Obviously, it still needs work. Not there yet. But, cant you see the improvement? They are maintaining their gaps instead of free lancing. They are not figuring out what to do in pre-snap. No more confusion. They know their job at least.
In today's NFL, they don't hit each other other, tackle in training camp anymore. They play few snaps in the pre-season games. It's a new scheme. Lots of new starters. I see a defense that is taking shape. Go look at the breakdowns of the defense from last year to the first two games. It's telling.
Without a great corner its not going to be a top 10 defense. But, its already made it from one of the worse to the 19th ranked defense in the NFL. Haven't the majority on here said all off season that we just needed a middle of the pack defense to make a Super Bowl?
We are going to have at least a middle of the pack defense. People need to chill. Start panicking at mid-season at least. [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
I thought Mathieu was pretty good yesterday, got his hands on 2 throws that should have been picks for sure though.
I don't know if Clark is pressing or what's going on there.
He also embarassed the shit out of himself on the Jackson TD run. He's not been the force coming downhill that I thought he would be. He's been okay - him and Thornhill are clearly upgrades on what we had.
But I won't get to 'pretty good' yesterday. He was fine. He wasn't appreciably better than our 2nd round rookie. He wasn't all that much better than Sorensen in the limited reps Sorensen got. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't good. He was fine.
He was a lot like defense writ large yesterday - ultimately not bad but didn't come through in some key spots that could've really made that game go a lot differently.
Like I said - so long as damning with faint praise is the best we can do for the two most visible members of the defense, nobody's gonna be too fired up about the D's performance. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
He also embarassed the shit out of himself on the Jackson TD run. He's not been the force coming downhill that I thought he would be. He's been okay - him and Thornhill are clearly upgrades on what we had.
But I won't get to 'pretty good' yesterday. He was fine. He wasn't appreciably better than our 2nd round rookie. He wasn't all that much better than Sorensen in the limited reps Sorensen got. He wasn't bad, but he wasn't good. He was fine.
He was a lot like defense writ large yesterday - ultimately not bad but didn't come through in some key spots that could've really made that game go a lot differently.
Like I said - so long as damning with faint praise is the best we can do for the two most visible members of the defense, nobody's gonna be too fired up about the D's performance.
Yeah, the run wasn't ideal.
But I thought he was good yesterday. That's a weird offense to defend.
For all the praise Jackson has got, watching him live yesterday was pretty much all I needed to realize that the dude just can't throw well enough to survive. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Hammock Parties:
The Ravens have an elite OL and solid RB - Jackson makes their running game even harder to defend.
They're gonna get theirs.
This D isn't gonna be great but it's good enough.
With Ogbah and Okafor showing what they have and Wilson thrown in there, I think they could legitimately get to "good" status if the stars would start Starring. [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
Yeah, the run wasn't ideal.
But I thought he was good yesterday. That's a weird offense to defend.
For all the praise Jackson has got, watching him live yesterday was pretty much all I needed to realize that the dude just can't throw well enough to survive.
And that's the key takeaway but also why I can't give Mathieu anything more than a C+ for yesterday.
3 key plays that didn't get made and on a number of deep shots, Jackson just flat missed because he simply isn't very good. If they have a passer that can punish the Chiefs downfield more, that could've easily been an L.
Jackson sucks. He's always sucked, he'll always suck. He's a novelty that's a pain in the ass to deal with but that's it. If our 2 key offseason additions actually play to the reputation bestowed upon them 'round here (rather than the excuses made for them repeatedly), it's a 3 score game when all is said and done.
And had Jackson not sucked, the Chiefs could've easily lost.
But in the end, this is a team built on its offense so it's defense only really needs to be okay. Which is fortunate because 'okay' is about all they were and that was largely on the backs of unheralded additions. I reiterate - you want to know why folks aren't singing the praises of the D? Because it's playing okay and its marquee components are playing at/near the level of fungible NFL starters. That's not bad, but it's not great. Fix that and you'll see people being more complementary. [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
With Ogbah and Okafor showing what they have and Wilson thrown in there, I think they could legitimately get to "good" status if the stars would start Starring.
Okafor looks incredibly athletic out there. He had a couple of plays where he did almost a 'leap step' to close off a lane or something and looked demonstrably more explosive than anyone on that line other than Jones.
Okafor's been a hell of a get. And the Ogbah/K-Pass rotation has also been awfully effective.
There's been some nice production on the DL at times. Though I am gonna be curious to see the snap counts as I felt like Nnadi was really underutilized yesterday. With the Ravens trying to attack the middle, Nnadi should've been more prominent. I felt like he was off the field far too often. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
Okafor looks incredibly athletic out there. He had a couple of plays where he did almost a 'leap step' to close off a lane or something and looked demonstrably more explosive than anyone on that line other than Jones.
Okafor's been a hell of a get. And the Ogbah/K-Pass rotation has also been awfully effective.
There's been some nice production on the DL at times. Though I am gonna be curious to see the snap counts as I felt like Nnadi was really underutilized yesterday. With the Ravens trying to attack the middle, Nnadi should've been more prominent. I felt like he was off the field far too often.
I noticed they were moving guys in and out on the DL a lot so they seemed worn down.
I really would have liked to see them get a stop or two in the 4th so that ends up a 3 score game and we don't have to hear all about the Ravens, but whatever.
It's kind of weird in that there was a feeling in the stadium after halftime like "eh, this was fun but were done with it, move on the season and lets get to the end" thing.
It's truly a "nothing matters until the postseason" year. [Reply]
Originally Posted by DJ's left nut:
And that's the key takeaway but also why I can't give Mathieu anything more than a C+ for yesterday.
3 key plays that didn't get made and on a number of deep shots, Jackson just flat missed because he simply isn't very good. If they have a passer that can punish the Chiefs downfield more, that could've easily been an L.
Jackson sucks. He's always sucked, he'll always suck. He's a novelty that's a pain in the ass to deal with but that's it. If our 2 key offseason additions actually play to the reputation bestowed upon them 'round here (rather than the excuses made for them repeatedly), it's a 3 score game when all is said and done.
And had Jackson not sucked, the Chiefs could've easily lost.
But in the end, this is a team built on its offense so it's defense only really needs to be okay. Which is fortunate because 'okay' is about all they were and that was largely on the backs of unheralded additions. I reiterate - you want to know why folks aren't singing the praises of the D? Because it's playing okay and its marquee components are playing at/near the level of fungible NFL starters. That's not bad, but it's not great. Fix that and you'll see people being more complementary.
Yeah, he's not here to "almost" make those plays. They need him to be the dude taking the ball away and making big plays. [Reply]
