No pressure, no run stopping. This is becoming disturbing. The Texans are heavily invested in their line play, you can't expect faggins to hold up the defense when he isn't a starting caliber corner back to begin with. If the defensive line doesn't get pressure, we know the results. If they don't stop the run with the schemes they are running, game over. On defense, it falls on one group.
i'd like Kubiak to take some chances and blitz a lot more. sure, it opens up the offense to a big gain, but they're already doing that. when you're only rushing the front four 95% of the time, it's not that hard to keep them off the QB.
this is the point, they have 3 first rounders so they shouldn't have to blitz. at least that's their thinking.
even great running backs need blockers. at least show some unpredictability. something like having two of the linemen drop into coverage and blitzing the linebackers just to catch the OL offguard.
pgabs, I didn't get to see any of the game yesterday; I didn't even get to hear it on the radio. I haven't even taken time to look up a boxscore yet. But if what I'm hearing from pretty much everybody reflects what happened on the field yesterday, I have to agree with you. The line has to play better than that. It's a far cry, if it looked as ugly as what I'm hearing, from the very encouraging things I saw earlier in the year when I was able to sit down and watch a few quarters.
The defense does need to step up, they have been too inconsistent. When we have won they have played pretty good and when we have lost it's because they didn't pressure the QB. With three first rounders playing the line, that group has to be a consistent wrecking force for opposing teams. All of them need to play better and want to be dominant. I don't want to fall into the trap of making excuses for them either as we have been down that road before. They must play better and be held accountable when they don't. I would also like to see something other than the vanilla four man rush every time, not alot of stunting and blitzing going on on that side of the ball so the coaching staff is somewhat responsible in my eyes.
I'd agree on all the points in this thread. The Dline needs to step up their game. At the very least they need to hold up against the run. The coaches need to bring more pressure via blitzes. It's awesome when you can pressure the qb with just your front four, but just because it has happened on occasion does not mean you should rely on it every game.
Solution - Fire Richard Smith and promote Jethro Franklin to DC. 2 seasons in a row I haven't seen any damn pressure from this DL. What the hell is he calling? Bring in someone who has the BALLS to blitz, blitz, blitz and LIGHT A F'N INFERNO (not a small, itty-bitty fire) under that very pricey and costly DL. Problem solved.
pgab, don't you think the offense is to blame for some of the defense's performance yesterday? i mean, the offense never had a sustained drive. in the 2nd quarter, the D was on field for 10 out of 12 minutes, while the O was going 3 and out. at some point, the defense has to rest. that's why, imo, at the end of the game Jville was ripping right through our D (line and secondary altogether). they were worn down. exhausted. getting a consistent running game will help to remedy this problem, but i don't see that happening until after next offseason. mckinney's out, green's at the tail end of his illustrious career, and dayne sucks. but, at least we know what we need to address for this team to continue to grow.
As I see it: -The front 4 + Ryans are solid against runs up the middle. They aren't quick, but they are good at eating space and plugging gaps. -The secondary is outmatched nearly every game (desperate to play passing-challenged guys like the Chiefs week 1) making blitzes awfully tough to call. Anytime you blitz, you're handicapping the secondary and really risking a major backfire. Moreso than other teams. -Richard Smith is awfully conservative, non-creative, and slow to adjust in his game planning. I'm not a fan of his, but he's not really killing us. -Yesterday, Mojo started eating us alive by living off of off-tackle and stretch runs. Okoye can't do anything about that. If they run away from Mario, there's nothing he can do. Their receivers did a disturbingly good job blocking our corners, and they did a good job bringing a man to seal the tackle or Ryans. We've got our weakness. We do great between the hashes and are at a disadvantage when guys can break outside. We can't send help often since our secondary would get torched. Tough situation. One that worries me in regards to the Saints matchup. I guess the guys I'm really calling out are our outside LBs. Evan
its been a weakness from day one. those are fair points, however that taylor run went right up the middle.
The defense did do a pretty good job in the first half. I remember the announcers (yeah, I don't know why I'm using them as a source) saying how Garrard was getting put on his back every play. But they wore down in the 2nd quarter. The Jagoffs had the ball for almost 12 minutes in the 2nd. The onside kick absolutely killed us and even with the halftime break, we couldn't recover. We WERE getting pressure on the QB but after the half, there was nothing.
True, that was awful. I tend to focus more on constant issues, though. MJD was cutting us up on the sides everytime. Take out Taylor's big play, he averaged less than 3 yds/carry. Take out Mojo's 57 yarder, he still averaged over 6 yds/carry. That's not even looking at how Drew broke out with his backfield receptions. The name on the back of our #38 CB should read "Target." Clark and Greenwood missed too many plays in their area. Evan
I would love to see more blitzing from this unit, but even when we are...it's just not that effective. The DL has been a little disappointing after getting off to such a great start. BUT WE ONLY HAVE 1 SACK OUTSIDE OF OUR D-LINE!! This shows me that either we are not blitzing nearly enough or that we just aren't good at it. I wouldn't mind seeing guys like Orr and Greenwood (both athletic OLB) blitz more. Guys like Merriman, Shaun Phillips, and Ware are wrecking havoc from OLB blitzes, of course they are also elite LBs. Everybody needs to step up on the defense.
in my opinion, the bend but don't break is an excellent strategy when playing the colts. But it should be a sign of concern, when mark brunell is breaking completion records on us we should be able to adjust, and richard smith does not do that very well. This game reminded me alot of the game vs the cowboys last year. not hot.
I too think Smith needs to quit rushing 4 linemen on every play. As a QB, it's easy to go through your reads when the same 4 guys are coming on every single play. It gets harder when you don't know where the rush is coming from.
