An interesting thing to me, is when does the hammer come down? I know I have compared the Buckeyes to the Chiefs ad naseum, but its such a comparable situation. The Buckeyes have one of the worst defenses in the NCAA and they give up big plays time after time after time, so you just keep asking the same question "Is it personnel or scheme?". Urban finally admitted that he told the defensive staff, that changes needed to be made or personnel (coaches) would be changing. It begs the question, like how can Andy just sit there and be complacent when we are that bad on defense. If we had a good defense (mind you I didn't say great, I said good) we would be locks for at least the AFCCG.

This defense will keep us from doing anything, because there will come a time where the offense just cant do anything right, and if the defense cant pick up the slack, we are donzo. It happened to the Buckeyes with Purdue, we had 2 costly fumbles inside the redzone, multiple drops, multiple drive killing penalties, and the defense couldn't tackle or stop a Pee Wee league team, thusly, we got hammer by a really underwhelming pathetic team.
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A responsible party fixes things.

The accountable party takes the blame when it's not fixed.
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Indy playoff game = blown 28 point lead in one half
Ten playoff game at home = blown 21+ point lead in one half
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I think Berry "IF" healthy has a much bigger impact. Talib is not that good, he is a slightly above average CB, he will not fix the Rams defense IMO.
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Alex Smith.
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That makes me want to vomit.
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Yeah, Alex smith put us up by 3-4 TD's in each and lost us the game.

Good call.....:-)
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Fumbles in the 2nd half. 3 and outs when trying to run out the clock.

If you put 100% of those playoff comebacks on the defense, you don't know anything about football. It's that simple.
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In both of those, the offense just went into a giant shell. The TEN game was particularly brutal due to the extra ref rape.

But if Alex Smith can even just string a couple first downs together in the 2nd half of either game, we win.

But Alex Smith did not score any 2nd half points or even get 2 consecutive first downs.

Both of those are on ReidSmith. I know this because I did more than just check the box scores for the purpose of slamming Bob Sutton, I actually watched the games.


Alex Smith.
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Oh, you saw those games, too?
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Someone at 1AD needs to explain why Jordan Lucas doesn’t play more.
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I'd be curious to see the snap counts but I saw way too much of Ragland for my tastes in this game, especially early. And man, Hitchens is still just awful. Again - that's not a 'complicated scheme' thing either - he was in straight up man on a plodding TE and he just got juked out of his shoes. There was nothing complicated there - just awful execution.

Parker and Murray both missed several tackles to boot.

But yeah, we're reaching nut-cutting time here with Sutton if he just keeps sending those guys out there. It's not because of scheme but rather because of misplaced loyalty and lack of killer instinct.

Because let's be fair - the defense bailed a scattershot offense out in that 1st half. Before that last second TD drive, the best you could say about the offense was that it was finding its way. But for the most part, in that first half the offense just looked bad. The defense stood tall several times and made plays.

But in that 2nd half - the 4th quarter in particular - they just stopped playing. They just lost any kind of aggression. I get it, Sutton was playing a prevent, but even a prevent is designed to slow them down; trade points for clock. We weren't even getting a milked clock as part of the prevent package. And while I think that's largely because the safeties just couldn't cover anyone, it's time for Sutton to get Lucas out there and see what else we have to work with.

We can't just keep losing matchups with Ron Parker on the field and say "well Ron Parker just sucks". Yeah, he does, and for awhile I gave Sutton the benefit of having little else to work with. But I think now he needs to wear the horns for not being willing to take Parker off the field. Or use different packages that keep Raglands slow ass out of there. Or...well shit, I can't blame him for that Hitchens play. Lord Hitchens, that was bad man.
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I hear ya the Offense struggled a bit but ya we still HAD to put up 40 to win and still we were an onside kick away from Overtime. Parker lost whatever he used to have and should have never even been brought back, I thought it was a decent move considering Berry but in hindsight we could have started a rookie and been way better off.

This was a Raiders team that couldn't hang with anyone, even the Faider fans are taking this as a victory. This has to be fixed in the offseason one way or another. If we have to suffer through this situation next year where we are in line for HFA and still are afraid because of our defense then we have failed yet ANOTHER year. You only get so many chances man, this just feels like insanity at this point.
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Dude there is no excuse ever for a defense to blow a 28 point lead in one half in the playoffs. Let alone twice!
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Hitchens was apparently nursing a sore quad. If so, Sutton put him in a bad spot. Should have known better.

And I was disappointed to see Ragland too but DOD looks lost out there most of the time, unfortunately.
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