Next 3 weeks are where it is

Nobody. I was refering to the entire Fox/Hurney tenure.

But I am pleased that we have seem to have less McCadams and Cuircius of the world.

 

safety just didn't hit us right this year, but we also had guys like Hamlin out there for pocket change. Granted, that's the same argument as keeping or not keeping Key on character (though you don't get into bed with Key if you're not willing to deal with that in the first place). I'm not upset we missed out on giving Kaesviharn a ton of money, for instance. But if we had done something like that, or reached for Michael Griffin, or whatever, we'd have filled the need at least.

I don't need big ticket guys. But I can't think of a single free agent pickup that made this team other than Cooper. Him, Carr, re-signing Diggs, that's it. Walker would've been our second biggest signing and he didn't make the team. We were somehow more successful in camp cuts than free agency.

 

They obviously felt good with who they had, and felt that injuries kept them from being a playoff team last year.

I also think they wanted to keep the cap cleared to be able to re-sign guys like Gross and Peppers, and Wharton is coming up soon, as well.

In theory, I prefer the way that they've done it. On defense, we have 7 of 11 starters that we drafted in either the first or second round, not including Richard Marshall. In theory - that's a great way to build a team for the long term.

On offense, we have 8 of 11 players starting that were drafted picks or undrafted rookies, and 4 of those were first or second rounders.

Exactly 1 week ago, folks would be talking about the success of this method. Today - the discussion is how bad we suck at it.

Good thing it's only week 2.

 

Fox is stubborn.

 

Which is OK, but the "21 of 22 starters" thing fails when guys like Gaines can't make the roster and #22 isn't an upgrade.

true enough, and they got Smith done. But you can't do Gross before Peppers, and apparently we're just waiting on Peppers.

this is very true. Granted, you usually do compliment on good things when they happen, and nothing really happened to compliment this week. Plus we knew last week we had holes.

 

The defense should be better than it was this week. We can talk about Jake and the offense but we are never going to win many games when we give up 34 points. Part of that was our safeties leaving the middle of the field open. Part of that was our fearsome front seven not doing much.

If the D had clamped down when we were up by 14 it would have been a different game. That gave them a huge lift when they were able to answer us so quickly.

 

To an extent, sure, but 7 of those points were on special teams and 13 more were influenced by bad field position.

Houston's drives started at:
Hou 9
Hou 15
Hou 35 (TD)
Hou 20 (TD)
Car 43 (FG)
Hou 13 (right before the half ended)
Hou 44 (TD)
Hou 16
Car 45
Car 45 (FG)
Car 33
Hou 47

Meanwhile ours started at:
Car 36 (TD)
Hou 13 (TD)
Car 24
Car 20
Car 26
Car 20
Car 10
Car 41
Car 10
Car 23
Car 1 (TD)
Car 2

 

Next three weeks for the other NFC South teams:

Atlanta:
9/23 - Carolina
9/30 - Houston
10/7 - @Tennessee

New Orleans:
9/24 (MNF) - Tennessee
9/30 - Bye
10/7 - Carolina

Tampa Bay:
9/23 - St. Louis
9/30 - @Carolina
10/7 - @Indy

I can see both Atlanta and New Orleans winless after the next three weeks, though it may be dangerous that we're catching New Orleans after the bye.

 

Perhaps, but they did have 10 days to prepare for Tampa.

 

Which, I think is a BIG BIG part of the problem and was last year. We consistently put ourselves at a disadvantage last year with piss-poor returns, and allowing larger than average (don't have the number, correct me if im wrong) returns on punts and kickoffs. To me, it seemed as though the defense was constantly put in a position of defending a short(er) field.

Why hasn't Crossman's head rolled. If im Trgovac, im pretty freakin pissed if my head rolls before his.