Sherman Going down isnt the end of the world

No matter who is in our secondary it will always be top 10 in the league. That Carroll's Jam. He can build a secondary from spit and baling wire. We will be just fine, were not suddenly going to get torched for 400yds passing from here on out.

Why not? It happened last year when Earl went down.

a drastically improved pass rush for one and Sherm isn't earl. Earl will be back against the Falcons. earl is far more important than Sherm in this scheme.

Chukarhawk":3mnpbzij said:

a drastically improved pass rush for one and Sherm isn't earl. Earl will be back against the Falcons. earl is far more important than Sherm in this scheme.

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Shall see.

Chukarhawk":1p2257i4 said:

a drastically improved pass rush for one and Sherm isn't earl.

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The influence of a shutdown CB in removing half the field from the QB's view is not insubstantial. Sherman and Earl are both enormous influences on the field and losing either one is a huge blow.

Erebus":2o35y843 said:

Why not? It happened last year when Earl went down.

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So they are the exact same person, therefor the exact same outcome?



Sherman and the D got torched against Houston and we managed to beat a good team that played very well.

Chukarhawk":2lfo21tl said:

a drastically improved pass rush for one and Sherm isn't earl. Earl will be back against the Falcons. earl is far more important than Sherm in this scheme.

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Okay but you did say that no matter who is in the secondary, it will always be top 10. It wasn't top 10 without Earl. It's not just the scheme, but the players that allow Pete and Richard to run that scheme. I hope you're right that we can overcome his loss but I'm not confident in that at all.

Well, it's not like his absence will make the defense any better.

Hopefully if Shead can come back, we get him and Griffin starting. That'll help

If needed McDougald can play CB. I believe I saw somewhere Pete saying they signed him due to his versatility of being able to play both positions. If Earl is back, maybe they will play McDougald there. Lane was decent when he came in to the game to replace Sherm. So maybe there is hope.

Chukarhawk":6esjl0rm said:

a drastically improved pass rush for one and Sherm isn't earl. Earl will be back against the Falcons. earl is far more important than Sherm in this scheme.

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I agree Earl IS the cog in the backfield

McDougald can play there, plus we may have Finger Wag (Shead) coming back soon. Obviously it's a massive loss, but they can still win w/this offense and this pass rush. Let alone the fact that Earl is likely back for Atlanta. Next man up, no choice. 3 games in 12 days, player safety my fat butt. Gotta' drop the stupid Thursday and London games, it's killing the quality of the games.

With Sherm Earl and he can hand off and he knows Sherm will cover deep so he can cheat to the right or if Sherm see's something can cheat back deep for Sherm. That is gone, Even with Earl he is going to have to play straight up now taking a few steps away from shading a direction.

Those that want to bitch about how QB's have been throwing at Sherm, he has been hurt since the Rams game, in the film room I am sure people are picking up on how he changed his drop or spacing and challenged him, healthy Sherm makes them pay for that. Injured Sherm tries to limit the damage.

Sherm cut off half the field for qbs. That is huge, that is gone now. Doubt j Lane and or whoever they throw out there will do the same. HUGE loss.

It's not the end of the world, just the end of our championship hopes. Another year of our window has closed.

Will we see more blitzing? I know it is risky putting the replacements in more man coverage but would it help them to have to hold up for less time on the back end.

I was thinking about how from 2013 on, we've had guys miss a few games but except for Earl's injury last year there have been no season enders to the main core of that D (Avril, Bennett, Wagner, Wright, Sherman, Thomas, Chancellor). That's actually pretty fortunate when you look around the league.

It's a big loss that reduces our chances of winning the Superbowl this year. It doesn't reduce them to zero. I also don't buy the closing window argument at all and so even if our chances were zero this year that still wouldn't be the end of the world.

Defenses tend to only be as good as their weakest link, so having Shead, Lane, Maxwell, McDougald, Thorpe, or Tyson on Sherm's side will mostly mean that QBs don't pick on Griffin quite as much. We'll give up more in the passing game overall but our pass rush and run defense should still put us in a good situation to play the pass.

HawkRiderFan":11joa0jm said:

Will we see more blitzing? I know it is risky putting the replacements in more man coverage but would it help them to have to hold up for less time on the back end.

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I doubt it. I think our run defense may suffer the biggest hit not only because Sherm was great vs. the run but he allowed the team to regularly play against the run on first down. We'll need Wagner to continue playing at a superstar level.

Nope, they can still win it all.

Erebus":1394izg5 said:

Why not? It happened last year when Earl went down.

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and we all know how that worked out.

If people thing the likes of Griffin, Lane, et al can fill the void...contact me..I've got a business proposition to make for you

I'm not sure that losing Earl and Sherm are exactly equal, especially not when you consider the players that we had/have to replace them on the roster. The dropoff last year from Earl to Terrell was huge and it's mainly because Terrell was an UDFA journeyman practice squad player with basically no game experience. McDougald wasn't just some nobody in Tampa Bay and has proven that the scheme can still work without one of the major cogs. He's a much more capable backup than Terrell will ever be. I'm not sure that we can hold onto McDougald after this year either; he might be showing he's a capable starter elsewhere in the league.

Losing Sherm isn't the end of the world, no, but it's not going to make the rest of the season very comfortable. He was still playing at a high level and his yards per coverage snap were still really low. That said, I think once Shead comes back and/or we pick up someone like Byron Maxwell then the state of the DB group is going to be ok. Griffin got beat a couple times last night, but he had himself a good game IMO. Either Griffin moves over to the LCB or Lane continues there like last night until Shead comes back and forces a competition for a starting spot. McDougald could also play some outside CB if they want him to, he looks like he's built very similar to Shead.

It's going to be really interesting to see what they do with the CBs in the next couple weeks. Moving Griffin to LCB might be a hint to the future. I wouldn't be surprised if we revert to playing more cover-3 and see teams try to dink and dunk us to death as we only ask our corners to keep everything in front of them. It's going to be interesting to see how we adjust to having really strong players at the safety positions and somewhat unprovens on the outside.

AgentDib":1g2xbqti said:

It's a big loss that reduces our chances of winning the Superbowl this year. It doesn't reduce them to zero. I also don't buy the closing window argument at all and so even if our chances were zero this year that still wouldn't be the end of the world.

Defenses tend to only be as good as their weakest link, so having Shead, Lane, Maxwell, McDougald, Thorpe, or Tyson on Sherm's side will mostly mean that QBs don't pick on Griffin quite as much. We'll give up more in the passing game overall but our pass rush and run defense should still put us in a good situation to play the pass.

HawkRiderFan":1g2xbqti said:

Will we see more blitzing? I know it is risky putting the replacements in more man coverage but would it help them to have to hold up for less time on the back end.

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I doubt it. I think our run defense may suffer the biggest hit not only because Sherm was great vs. the run but he allowed the team to regularly play against the run on first down. We'll need Wagner to continue playing at a superstar level.

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Good points. Coleman and McDougald are no slouches in the run though. I think these two are the difference why there wasn't as much of a drop of this year as opposed to last year when ET went out. Hoping these two are our hedge against the Sherman loss when ET comes back.