Sammy Watkins' Rib

I know it is a dumb question but it proves the point that this league is all about the QB. To heck with who the coach is. Coaches can provide a scheme, but it does not mean they are the best at running the scheme. They are no better than the 10 other guys running the same scheme. The only way you beat a top QB consistently is if you have an extremely good defense.

And behold, the reason why... Tony Romo. A QB far better then any we have had in the last decade, but not elite. Makes sense that they would be more competitive than us over the last three years but still not quite a playoff team. NFL coaches are easily the most over rated aspect of a successful team. I mean nobody here believe that if we switched head coaches with the Patriots for the last three years that we would suddenly have more than one lone win against them right?

Defenses do two things. Stop the run or stop the pass. We do one better than any other team in the league. We have not been this good in one defensive category since probably the days of Sam Cowart. But now it is not good enough because of ONE game against a HOF QB.

Yes. Because how many teams have a QB on the level of a Tom Brady? This defense is good enough to beat teams led by chumps like Cutler and Stafford. They were good enough to beat the Texans but our QB at the time had an all time bad game. This defense will surely be good enough against the up coming Bridgewater and Geno Smith.

Cool. That is just a really odd stat that you do not see every day.

I guess Hoyer had a good game today?? But the dude only completed 8 passes! Had only 17 attempts (completed less than half). Not exactly sure how the Browns blew out the Steelers. The turnovers were even. And the Browns ran for 158 as team but only a "okay" 4.2 ypc average.

I think we will all be better off to take a page out of the Hoodie's handbook and move on to Minnesota. I was just checking out the box score from the Lions vs. Vikings game. Good lord. Lions got 8 sacks on Bridgewater and forced 3 picks. He had a 2.5 QBR. I am thinking we get our mojo back next Sunday. Each member of our starting D-line adds a sack to their season total.

They watched last weeks game and decided they needed to shut down the run on not let Wright run wild.

I definitely noticed Orton holding onto the ball too long too. I will say though, I was surprised to see he was sacked 5 times at the end of the game because it felt more like 2. I guess what I mean is the majority of the sacks did not seem very significant. I can't re-call, but I am wondering if we still picked up first downs after a couple of them. He already sunk. Did you miss the Houston game? Worst game by a QB since one of Trent Edwards' terrible games. It was skewed by the run that he fumbled the ball on. That was probably close to a 20 yard run.

Agreed. Orton at most is a two year starter. We likely take best QB available with our 2nd round pick this year and maybe sit him behind Orton.

Funny because the Browns fans literally thought the exact same of us going into week one.

Please. EJ would have thrown for 180 yards in this game and completed 48% of his passes with a ypa below 6 and one turnover. I will take the two turnovers to one turnover every time in that situation. Orton proved last week that you can overcome turnovers by continuing to take shots down the field and completing passes. Something EJ could not do in the Houston game.

I wouldn't be too quick to blame Shwartz. The defense, including the secondary, played lights out in the first half with the exception of the PI in the end zone given up by a player that really shouldn't even be on the field but is due to injuries. And at least we are still dominating against the run. Over the course of an entire season this should work in our favor because not every team has a QB on the level of Tom Brady. Of course, go figure, it just so happens we have to play both Rodgers and Peyton this year. Before the game started I said the one thing i wanted to see the most was our run defense continue to dominate because the last few times the Patriots have played us they beat us by basically running the ball on us at will. Even though they had a good game through the air today they still want to be a run first team if possible.

Love how we are playing against the run. Having a dominant defense against the run has always been a huge key to a teams overall success. Think San Francisco and Seattle. You have to make the other teams offense one dimensional. Keeps them in 3rd 8. Puts pressure on the QB and mistakes start to happen.

Very true. I am going to be massively disappointed if we let them put up big numbers on us on the ground. I think the Patriots, like last year, still want their identity to be a smash mouth football team that can run the ball in any situation versus a team that prefers to throw the ball all over the field. They won their super bowls early in the Brady and Belicheck era because they could run the ball well and play good defense, not because they had an elite QB. Brady was solid back then, but not elite like he has been now.

This just looks like a blown coverage to me. I'm thinking #58 he MLB should have been breaking harder to Wright once he released off of the line. The outside linebacker looks like to be responsible for the run and the coverage underneath and in the flat.

We traded our future for Sammy for a reason. He is an ELITE talent. Woods will never approach elite. That is not what he is supposed to be. Comparing the two and asking why Sammy Watkins is putting up better numbers is crazy. Sammy better be putting up much better numbers.

Lions probably won the toss and deffered.

I actually think we are much closer than that. Just an average to slightly below average QB would have this team at 3-1 right now, maybe even 4-0. And on top of that, the division as a whole looks to be at it's weakest point in a long time.

I disagree. If this were a Jauron team Spiller and Jackson would have run the ball twice as much today, which actually probably would have equaled a win. And I don't think it is fair to judge the actual pass plays called because of our incompetent QB.

Reminds me of our '08 season... Seattle, Jax, Oakland and St. Louis. I think Seattle may have been a playoff team the year prior but they turned out to be pretty bad in 2008.

I agree. Right now, it is a question of are the other three teams improved or are the Patriots on the decline. It certainly seems in the early going that it is the Patriots more on the decline. But heck, I will take anything at this point.