Coach Dungy and Rodney Harrison

[MRV52]

Only one team is in our way at that is Seattle no one else. It will be tough to beat them, but it will be a dogfight if we should meet.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Oh, you mean in 2014? Yes, nothing has changed in the NFL since then

I don't get why people assume teams stay the same.

Seattle is doing their typical slow start and strong finish routine. They are a very dangerous team that's peaking at rt time. It would be folie to think we are going to just walk over that team based on 2014. Graham and Prosise (sp?) give them new dimensions on offense that make them truly scary. Both torched a very good eagles D. While I like how our O matches up with them - we can be balanced and punish them physically - our D could easily get torched with our inability to pressure Wilson.

One thing's for sure - we'd be well served to avoid at all cost going to their house in the playoffs.

I respect them because they know how to do this. They understand how the NFL works. Play good enough to stay in thee race and peak towards the playoffs.

 

[DFWJC]

Just enjoying following a team that is legitimately in that discussion.

 

[mrmojo]

2014 must have been a heck of a year as much as its been mentioned around here.

 

[vlad]

i can't stand either of these guys as commentators. usually those guys don't bother me, but for some reason these two guys do.

 

[The Quest for Six]

I agree, Seattle is the best team in the NFC right now, more playoff experience and a better defense than the Cowboys...

 

[robbieruff]

2014 must have been a heck of a year as much as its been mentioned around here.

RIGHT?!!!

 

[KJJ]

Amen to that Brother!! The best offenses go down in the play offs to best defenses. The Supper Bowl teams can all seem to have an efficient offense that does not turn the ball over. The defenses stop big plays, get turn overs, and get off the field. They are always ball hawking to give the ball back to the offense. Looking at the present playoff teams, who matches this description?

We saw two of the top offenses ever the 2007 Pats and 2013 Broncos get shut down in the SB by solid defenses. Brady got sacked 5 times by the Giants stiff pass rush in 07. They were able to shut their offense down holding NE to 14 points. Same thing happened to Denver's high flying offense vs Seattle in the SB being held to only 8 points. Denver won the SB last season with a bad game by Manning because of their defense primarily their pass rush, they were all over Cam Newton. One of the best offenses we had was in 2007 and the Giants shut us down in the playoffs and we didn't have the pass rush to get after Eli.

You get the feeling we're likely to run into someone like Seattle who'll shut our running game down in the playoffs, putting the game on Dak's shoulders and our offense will get shutdown. We don't have a consistent pass rush and although our defense has looked better than expected our defensive ranking has been dropping almost every week. We were as high as 10th prior to the Steelers game and have fallen to 13th the past two weeks. We've got to find a pass rush by the playoffs that can help us win a game if our offense were to struggle.

 

[BoysfanfromCanada]

We saw two of the top offenses ever the 2007 Pats and 2013 Broncos get shut down in the SB by solid defenses. Brady got sacked 5 times by the Giants stiff pass rush in 07. They were able to shut their offense down holding NE to 14 points. Same thing happened to Denver's high flying offense vs Seattle in the SB being held to only 8 points. Denver won the SB last season with a bad game by Manning because of their defense primarily their pass rush, they were all over Cam Newton. One of the best offenses we had was in 2007 and the Giants shut us down in the playoffs and we didn't have the pass rush to get after Eli.

You get the feeling we're likely to run into someone like Seattle who'll shut our running game down in the playoffs, putting the game on Dak's shoulders and our offense will get shutdown. We don't have a consistent pass rush and although our defense has looked better than expected our defensive ranking has been dropping almost every week. We were as high as 10th prior to the Steelers game and have fallen to 13th the past two weeks. We've got to find a pass rush by the playoffs that can help us win a game if our offense were to struggle.

Does feel like early Romo in that sense doesn't it? All the weapons on O, decent secondary but inconsistent to nonexistent pass rush. Not a good base for playoff success but this season hasn't been a normal one either. A comp 4th round rookie leading us to 9-1

 

[KJJ]

Does feel like early Romo in that sense doesn't it? All the weapons on O, decent secondary but inconsistent to nonexistent pass rush. Not a good base for playoff success but this season hasn't been a normal one either. A comp 4th round rookie leading us to 9-1

Honestly, this feels more like the early 90s to me with the two great rookies we have at QB and RB. The only problem is we don't have our Charles Haley on defense. If we had an elite pass rusher it would really help our defense. Mo Claiborne was just becoming a real solid player and the injury bug has hit him again. We appear to have found something with Anthony Brown at corner, he's got some real speed and has shown some good coverage skills. I was really hoping prior to the trade deadline that we could have added a pass rusher. I love where this team is headed into the future with Dak and Zeke but I have the feeling our defense primarily our lack of a consistent pass rush is going to do us in come playoff time.

All our championship teams had solid defenses with a great pass rush. In the 70s we had Randy White and Harvey Martin and in the 90s we had Charles Haley, Tony Tolbert and several other contributors that were able to get to the QB. Every opponent we face is going to try and shutdown Zeke and our running game and put the game on Dak's shoulders. If our offense is being shutdown and we can't make critical stops we're not going to get very far. Our #1 need heading into the offseason will be an edge rusher and a big nasty DT.

The Steelers OL was manhandling our DL most of the day a couple of weeks ago and we saw glimpses of the same thing during parts of yesterdays game with the Ravens who were gashing us with the run at times. Our offense and our ability to wear defenses down are winning games for us but our defense has to start providing more of a pass rush or it's going to get us beat in the playoffs.

 

[LandryFan]

Dungy: I trust Commanders offense more, but I'm going with Green Bay..

Uhm ok.

I'm pretty sure that it was Coach Dungy who said Dallas had "no chance" to beat the undefeated Saints a few years ago. Don't remember the final score, but I do remember that Dallas manhandled them and they were no longer undefeated after the game.