Our defense freakin' blows!!! We score a touchdown, then immediately give up a touchdown. Merriman is back and has pretty much been a non factor (besides that assist on the interception). 48 points given up in two games. You're suppose to be the answer.
maybe, but giving the other team the ball on the 30-35 yard line every kickoff doesn't help our cause either
With the way our D has been letting running backs get through them like a sieve it wouldn't really matter if the other team started on their own 1 every drive.
It's also tough to win when the other teams D-backs can hit receivers at will and go flag-free and we sneeze near one and it's 1-st down all over again. I saw serious contact 3-times from the view-24 section.... and the refs couldn't see it from 10-feet away.....C'MON.
:lol: good point. maybe we should onside kick every time. maybe pick one up once in awhile. If we don't then we would get the ball back sooner after the opposing team scored. :flag:
Id say part of it is losing Jamal but we didn't appear to be playing that well during the Raider game either Alot of it just goes back to problems from last year - lack of toughness, inability to get to the QB (minor improvements there last week), inability to control the run game, and complete lapses in coverage (side note: Cason blowing that TD to Washington, that was on a move even Berman and Jackson said they've never seen before, so that's semi forgiven). For all the talk about new attitude and new fire, the new boss appears to be the same as the old boss. And meanwhile I'm drooling about what Rex Ryan (my top choice in 06 to replace Schottenheimer) is doing with the Jets defense.
I think the issue is more personnel than scheme. Our defensive front is licking balls right now. Jacques Cesaire is not an every down player in this league. Our opening day front three was a downgrade from last year (Olshansky vs. Cesaire) and that was when Williams was in the lineup. Castillo has been inconsistent and the other 2/3 of the line is going to be played by backups. So the days of "YOU CAN'T RUN" are long gone (Adrian Peterson is still scoring touchdowns on us). Add to that unimpressive play from our LBs (Merriman included), and a couple blown coverages and our D looks like crap. But you can't bleed a turnip. The players available to us on our D-line just aren't anything very impressive and I don't know what Ron Rivera is supposed to do about that.
I am 100% cosigning with the two posters before me that it's about the personnel he has to work with and they're not very good. Nwagbuo may have a sack but the Ravens made him everything but a non-factor. The linebackers aren't getting enough pressure because the linemen have no trouble double-teaming them, knowing full well that the rookie, Cesaire, and Castillo can be heavily limited with easy tricks. That said we have to get better at tackling. We can't stop ANYONE if we can't tackle people once we make contact. Cason is small but Gregory, Burnett, Philips, Merriman, and Weddle are experienced starters in this defense and they're letting people slip right through their arms. That needs to fixed fast. Then we can work on different looks and stunts to make more of an impact in the passing game. It's week 3. It's early and we still have a little rust IMO. We also are dealing with a few key injuries and a defensive coordinator trying to implement his system for the full season. That said, work needs to be done right now to get better later.
I was coming here to support my boy but you seem to have done a pretty good job for me. Rivera said that they played pretty straight forward against the turds because of the fact that their QB sucks. Now against the Ravens we lose Williams and our D had to make adjustments that I'm sure they weren't ready for. I really hope that Merriman's issue is him working on getting the explosion back because he isn't doinf sqwuat yet. He did have that one nice play on Cason's INT and that is the SM we need week in week out. Regarding our Dline....well, that is going to be a work in progress and I really hope we take a page out of the Jets notebook and bring the heat.
I'll agree, first half f defense was horrendous in that we didn't ****ing tackle. Second half... goddamn penalties negating good stops. That's bullshit. But what are you gonna do? How bout we try something new, **** the first two weeks, forget about em cuz we can't change it, but instead focus on Miami at home this upcoming week? :icon_shrug:
Interesting thing... a few months after Super Bowl 2006, I went to a convention in Chicago. I was talking to some Bears fans just shooting the breeze. ALL of them hated Rivera and were glad to see him go. I was thinking it was just because of the comment he made before the Super Bowl about wanting to be HC (which was stupid), but now I'm seeing that maybe there is more reason. Think of it... if he was an asset to the Bears defense, wouldn't they have done all they could to keep him there (especially when nobody offered him a HC position)?
Because he had several offers for HC and is now HC for the Jets. Same thing happened with Marvin Lewis. They expected him to be gone after that Super Bowl season for that reason. Eventually, he got the opportunity.
Funny how everyone was raving about Rivera whne he took over last year and our defense helped get us into the playoffs. He admitted to playing a plain vanilla D against the turds and was thrown a loop with Jamal while still trying to find the right DE. He has Merriman not at 100% by his own admission & trying to get a safety to step it up Weddle trying to get use to playing a position a new way then last year. They still have those adjustments to make and Rivera will have us right back in a great position. Now if our offense can put the ball into the endzone when we are inside the 10 we should have a great chance for winning.
I was one of them but so far, he's sucked this season. Speaking of Merriman, not only has he been a no factor on the field but I don't see him taking charge of leadership anymore either. Maybe he's off the roids?
1. I hate the idea of playing vanilla against any team in the NFL, lots of people ripped me for suggesting we could steamroll the Raiders. If that's the case, and you shouldn't expect to do that to any team, you shouldn't be playing vanilla in the regular season 2. I don't deny that losing Williams is a big blow. No offense but its his job to work around things - he's loss tommie harris and other defensive playmakers in Chicago and had to make due. Sometimes he even did very well without them. Granted its a little different losing your anchor in a 3-4 but he's still can't complain about that as his excuse. 3. Granted the offense should've put the ball in the end zone more, won't find disagreements about that. But that's still no excuse for the defense not doing its job and being driven on quite often in the first and second half.
You sure love talking about me, don't you. HB's post had absolutely NOTHING to do with me but you had to find a way to make that conversation about me. :yes:
Can we expect this crap after every single loss? Because it has gotten old very fast. First its Norv's fault now its Rivera's fault, is there anyone else you dont like or can we expect another "INSERT COACHES NAME HERE" sucks thread after the next loss?
I mentioned that about Merriman earlier. Not sure if he feels comfortable doing so because he knows he isn't 100% and not the same player and also can't play up to the intensity he would bring. I gotta give Rivera a bit of a break because he is having to deal with injuries right from the get go but it is funny how the palyers talked about talking more on defense and knowing where the other players will be and yet they continue to seem lost out there at times. Not sure if the players are just stupid or lack of preperation on Ron's part because they definitely improve second half so far.
