TwistedHusky
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 8, 2013
- Messages
- 6,903
- Reaction score
- 1,083
Last year, we had an infuriating habit of letting teams march up the field to score before the half. Go back and look at those Rams games where they marched for the FG tries or TDs in under 2 min.
The memory probably is worse than the reality but I certainly remember games where it seemed easy for teams, if not assured, to score in the 2 min drill.
That was with a very different roster. Heaping the problem on the DL is missing the point. This is the guy pushing the buttons, not an issue with personnel.
Admittedly, the personnel moves in the offseason have not helped us. For some reason, Carroll and JS have decided to tilt at windmills this year. We went all in on stopping the run, as if that mattered. Stopping the pass is 3x more important than stopping the run but the 49ers run the ball so we put all our chips in to stop that. Nevermind that we have to play other teams this year besides the 49ers.
The league rules all favor the team passing. But here we are hunting dinosaurs when they are all but dead.
Paradoxically, we also shored up our secondary with high-cost additions. Then we loaded our DL with fat slow guys that are great at stopping the run but worthless for most of the rest.
A great DC might be able to at least hold serve with this defense. A good one could at least keep the other team from scoring in under 2 minutes. But a below-average DC like Norton is going to struggle. Some guys do more with less. Norton is a 'less with more' guy. Giving him an unbalanced roster was a recipe for failure.
The DL is not helping, but it isn't the problem. Norton was doing this last year with a much better DL. Most other teams will give you the middle of the field with little time remaining, force you to run the clock. We allow teams to work the sidelines.
(Oddly, we have our corners play with what looks like outside leverage all game, allowing the middle all game until 2 min drills we stop. Consequently, teams can march 90 yds in a minute on us.)
The memory probably is worse than the reality but I certainly remember games where it seemed easy for teams, if not assured, to score in the 2 min drill.
That was with a very different roster. Heaping the problem on the DL is missing the point. This is the guy pushing the buttons, not an issue with personnel.
Admittedly, the personnel moves in the offseason have not helped us. For some reason, Carroll and JS have decided to tilt at windmills this year. We went all in on stopping the run, as if that mattered. Stopping the pass is 3x more important than stopping the run but the 49ers run the ball so we put all our chips in to stop that. Nevermind that we have to play other teams this year besides the 49ers.
The league rules all favor the team passing. But here we are hunting dinosaurs when they are all but dead.
Paradoxically, we also shored up our secondary with high-cost additions. Then we loaded our DL with fat slow guys that are great at stopping the run but worthless for most of the rest.
A great DC might be able to at least hold serve with this defense. A good one could at least keep the other team from scoring in under 2 minutes. But a below-average DC like Norton is going to struggle. Some guys do more with less. Norton is a 'less with more' guy. Giving him an unbalanced roster was a recipe for failure.
The DL is not helping, but it isn't the problem. Norton was doing this last year with a much better DL. Most other teams will give you the middle of the field with little time remaining, force you to run the clock. We allow teams to work the sidelines.
(Oddly, we have our corners play with what looks like outside leverage all game, allowing the middle all game until 2 min drills we stop. Consequently, teams can march 90 yds in a minute on us.)
