RW taking sacks

Whatever happened to the little pocket presence he had? Yes the Line is horrible, but he is almost equally responsible for all these sacks. This can not happen in Atlanta and better emphasis it this week! we need positive drives there or its going to be a blowout.

Russ knows that the sacks were on him and said as much after the game. He's not perfect and in addition to holding onto the ball a little too long a few times he also was inaccurate on a couple shorter throws.

He also avoided turning over the football, got the ball out most of the time ahead of the rush, and was very accurate downfield leading to a number of explosive plays and scores. If he plays exactly the same next week then we'll have a really good shot at winning.

If it makes you feel better watch the week 17 game between the Falcons and Saints. Ryan missed 9 throws and took a very avoidable sack from Nick Fairley. Every QB has plays they would like back and you have to look at the good in addition to the bad.

He is put in position more than any other QB to get the ball away quickly or move around the pocket. So I don't think the criticism is fair. It's like praising someone for making four three pointers in a row but telling the person who took 30 three pointers they're bad for missing a few.

Detroit was actually pretty good at holding the lanes and keeping him contained in the pocket. He was fighting a pretty serious respiratory condition the past couple of days and maybe that affected his enthusiasm about running. It was his first game without the brace on. Some reasons why he was a bit less mobile than we want.

I'll give Russ a pass in a game that we won by 20 pts.