wtf happened?

No, it didn't. None of our guys were gassed. Look again at the game, because no one was standing around with hands on hips trying to catch their breath. That was absolutely not an issue, we just didn't tackle worth a shit, and that started right out of the gate in the second half when we should have been plenty rested.


CC:
Rucker has actually played quite well, he's just not getting the sacks. Meanwhile Minter's deficiencies have been obvious for a while now, or at least I've been bitching about them for years now. I did think we would be fine at linebacker, though, and I've obviously been wrong about that. It's one thing to be untalented at a position, but for the guys to constantly make mental mistakes is that much more irritating and less forgivable. Regarding the long term, Davis will presumably continue to improve while Seward still has a chance to be something down the road. MLB needs to be addressed, though, I agree.

 

Davis will be good. He has been good. The MLB position needs re-working ASAP, Seward goes outside to fight it out with Anderson or to back Davis, and maybe Draft stays to tutor a guy like HB Blades (though honestly, I don't want to get too young at MLB, I also don't want to spend tens of millions to chase a bad decision over tens of millions). But overall, I still like where we're going, and the problems we had Sunday we had throughout the first half of 2004 with both Morgan AND Witherspoon.

I questioned Minter's extension, too, but more importantly, we still just haven't come up with one solution for the other S since Grant left. That we let him go? Whatever. That we've dicked around since? Problem.

Rucker had a lot of QB hurries and 7.5 sacks last year. He's been in on some big hits, and he's damn good against the run. They've started using Wallace a little more at RDE, but Rucker is still effective. Some beleive that McClover is "the next guy", and he fits at RDE, but I'll have to see him actually do more before he replaces Rucker.

 

Im probably overreacting a tad to him not being able to take advantage of Whitworth for sure. But didnt Rucker start slow last year too (other than that Patriot game where everybody showed up)?

I dont know, we shut them down 1st quarter, they get lucky a drive going due to 2 3rd down conversions due to penalties, then we cant stop them?

Had Chad dropped that 4th down i dare say we win.

 

I'm still optimistic about Davis' future, but let's don't overstate his performances. He had a good game against Cleveland, but in the others he was average to awful.

 

I don't think I said anything about us being gassed. I just said they were effective when they were in it. And they were.

I'm totally in agreement about tackling being sorry, but when they went to that muddle huddle about halfway through the second quarter they went from their 20 to our EZ for 6 (13 plays).

Their 2nd possession of the 2nd half, drove a long way and got a FG.

The drive at the beginning of the 4th... though the 2nd and 20 from their 3yl where their both Anderson and Lucas were trying to bring their TE down and ended up on the ground with said TE running down the field is an excellent example of the shitty tackling we witnessed (and Lucas again, failing to do a good job tackling, aarrgghh). Anyhow, muddle huddle, 6 points, length of the field.

Maybe the muddle huddle wasn't the reason they moved on us, but they were effective when using it.

 

That play was a gut punch. Draft just had that big sack on Palmer, sticking them deep. If any of our guys make a tackle worth a damn, that scoring drive wouldn't have happened.

 

I said talent, not Pro Bowlers. Most of what we have now is potential and raw athletic ability, which places an even greater need on position coaching, which I don't believe we're getting.

Davis is in his first year at LB, and not the brightest crayon in the box to begin with. Anderson's a second day rookie. Diggs is an average FA, but Draft has played surprisingly well (at least from what I can tell by listening to the radio -- certainly no worse than Morgan). But even so, I'm willing to bet there are worse LB corps in the league.

Agreed. Ciurciu should be gone and Adams should be here. Been argued to death already, and we're all in agreement there.

The blame for Minter's extension rests mainly on Hurney's shoulders, but yes -- Fox and probably Trgovac (maybe even JR) had a say. Rucker, I hate to say, is becoming a shadow of his former self. The man went up against a rookie LT yesterday and couldn't register one sack? Something is very, very wrong about that. Of course, the same argument could be made against Jenkins going against a rookie C. But Rucker hasn't been the same since our Super Bowl run, and he's 31 years old. He's not producing significantly more than Al Wallace, and he's a 32 year old backup. So all in all, I fully agree it's time to start getting serious about rotating in some youth at DE (I wonder if McClover would've gotten to Palmer yesterday...), and S when we get some young talent behind Minter and Williams.

 

My thinking was that it might have caught up with them in the mid- to late 4Q. I haven't studied the film yet, so I honestly don't know if fatigue might have factored into the tackling/coverage problems we had in the second half or not. It was just a thought.

 

And I can't tell you how many times, back in tha day, that we used to run no huddle to wear out the D linemen. Of course I must be because if Collin (Dr. Ad Hominem) says it is true, along with an insult or two, then it must be true.

But in yesterday's game, ANOTHER reason for no huddle seemed to play out in that it gave the Cincy offense its rythm. Of course, in the midst of all your raging spittle, you missed that point in chat as well. Not only can it give the offense its rythm, which it did for Cincy yesterday, but because the D has to react, change direction, process mentally, etc., it wears them out much more effectively than it wears out the O. (Which I am NOT saying necessarily happened yesterday.) I know from first hand experience. And we were only one of the top ten Texas 5A football teams (Katy, Tx) for a good decade or so in the 90's.

Interestingly, I think Cincys implementation of the no huddle in yesterdays game had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with controlling our substitutions. That is often the reason for using it, but not always. Of course, you probably missed when I said that as well as your were wiping the saliva from your screen. I agreed with you in general, but not in the specific case of Cincy yesterday.

Can you handle partial agreement without your tighty whiteys cutting of your bloodflow?

 

Sounds like the job description for a LDE to me.

Agreed, but it's kinda hard for McClover to prove himself and grow if he's inactive every week.