Why?
Why will any of the following occur:
1.) Teams start to respect Case Keenum and your rag tag bunch of WR's/TE's more, which seems unlikely
2.) Your O-line becomes a strength despite not having a lot of attractive pieces there
3.) Gurley starts to get chunks of yardage despite playing behind a not great OL and without a strong accompanying passing game which is a major question mark[/quote]
1. Because teams will notice that we are actually beating them through the air. Brian Quick is complete and utter garbage, yet has 3 huge TDs in the last two weeks. Teams will have to eventually back off, or we will keep winning games the way we are winning them. So respect them or not, we're beating teams with good defenses and talented secondaries.
2. You say not a lot of attractive pieces, probably not being familiar with the pieces. The OL should be a strength. Saffold/Brown/Havenstein are three good players. Barnes is average at Center. Robinson has been the real challenge but he's supremely gifted physically...disturbing that we're waiting for the light to come on with him, yes, but this group's strength is run blocking and they have the ability and potential to become a top 10 run blocking unit - so I would disagree with that. They're all still pretty young, but it consists of all 1st/2nd/3rd round picks except for Barnes - so it is an expectation that this group grows together and continues to improve.
3. I would say yes to this too, even if 1 and 2 don't occur. Teams were playing this way last year, and while he did hit a wall after teams changed their approach, he still had more success than we are having now.[/quote]
1. I think 'beating them through the air' is stretching it a bit. Keenum's completing 55% of his passes and a 4/3 TD/INT ratio. It's a stretch IMO to think any team is going to respect Keenum and your WRs/TEs to draw attention away from the run.
2. I am more than familiar with the pieces. They may well grow, we'll find out. But at the moment I'm not looking at your OL personnel and feeling that is a strength.
3. In the last eight games of the 2015 Gurley had one 100 yard game. One. After a flying start it seems like teams put their attention heavily on stopping the run and the results were eerily similar to what we're witnessing now. Apart from a 140-yard game against the Lions #20 ranked run defense he ran for:
3.8 YPC vs the Bears
3.7 vs the Vikings
2.6 vs the Ravens
2.1 vs Cincy
4.6 vs Arizona
2.3 vs the Buccs
4.4 vs Seattle
And he's started the season with the following:
2.8 vs the Niners
2.7 vs Seattle
3.1 vs the Buccs
1.7 vs Arizona
This is more than a handful of games now. It's a trend of 11 games with mediocre results with one major performance vs Detroit who were in the bottom half of the league for run defense in 2015.
Now you can hope that the results will change and that he produces despite the OL and passing game supporting him -- but it's a faith based opinion. The results are very clear that he is being kept in check. And while I've no doubt he'll have the odd monster game for you -- teams are effectively shutting down your running back and challenging Keenum to beat them. And that has worked so far -- but it's Case freakin Keenum who is equally as capable of last nights performance as he is the 28-0 howler in San Francisco.[/quote]
We'll see.
This part of the schedule was probably the hardest we'll face this year and we came through it 3-1, winning one of the typical "Jeff Fisher let down" games (Bucs). I think the offense continues to get better as the schedule softens a bit.[/quote]
Your first four games included creampuffs Tampa and the Niners.
You still have upcoming games against the GIants, Patriots, Panthers and Falcons besides rematches against us/Cards.
I would say your schedule hardly softens....
