Other than 2011 with Quin and Manning back there, we have always been below average to terrible as far as safeties that can cover. Two weeks in a row Kendrick Lewis has been beat and fallen down, allowing a TD. Swearinger continues to not wrap up and go for the big hit. That doesn't work against NFL running backs.
The steps dont matter, in the replay there is an angle that shows the ball is clearly coming up from his forearm while running which means he did not have total control.
Yep, that was absolutely a catch and fumble. Fitz was driving us down the field to potentially come back and win the game after a 24-0 first quarter. He had a 9.2 YPA with no interceptions and yet people still find a way to make him the scapegoat in a game where there were SO MANY bigger issues.
Kendrick Lewis does appear to be slow and somewhat clumsy in coverage. To his credit, he's come up with a few turnovers and good open field tackles. He is a backup though, there's no doubt about that. Swearinger, on the other hand, is failing in such absolutely hilariously basic ways. His tackling form is so piss poor. If he'd just wrap up, he'd be a top 3 defender on the team, but he appears to be obsessed with the big hit.
Saw every replay. Saw no such thing. The ball doesn't move until it hits his body. Coinflip call. Sucks.
