2 1000 yard receivers

Given our "take away the big play" philosiphy, I think the short passes are going to be our primary weakness, always, just because of scheme.

I thought we did an excelent job of mixing things up. We actually blitzed more than I was comforable with, but we got a away with it. We hit Warner over and over and over, and he made some great throws under pressure into some tight spots. Fortunately, we were able to force a couple of turnovers, and they finally called holding on Peppers to stop their final drive.

Brown was mugging him all day, even Baldinger commented on one blatant hold that if they weren't going to call that, what would be holding?

 

I thought the D played exactly the way they needed to. The 'take away the big play' like piper said worked pretty well. The td off of Jake's blind man fumble can't really get hung on the D. Other than that we shut down the run and kept hitting Warner. Eventually their all pass offense was going to result in turnovers. All you have to do is intercept one pass a drive.

 

Williams claimed responsibility for Jake's fumble in that he didn't pick his man up.

 

I'll buy he was responsible for the sack, but Jakey boy didn't have to cough that ball up. Go down, throw it away, anything but that.

 

hard to drop a football when a linebacker isn't pulling it out of your hands. You can say Jake needs to be more "aware", but if a QB sees a blitzer and sees a man on him that's about as aware as I expect him to be. I don't expect for a QB to stand there and watch to make sure everyone's doing their job, I want his eyes downfield. But get the damn ball out.

 

Yeah, Jake hangs on waiting for "something to open up" and doesn't seem to have good peripheral vision. Rewatching at times it seemed Warner could simply "sense" someone closing even from a blind spot and move. I don't agree that Jake was blameless, but DW did take credit.

 

Warner also took a load of hits. He gets the ball off fast but when Johnson came around the corner Warner didn't know.

Fault Jake for not covering the ball up, but I can't see faulting him for not being Randy Fasani about the rush. Plus if he steps over just a bit further, a natural adjustment, he still gets creamed and the ball would still come out.

 

I always get pissed at the QB when I see a fumble like that, but DW missed his assignment completely by not picking up that blitz. IMHO, I can't lay that one on Jake, even though that seems to be the first place everyone initially wants to lay blame.

Maybe it sounds dumb, but I'll take a sack every now and then if Jake will take his time and look for the open receiver...rather than forcing the ball to Smitty under double coverage as he has done in the past. I agree though, Magnus....he needs to cover that ball up the minute he feels the hit. I think the hit he received this week against Zona was so quick and surprising that he didn't have time to do that.