mannc

Stop, dude. Those stats are a joke three games into the season. The Raiders and Dolphins both put up garbage time yards on them. The Rams defense doesn’t suck, but it’s certainly not top 5 or 6 in the league, which is what the Pats most likely are.

Well if we spent a second round pick on a "run-stuffing DE" then we f'd up.

How about the fact that they’ve been one of the top defenses in football the last three years, that they’ve shut down two of their three opponents this year, they have the best defensive backfield in football, and the best defensive coordinator of all time? I’ll put that up against football outsiders all day long.

And has now been named the Bears' starter...

Yep. Pats ran for 250 yards on the Raiders yesterday.

Does anyone think that if there had been a minute left on the clock after Kroft’s TD that the Rams would not have at least sent that game to OT?

Outside of those three guys (two guys, really) their defense is a bunch of JAGs. They are as mediocre as it gets. That was a good performance vs Dallas, but the Eagles are a mess.

I don't care who they "faced". There have only been three games and I could easily argue that the units the Rams have faced are highly ranked in large part because they got to play against the Rams defense. Outside of Ramsey, their DBs are bums and outside of Aaron Donald, their front 7 is a bunch of replacement level players. The Pats have completely shut down two pretty good offenses and they have the best defensive backfield in the league. It's a pretty safe bet that they will be ranked in the top five again this year.

Agreed. All of those things are what makes him a potentially great QB, but it's his physical gifts that are more rare and that set him apart.

Are you joking?

It’s also fair to say that the Pats’ defense is better than the Rams’ defense...so there’s that...

Lots of guys “want it more than anything.” He’s succeeding because he has tremendous talent.

The past two years they have used their first draft picks—including number 8 overall—on front 7 players who were supposedly great pass rushers. How much more draft capital do they have to use there?

Every football person knows that a coach like Gase needs at least four years for his offensive schemes to really take hold and start bearing fruit. Gotta stay patient...

I don’t know...none of this really makes sense to me. These guys all know how to tackle, and it’s almost entirely instinctual anyway. I think the most compelling explanation is simply that it’s a continuation of the trend of passing attacks getting better all the time and teams learning how to exploit the rule changes. It just seems like all the best athletes are on offense these days...so many outstanding WRs and TEs, it’s almost impossible to list them...

We’ve jumped out to big leads in all three games...Maybe the problem is with the style of prevent defense we’re playing. Also, the offense is scoring much faster this year, resulting in more possessions for the other team. Things to think about...

It’s not THAT bad. Dallas is a pretty good team. They lost two close games on the road against good teams and they get to feast on the other scrubs in the NFCE. I’d say they finish 9-7 at the very worst.

I think this, plus the lack of crowd noise are the biggest factors. It’s also possible that the lack of exhibition games somehow affects the defense more, but I’m not sure why that would be the case.

This makes no sense whatsoever, even if You believe in “momentum” in a football game.

Brees is on a ventilator.

It’s a league-wide trend. I can’t think of a single defense that shutting other teams down. In the first week, offensive holding calls were down 78%. Haven’t seen the stats since, but I’m not seeing many of those called.

It was five times worse than the one called on Kroft.

The.Worst.Ever.

That might be the worst spot I’ve ever seen. He wasn’t within two yards of 1st down. Incredible.

Where the hell was the offensive PI?