Zebulon Dak":3vjnj3li said:
olyfan63":3vjnj3li said:
Pass rush.
Specifically, lack thereof.
Killing us in every way possible. Opponent drives sustained, defensive exhaustion due to this, and turnovers (QB fumbles, Int's) that don't occur,
If we had been able to keep *either* Clemons, or McDonald/McDaniel, we are 6-0 right now.
Benson Mayowa, OBrien Schofield, Bruce Irvin, none of them are even qualified to hold Clemon's jockstrap. (Irvin shows promise at times)
Thank you, Percy Harvin. Shaping up as the worst deal ever.
With a handful more pressures per game, Rivers misses a couple key plays; so does Romo; and for sure Austin Davis pees his pants and misfires on a key pass. 3 losses turn into 3 wins.
Totally possible but far from a sure thing, what with the inconsistency of the O and ST so far this season.
I do miss Clem though. I'm nostalgic like that.
Last year, we were +1 key play in all the games we won-but-shouldn't have. Someone made the key play at the key time.
Baldwin's ridiculous sideline catches at Carolina. Baldwin's ridiculous sideline catches part II against Tampa Bay. Sherman's perfectly-timed pick-6 against Houston. 3 games we could have easily, easily lost.
This year, we are -2 key plays per game. I'm saying the pass rush is primarily where we are not getting those 2 additional key plays per game we got last year.
With last year's pass rush, I say we get an average of two opponent drives, that instead of a TD, end in a FG/missed FG, or end in a punt, pick, or QB fumble, that we aren't getting this year. Especially against Rivers, Romo, and Davis. Yes, the O has been inconsistent (I hope mostly fixed now) and Special Teams had one extremely bad, uncharacteristic game. (ST nearly won us the Dallas game, though). The +2 key plays per game we got last year gave us the margin. We would have still lost the Dallas game, except for our 10-point special teams swing, but definitely we win the Chargers and Rams games.
Fix nothing else, improve nothing else that currently sucks, and simply improve the pass rush to last year's level, and we have an elite defense again, and we win all 3 of those games.
Yeah, I know it's just my unprovable speculation, and I'm only talking about those 3 past games. (Going forward, a pass rush fix alone might not be enough against SF, AZ, Phi; I'll grant your point there) We do need to fix the O-Line going forward, but we won it all last year with a sucky O-Line, due to the skills of Russell Houdini - er, Wilson.
