AKC

Maybe tonight, bad idea to throw a big tannic rhone on top of that two gallons of "football breakfast".

The GM's work is pretty much done for the season, our fate lies in the hands of the coaches. Maybe we could suggest to OBD a "Tell us why in 2000 words or less you should...." Coach a Game Contest ;-)

History makes a far better argument for the opposite. While we've had a contemporary champion in the Rams who used the pass to set up the rest of their offense, it's difficult to point to one other non-West Coast O champion who didn't use a running offense and line to set up their passing games.

I realize you know another of the arguments here, but I'll put it into play anyway- Pittsburgh is effective passing BECAUSE they are more likely to run the ball. Opposing defenses see the run more than the pass plus Pitt runs effectively, and this puts the D on its heels. On those limited downs when they do pass, the D simply can't get in BRs face since they have to be prepared for the run on nearly any down.

But only if the team recognizes their unbelievable misuse of talent. It is no surprise that on only one more series in the game following our successful opening drive did we run more frequently than we passed. Otherwise, this coaching staff did what they’ve done all year- they’ve blatantly ignored the talent on the team to instead try to force their own offensive and defensive concepts on the roster. The problem, of course, is that the offensive and defense they want to run don’t fit the talent we have. And make no mistake, we have some very good talent on this roster. We’ve assembled a good run blocking offensive line that has played so well Willis McGahee has rushed for more yards than all but 6 other backs in the league. Even though we have an obvious and measurable strength giving the ball to our feature back, Willis has less carries than any of those backs in front of him in yardage. With less carries and less chances to tear off a big run (something he hasn’t done yet this season) he’s still averaging 4.8 yards a carry. We have thrown more passes this season than we have handed the ball to our running backs. Instead of running more we’re insisting on putting the games in the hands of the least experienced player on our offense. Instead of forcing our will in the run game and using the strength of our very good run blocking offensive line, our coaches have put a very unfortunate and inexperienced kid behind a line being asked to pass protect on most downs while pass protection is their obvious weakness. Add a nervous “rookie” QB and there’s simply one outcome any objective student of this game would predict- a disaster. Those crazy Steelers? They rush more than 3 times for every 2 passes they let their young QB throw. In another Pitt reference, how can the mobile QB be on the bench for a 4th and inches play with the game on the line? Was Mularkey sleeping during the Slash years? And that’s just on offense. So we finally got to see Anderson play with the starting defense, and it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the team clearly has blown it all season using Ron Edwards and having his butt knocked everywhere but into his gap on running downs. Anderson needs some work but he plays with a run stopper's base- he gets his feet set wide and he holds his position with infinitely greater frequency than Edwards. If not for the inept offensive performance yesterday our Rush D would have given up no more than 75 or 80 yards to Deuce McAllister. They fell apart on the last series but to their credit they’d played over 30 minutes of defense at that time and considering we have garbage for depth at the DT spot, the final breakdown shouldn’t have come as any shock. The bottom line is that we built a ball control running offense and our coaches refuse to commit to it EVEN WHEN WE’RE KILLING OUR OPPONENT. Defensively we’ve been using a part time pass rushing DT in our first down rushing package while someone more capable of run stuffing has been polishing pine. In one case an injury is forcing the team to correct their own misuse of defensive talent- on the other side of the ball we can only hope that someone on this team takes the oars back from the decision maker responsible for this offensive folly and we move towards the Pitt model our staff came from- run the ball 3.2 times for every 2 pass plays. It's that simple.

Neufeld is among the disappointments of the 2005 season and I can't believe there are not more talented blocking TEs out of the league who could come in tomorrow and give us better work. Posey appeared to have the inside on that, I'll go back and look at it again but no doubt one of them was supposed to take the edge and the other go upfield. If we were scoring 20 points a game a bonehead defensive play like that wouldn't be so indelible, with the O struggling though it becomes huge in the outcome.

There's only 10 teams in front of us in rushing this year, with #1 and #2 being teams we've already played (OUCH!). The BAD news is there are 4 more of the top 10 we still will see this year, and none of those are in the AFC East :-(

I see players sometimes as physiological beneficiaries and others as victims- and Edwards definitely looks like victim to me. A big body like Ted Washington never had to work hard to play low- he had a natural center of gravity somewhere just above his hips. I'd say about the same place for PWilliams. Sam Adams is a little higher- maybe his stomach, but Edward's is nearly chest high- a killer against run blocking. Krumrie has no doubt worked for him to lower it, but there's a limit to how far you can drop a body's natural center and I don't ever see Edwards getting it low enough to be a run stuffer. He's just a big guy who used to be good in spot duty as a pass rusher, now playing out of position as a first down DT and being taken off the field on passing downs.

I'm not sure about that, but I am CONVINCED that you ought to check your PMs every now and then ;-)

Well don't go just yet! I asked you to name one single writer league-wide who predicted that our D would struggle, and specifically as I did- against the run?

Playing on skates is a good portrayal- I've been breaking down his play a lot for the past two years and it's my opinion that he simply has a physical liability he can't overcome in his high center of gravity. Could he play lower if he put an additonal 40 pounds on his legs? Yeah, a little, but now you'd likely detract from the one thing he is superior at in his straight-ahead speed. Krumrie might be good, but I believe he's been cursed with about half as much talent as the good NFL defenses have in the interior. I'd rather see Edwards go back to his natural spot in our passing packages, something that would also get Sam Adams some plays off. Adams is going to become a risk to injury if we keep using him on 95% of our D downs. And I don't think you want to imagine this defense without Big Sam!

Somebody shoved a copy of Bill's Digest in front of me during the game last week as if it were some grail, all I could do was cringe- recalling the days when guys like Smerlas wrote for Shout! and gave fairly unadulterated commentary. It's too bad the naitonal market for a Bill's weekly isn't big enough to support some less encumbered analysis and opinion.

We've played two other games, the first one is hard to use since Edwards never played a down in the second half. Using the second game, do you ascribe gap control failures to the yardage CWilliams ran predominantly in Edwards gap?

When the foundation is suspect the whole thing will eventually fail. One conclusion you might consider from the Atlanta game is that Sam Adams needed PWilliams a lot more than most assumed. BTW- You do yourself no justice suggesting you are anywhere but among the most thoughtful and accurate posters on the board. On this one, IMO, it's inevitable that you'll come around at some point since it doesn't appear the team has given themselves any other way to correct their mistake. Anderson may be a year out of being any more effective then Ron Weebles.

And yet the threshold for being a superior run stopper (like Pat Williams) is the ability to consistently hold your postition. From pre-season to the regular season Edwards is being knocked off balance, in most cases by one blocker, on more plays than he is holding it. Holding your ground on less than half of the running plays coming at you as a DT is simply a disaster in terms of a contemporary DT in this league. Williams drew 2 blockers on almost every rushing down and yet still effectively held his ground on most plays- Edwards is the virtual antithesis. His presence grants the offense one additonal blocker to send to the second line and kill our LBs while providing a failry reliable gap for opponents to run through.

Typically fans rely on reporters to make their arguments when they wouldn't themsleves understand the first thing to look for on film regarding things like line play. For instance, the ability for a DT to hold his ground and keep his balance. Anyone who does understand the primary skills you desire in an interior dlineman will immediately see the imperfections of Mr. Edwards without digging too deeply into the tape vault. Edwards is handicapped by a high center of gravity. His better skills with his feet are limited to north-north movement and he simply doesn't have good natural or learned lateral movement. All of this that film shows suggests he's more effective as a pass rusher than a run stopper, and viola! that's been proven true over his career. If you hit the newstands enough to "buff up" on your football, sometime around the second week of November, when we've dropped further down the board of rushing defenses league-wide, some writer will discover what's obvious already to those who study line play as their gauge of a team's potential. And then you'll finally have a security blanket that will allow you to acknowledge what is clearly happening to our run defense. Until then, keep reading- there's so much text and for some that's much easier to quote than actually forming your own opinion based upon play on the field. And by there way, where were you over the pre-season when I predicted that starting Ron Edwards in our first down offense would cost us 10 spots in team defense and end up getting our linebackers killed? I like that you appear unable to form your own arguments so you instead use media hacks; go ahead and name ONE of them who predicted the demise of our defense as I did?

You're welcome to hail the musings of Sal Maiorana as your primary source of "analysis", no need to insult those of us who have a little higher standards!

I watched the game glancingly (check your PMs), and I didn't tape it. I did catch some early running plays over the spot Edwards had just been moved from.

Adams has good balance, which makes him an effective interior player against the run, especially when he's playing with another DT with balance. Unfortunately Ron Edwards has poor balance and he's easy to move off the ball with a single blocker. Yeah, it's true Big Sam is seeing two full bodies on him this season because without his partner PW drawing doubles Sam will continue to get all the attetnion, but Edwards has the advantage of drawing a single blocker while somehow making it look as if our opponents are throwing 3 or 4 guys at him.

Exactly which "Bledsoe junk" from the article do you "disagree" with: A) Bledsoe has thrown for 850 yards, B) six touchdowns C) and a passer rating of 103.7

I'm guessing Mother Theresa's feet might dangle from a hockey cross bar-

Because of course, our defensive coordinator would IMMEDIATELY identify in the media a DT who gets spun like a top in run defense as a courtesy to our upcoming opponents ;-)

We end up 10-6 this season and I'll buy every registered poster on TSW an original pair of the Ruby Slippers.

Game planning for Michael Vick might very well be considered a critical measure of a DC's skills for a team considering head coaching prospects- If we truly were fielding at the opening whistle one of the "best defenses" in the NFL Sunday, we surely failed to convert that to effective containment of Mr. Vick. In fact he had his most productive passing day of the season against us while racking up a "respectable" 7.1 yards per carry when he ran the ball. Even ignoring Vick's carries, we allowed TJ Duckett and Warrick Dunn to run for over 170 yards? And to be beaten frequently by Brian Finneran doesn't look good either- we're hardly talking about Randy Moss or Terrell Owens here. I've seen the suggestion that "player failures" were the biggest part of the equation, but are we not fielding a veteran group, almost to a man the starting "#2" defense in the league last year? Far lesser defenses have fared better against Vick over the first 4 seasons of his career. Having had the benefit of that film of poor defenses containing Vick, will the excuse that our offense wasn't holding the ball long enough be enough for Jerry to get a pass on that game when this season ends, assuming he interviews for any head coaching vacancies? Or will the scheme we fielded on Sunday and the apparent lack of any meaningful adjustments to it be a major stumbling block for Gray in any quest for his own shot at the top job in coaching?

I'd think winning half our games and getting the young QB through the season in one piece, as the starter, would constitute a succesful season looking from this vantage point after 3 games.