Detroit game thoughts...

[Doomsday101]

Our play yesterday didn't concern me at all. The offense looked ragged, but we did run the ball -- and thus control the clock -- and most importantly, our defense played well against an offense with some real weapons.

In short, it's the way Parcells has constructed this team: Play good enough on offense and win with defense and kicking.

Anyone else feel this way?

yes but I don't think he was happy with the play of the offense.

 

[dbair1967]

-- and most importantly, our defense played well against an offense with some real weapons.

QUOTE]

Detroit's been pretty lousy on offense all year havent they?

David

 

[Chocolate Lab]

yes but I don't think he was happy with the play of the offense.

Parcells? Or David?

IMO we simply can't expect a good offense every week, or even most weeks. We've got what are basically castoffs on that side of the ball. Yes, some are former high draft picks, but they're guys that other teams didn't want for one reason or another, and on top of that they're older players... Not to mention an emergency fill-in at left tackle and a rookie at right tackle. When we play good defenses or simply aren't firing on all cylinders, we are going to struggle on offense, no ifs, ands, or buts, about it... And that won't change until we spend more high draft picks on offense.

But it's okay when the other team only puts seven up on the board.

Two edits:

David -- They've been bad, but they haven't had Williams and Rogers on the field together, either.

And my one exception to what I said about our O is our running game. If we get Julius and Marion both going at the same time, we could have an excellent running game.

 

[baj1dallas]

you're wrong about not being one of the better teams...you seem to have the the mistaken belief there are flawless teams in the NFC. there aren't. even indy and pittsburgh are flawed.

1 Harrington is tough to sack because he gets the ball out quick (too quick according to Detroit fans. That said, you're right that there wasn't a lot of pressure. Ware was all but invisible. Tucker wasn't too bad, didn't give up as much pressure as the right side of the line.

2 The defense imo was daring Detroit to go downfield and keeping a close eye on Pollard. Shows that they studied the Lions well and knew what they had to do to win. Lions couldn't get anything going on the ground.

3 Offense was conservative yes but I think that's how Parcells wanted to win this game. But maybe they gotta do something because this is becoming routine where they "settle down" and don't do anything for the middle half of the game.

4) Great to have Cundiff back.

5) Maybe nobody was great but I saw a bunch of people make a good play here or there, Glover (broke up a screen), James (big tackle from behind), and Keith Davis finally got his name called for a good play.

6 That short yardage goal line thing is something Parcells is trying to work on for the playoffs. He ran it 3 times full well knowing they might get stuffed but he is trying to get it into their minds that they can always be successful running that, against anybody in the league.

Detroit beat themselves moreso than Dallas beat them, you got that much right. I disagree about the margin you see here...I think if you watched Denver with as much of a negative attitude as you watched Dallas you'd find things to nitpick as well. Well of course not including when they roll up 27 unanswered on the Jets...anyway I didn't see any of that game, only seen Denver a couple times this year. I don't think their defense is any better than Detroit's. Their running game will be though...that's the big test, stopping the Denver run and then can we run on them.

 

[Doomsday101]

Parcells? Or David?

IMO we simply can't expect a good offense every week, or even most weeks. We've got what are basically castoffs on that side of the ball. Yes, some are former high draft picks, but they're guys that other teams didn't want for one reason or another, and on top of that they're older players... Not to mention an emergency fill-in at left tackle and a rookie at right tackle. When we play good defenses or simply aren't firing on all cylinders, we are going to struggle on offense, no ifs, ands, or buts, about it... And that won't change until we spend more high draft picks on offense.

But it's okay when the other team only puts seven up on the board.

Parcells.

I think the offense is capable of playing much better than they did yesterday, we did some good things but we also played sloppy on offense. I do agree that the defense playing consistently good will win us a lot of games as long as the O is not turning the ball over but I still feel we were not in sink yesterday and should have played a bit better than we did

 

[morasp]

The key defensively and offensivly, as was brilliantly pointed out by the Cowboys color commentator Moose Jonhston, we handled them up front which is where we lost the battle against the Eagles. It was good to see them come back in that regard

 

[AtlCB]

right now the Bears are better than we are...their defense is by far the best in football and unlike us, they have a real pass rush...Chicago is also 1st in the league in yds per attempt allowed (5.62) and close to the top in sacks ( I think #1 with 31 sacks now) and opposing QB rating...they also are far and away the league leaders in pts allowed

on run defense 17 teams are currently giving up less than the 4.0 yds per rush than we are, and the Bears give up only 3.3 yds per rush...Chicago, Tampa, Carolina and NYG all give up less than 3.6yds per rush

we should have blown out the Giants but didnt and nearly lost that game...we blew the game vs Seattle and have yet to play the Panthers, but my guess is right now we wont play well vs them because their front 4 will probably manhandle our OL and we wont score much that day

we've played two clunker games in a row...the offense has now score only 1 or 2 tds in 6 of 10 games...the defense cant rush the passer (again) and we are going to be facing by far the hardest part of our schedule going forward...

David

I disagree that the Bears are a great team. They have benefitted from an incredibly weak schedule and have some serious problems on offense. Despite playing a schedule filled with absolutely pathetic defenses, the Bears offense has scored only 1 TD or fewer in 7 of their 10 games.

The Bears also rank 4th in sacks - not 1st! The Cowboys rank 7th. The Bears rank 1st in total defense and scoring defense, while the Cowboys rank 5th in total defense and 4th in scoring defense. The Bears rank 27th in total offense and 23rd in scoring offense, while the Cowboys rank 14th in total offense and scoring offense.

By looking at the numbers, I cannot see how you can make a case that the Bears are a better team right now than the Cowboys are.

 

[burmafrd]

The only game that could be considered as a test for the Bears was yesterday- and I think it was more that Carolina had a bad game then the bears were so great.

 

[joseephuss]

The only game that could be considered as a test for the Bears was yesterday- and I think it was more that Carolina had a bad game then the bears were so great.

Can you imagine if this were a Carolina board? Delhomme would be blasted for his 2 Ints and Fox would be put down for his defense's inability to sack a rookie QB on an inept offense. That would be very different because it seems like most around here like Jake and think the Panthers defense is just vastly superior to Dallas'.

 

[dbair1967]

I disagree that the Bears are a great team. They have benefitted from an incredibly weak schedule and have some serious problems on offense. Despite playing a schedule filled with absolutely pathetic defenses, the Bears offense has scored only 1 TD or fewer in 7 of their 10 games.

The Bears also rank 4th in sacks - not 1st! The Cowboys rank 7th. The Bears rank 1st in total defense and scoring defense, while the Cowboys rank 5th in total defense and 4th in scoring defense. The Bears rank 27th in total offense and 23rd in scoring offense, while the Cowboys rank 14th in total offense and scoring offense.

By looking at the numbers, I cannot see how you can make a case that the Bears are a better team right now than the Cowboys are.

I never said they were great, just that IMO right now they are a little better than us...they are a better running team (despite having a major handicap of playing a rookie 4th rd pick at QB) than us and are a dominant defense thats capable of winning games...defensively they are better almost across the board in every stat and are a much better pass rushing team than we are...they have given up few rushing yds, few yds per attempt, fewer passing yds, fewer tds, more ints, more sacks and lower opposing QB rating

if we were to play them in the playoffs at home we would have an edge, but I think potentially having to play them, up there in their place would be very difficult for us...

David

 

[burmafrd]

Stats mean nothing when you have played as weak a schedule as the Bears have.

 

[AtlCB]

I never said they were great, just that IMO right now they are a little better than us...they are a better running team (despite having a major handicap of playing a rookie 4th rd pick at QB) than us and are a dominant defense thats capable of winning games...defensively they are better almost across the board in every stat and are a much better pass rushing team than we are...they have given up few rushing yds, few yds per attempt, fewer passing yds, fewer tds, more ints, more sacks and lower opposing QB rating

if we were to play them in the playoffs at home we would have an edge, but I think potentially having to play them, up there in their place would be very difficult for us...

David

The Bears are statistically a little better on defense and on rushing offense, but they are near the bottom of the league in passing offense and total offense. They also rank in the bottom third of the league in scoring offense. They have these rankings despite playing most of their games against awful teams. I honestly cannot see how anyone can make a legitimate case that this team is even slightly better than the Cowboys at this point in the season.

 

[dbair1967]

The Bears are statistically a little better on defense and on rushing offense, but they are near the bottom of the league in passing offense and total offense. They also rank in the bottom third of the league in scoring offense. They have these rankings despite playing most of their games against awful teams. I honestly cannot see how anyone can make a legitimate case that this team is even slightly better than the Cowboys at this point in the season.

we havent been world beaters here AtlCB...our best win was a 33-10 win at home over what is now a 4-6 Philly team...we barely held on to beat San Diego when they didnt have Antonio Gates...we blew wins vs Seattle and Washington...in 6 of the 10 games we've played we've score donly one or two offensive tds

I guess you can argue that they've played a weaker schedule than us, but when we've played weak teams we only managed one blowout win (Arizona) and played mediocre ro painfully average ball vs SF and Detroit)

David

 

[Nors]

I'll take a playoff game against the Bears all day everyday.

Carolina, Tampa, Bears, Atlanta are all overrated and will be beating each other up - sweet!

 

[Zman5]

so you agree with me that the defense is responsible for the losses vs Washington and Seattle, and nearly blowing the NYG game right?

and wouldnt you also agree that the reason for those meltdowns is that we couldnt get to the QB, even when we had teams in 4th and 15, 3rd and 27 or other 3rd/4th and 10+ downs

David

How can you say it was defense's fault for losing the Seattle game?

Last I remember, it wasn't the defense that gave the ball away to allow Seattle to kick the wining FG.

 

[Nors]

Yes David we suck

We have lost 3 games by 10 points.


We are at the top of NFC east and in playoff mode.
We are capable of playing better and should.