Could a positive come out of Jenkins injury?

Moorhead being a starter in a contract year is a positive for him.

 

From what I saw, Jenkin's replacement handled himself just fine. Sure, he's no All-Pro...but we don't know his potential. If anyone has the game taped, you will see that he may not have gotten into the backfield, but he did push his guy back and I don't think he was ever beaten.

I, just like alot of people expected this to be either a close game or a blowout by us. The Saints did play a good game with alot of emotion...that won't win you alot of games...and they still only beat us by 3.

By the way..WE WEREN'T DOMINATED!! Fuck Tim Ryan!!

I think we will be ok...when we beat the Pats this Sunday, I can see us at 5-1 to start the season. And the Saints will come back to earth.

 

I'd love to go back to the 3 4 and turn Witherspoon and Davis loose on the QB.....would be a hell of an outside linebacker crew.....they would crush VICK!

 

Huh? Carstens was regularly driven off the ball, although I did like that he still manages to get his hands up and therefore batted down one pass. The guy just isn't strong for a DT, and the only way he's getting into the backfield is if he runs around his blocker, which he tried to do a couple of times.


And for the record, in a 3-4 your OLBs are usually comparable to 4-3 SLBs or tweener ends. Neither Davis or Witherspoon fit that mold. 'Spoon would be fine as a 3-4 ILB, and perhaps Davis as well, but we wouldn't have anyone suited for 3-4 OLB (except maybe Short, and he'd be far from ideal).

 

I thought your OLBs in a 3-4 were suppose to be fast strong hitters that attacked the QB. Figured Spoon and Davis would be great at attacking the QB.

I even thought about Peppers as a LB.

 

I stand corrected. Peppers would probably be an incredible 3-4 OLB.

 

He did blitz several times, and had no effect. Keep on doing it though. Blitz him beside Peppers so the chipper has to choose between them.

 

Fields would've been a killer 3-4 OLB. I'd have a hard time seeing Davis in at I or O.

I actually think Rucker would be helped by a move to a 3-4. He's probably the only one, maybe Haye. Moorehead came from one, so he might not be hurt, but he's gotta show he can play consistently anyway.

But yeah, we blitzed enough, and it seems like when we went 3-man rush, we weren't hampered that much.



Right now, we don't have anything that can push the pocket. Can Carstens or Moorehead? No. Haye might, if he gets time, but I only note that because he's strong-ish, and has a great first step. He's got no experince at DT.

But, Wallace was tried there, and obviously couldn't do it either. You have to either get immediate penetration (which Jenx could), or force a guard back into the pocket. None of the guys we had active this week were able. I'll give Carstens a little respect for batting a ball, but it careened at a Saints receiver anyway.

 

Fox said he activated Carstens over Moorehead because he expected a run type game. I think McAllister and the NO interior OL are almost elite, not just good. It sounded like he would prefer Moorehead for pass D. Maybe they'll platoon that way. I thought Moorehead could get immediate penetration. Nothing like Jenks could, but sometimes good enough to be effective.

 

I think that's how they used the pair last year, JC for the run/Moorehead for the pass. Moorehead isn't that strong.


If big, but still penetrating, DTs are such a need for our D (and our D played well without Jenx, but I still think it's priority), we should look into getting another one. Buckner isn't going to be around that long. I'd already long since kept a running tally of what I think we should get next year, it's always a good exercise for constant re-evaluation, but I never guessed going into this preseason that DT would be at the top of the list coming out of it.