moondog

Back to back drops by Terry, that’s hard to accept. He’s earned all the love and I know he’ll take the blame for that. Tough to accept cuz back to back plays were not great throws but he’s gotta haul those in.

Awful throw. But mclaurin needs to haul that in.

Memba when people were dogging Dotson? Oh yeah, I memba.

Here is where we normally go into a turtle shell and **** this one up.

Run another play grab five yards call a to and then kick!!!

Ugh garbage ass play call. One of the only few so far. I’m lining up under center with Armah in the game. Pass if you want but give ‘em something to think about.

Can we please use a tendency on fourth down to confuse them and get it?

*rb’s

Where are the screens and underneath dumpoffs to the DB’s?

GD Howell makes that throw and Terry is off for a 90 yard td.

How many times do we have to get beat deep by Hyatt to give up the underneath but play it deep? That’s 100% on BSJ.

That play which I think probably is a catch cost us the game.

I can hate on ron as much as the next guy. But BSJ holy ****. DO. YOUR. JOB. Not excusing our coaching staff at all. ESPECIALLY EB in this one. But holy ****. I do see it. Granted JDR could do us some ****ing favors by actually calling an aggressive defense. Take a page out of wink’s defense, especially against basically a senior bowl level offensive line.

Holy ****. There is a sliver of a chance. Thanks almost exclusively to Terry.

I hear what you’re saying. This is the perfect time for the swinging gate. Great insight man! Wish I’d thought of it.

Two more sacks coming out on this drive.

When they’re blitzing that much can we try a ****ing screen or some quick game even on third and long? Correct me if I’m wrong but Mclaurin, Samuel, Dotson, Thomas and all our RB’s are pretty good after the catch right? So get them the ****ing ball and let ‘em run rather than all this slow developing bs. Also, can we imagine what our defense would look like with martindale? Instead of this passive bull**** with 1 sack against a bunch of door greeters on oline?

Honestly, this is about what I expected.

I think this relates at least in part to what I referenced above. If you’re just sending 4 against the the pass and there are constant double teams and chips or 6 man protections then that pass rush isn’t getting home and the rest of the defense is playing backwards and preventing instead of forcing the issue. Against the run it’s similar with LBers reacting to somewhat of a freelance front rather than knowing their gaps presnap and playing downhill. Again, reactive. It’s an overly simple perspective that doesn’t explain everything away but I think it explains why we have so much speed but often look slow. It’s because our defense so far this year has just been hoping our front four blow up the run AND pass game while the rest are essentially playing backward. Or if they do attack and it doesn’t get home there are massive gaps created or time for longer routes/double moves. It also begs another draft question. I like Forbes and think he’ll eventually be a good player. But he’s a ballhawk not a cover/shutdown corner, in the same way that diggs is for Dallas. If you draft that player and preach turnovers then don’t rush four and constantly leave him on an island. You apply pressure and let him play downhill to the ball. Forbes deserves plenty of blame for his play but our style of defense as a whole doesn’t marry up with preaching turnovers. If you’ve built the defense on speed and turnovers, then play an attacking style of defense and live with getting burned occasionally because you expect the turnovers (and holding penalties) to outweigh the bad. But sitting back on the back end and hoping the front four get through a wall does not at all match the philosophy you’ve preached all off-season or the player you took. Hell, if Forbes is on a guy like AJ brown maybe overload that side with the pressure so that if they do go that way Forbes can be the aggressive player that he is rather than out there against an animal of a receiver. And I don’t mean some stupid double corner blitz. Keim has mentioned several times this team for years (prior regimes) drafts guys then asks them to be something different than what they’ve been on film. You drafted a ballhawk so put him in positions to be that. Don’t ask him to cover AJ brown and dj Moore for 3-4 seconds. That’s not who he is, at least not right now. And similar to jamin Davis with quan Martin, you take a talented athlete but then try to jam too much into his brain for him to play fast. Maybe they felt with all the talent at safety it was ok to overload him and bring him in slowly. My feelings just differ in that you could have given him one thing (buffalo nickel) and let him master it so he can play fast and then pick up more as he goes. Instead they threw the kitchen sink at him so he’s not good enough at anything (by their estimation) to play cuz he has to think too much. I just don’t like that philosophy with their young players.

Our defenses, especially early in the year just seem predicated on JDR not learning past lessons. He reverts back to just rushing 4 relying on our talent up front which leaves most of them double teamed and chipped against typical 6 man protections and chips. It makes the defense reactive instead of dictating/attacking and does not maximize our talent upfront and while our secondary is talented, you give anyone enough time and they’re going to get open. Blitzing or bringing others maximized the front’s talent and allows them more one on ones or challenges the lines’ gameplan in that if they do double team then a blitzer is going to come untouched, force a pressure or force the qb into one of our linemen and allow the back end to eat instead of covering forever. Inevitably we get around to attacking more and everyone looks better, especially when the backend follows their techniques WITH the front generating pressure. It also makes fake blitz looks actually BE effective because a lineman may set to block the guy and be late helping against our linemen. Additionally, I think it must be said that our linebackers seem to struggle so much because our scheme dictates that they play reactively to the dline. We clearly give our line all the freedom in the world to change up what they’re doing even at the LOS which is good for them but if not communicated effectively to the LB than they’re guessing where they need to be. It also explains why they struggle so much to play downhill in our scheme because they have to instantly react to the dline in terms of what gap they’re responsible for - you see issues with this when a lineman makes a move and Barton ends up stacked up then rather than filling a different gap or just waiting for a rb to come through then taking them on. I think this is sometimes more obvious when our defense is more consistent when guys like Toohill or JSW are in. They are going to 100% do their job and be where others expect them to be. Instead of 4 players doing their thing (within the defense to try to fill the gaps/pass rush lanes) it limits it to just 1-2 (Payne/Allen) and the defense tends to be more consistent in terms of limiting yards per play, providing pressure and limiting rb’s to short gains. Payne/Allen tend to be more productive as well because it’s JUST them being set up by lesser players rather than sharing that freedom across the whole front. Obviously you want the max talent on the field at one time but it is apparent that the defense shows more consistency limiting offenses when we have more role players out there that just “do their job” and let a few key stars eat. This is not me advocating for choosing between young/sweat etc, just an observation. It IS me advocating for JDR calling more aggressive defenses to maximize the individual talent upfront rather than just expecting the single one of them that doesn’t get doubled or chipped to win every time or else we are in a bad spot. The best coordinators don’t just expect their talent to win out, they scheme up ways for them to be unblocked or blocked by just a TE or RB on occasion or use them to free up a blitzing Davis etc.

I think this is a big overreaction. He’s going to have his weeks and games where EB is going take advantage of what he brings. He’s got a great skill set and a good head on his shoulders. Patience.

I’m at a loss with Dotson. Dude is great and I gather he has the best hands on the team so the drops are inexplicable. But I have a lot of faith in him - when I say I’m at a loss I mean with his lack of production this year - Paulsen was super high on him and his route running as exceptional - better than Terry. AND several folks emphasized the connection sam had with him in camp. They strongly believed he would lead the team in receptions even if Terry outpaced him in yards. Add in that his precision route running and understanding of how/when to throttle up/down in breaks fit perfectly in EB’s scheme and it’s just perplexing. I feel like we should use him similar to how the bills use diggs if you watched last night. Great on short and intermediate routes and can get yac. I’m not even remotely out on him and still elated we got him (admittedly I was confused at the time we took him). But for the life of me I cannot understand the lack of targets/usage and especially the drops. I think he’ll have his games before the year is out. Part of what is so shocking to me is the lack of separation our receivers get leading to plenty of sacks. Maybe EB is calling more downfield shots, especially at end of halves when we take a lot of the sacks. But Dotson with his route running is a guy that excels at getting separation and quickly (he did last year, was close to the lead league in that category and just winning repeatedly on routes). It just doesn’t add up so I’m still expecting production sooner than later.

Wtf is up with Dotson’s hands.

Tight. Great start.

Eh, again I guess I just don’t really care. Words don’t mean anything to me. If the team goes out and performs then the coaches are doing their jobs. If not, then I’m disappointed. It doesn’t make much difference to me what they say in the media. And to a certain extent they’re not wrong. The better sam gets and the more experience, it’s likely the line and whole operation will look better. It’s hard to ignore the lack of sacks down in Houston with all their line injuries, for example.