I am worried about our defense, especially with injuries to Hitchens and Melton

[BoysFanInAustin]

I am happy with how we finished the season by throttling Washington and not losing key offensive players, I m concerned with the injuries on defense. I haven't seen any thread on these guys. Hitchens has the dreaded high ankle sprain which can linger from week to week. Melton has the injury to his surgically repaired knee. I am very concerned with our lack of depth defensively. Who do we have left to play LB? Wilber? Lawrence? Smith?

 

[Doomsday101]

I am happy with how we finished the season by throttling Washington and not losing key offensive players, I m concerned with the injuries on defense. I haven't seen any thread on these guys. Hitchens has the dreaded high ankle sprain which can linger from week to week. Melton has the injury to his surgically repaired knee. I am very concerned with our lack of depth defensively. Who do we have left to play LB? Wilber? Lawrence? Smith?

I suspect McClain will be back and ready to go and Bruce has been playing very good as of late. As for Hitchens, if it is a high ankle sprain then chances are it will be Wilber and Lawrence to step in.

 

[LandryFan]

I am happy with how we finished the season by throttling Washington and not losing key offensive players, I m concerned with the injuries on defense. I haven't seen any thread on these guys. Hitchens has the dreaded high ankle sprain which can linger from week to week. Melton has the injury to his surgically repaired knee. I am very concerned with our lack of depth defensively. Who do we have left to play LB? Wilber? Lawrence? Smith?

More like month to month. Probably won't see him until the Super Bowl.

 

[xwalker]

I am happy with how we finished the season by throttling Washington and not losing key offensive players, I m concerned with the injuries on defense. I haven't seen any thread on these guys. Hitchens has the dreaded high ankle sprain which can linger from week to week. Melton has the injury to his surgically repaired knee. I am very concerned with our lack of depth defensively. Who do we have left to play LB? Wilber? Lawrence? Smith?

McClain was out due to sickness, not injury. Hitchens was playing MLB so McClain will be available for that position.

They are still a little short on depth. I think Cam Lawrence was playing on the busted TD play by Desean Jackson.

There have been rumors for a few weeks that Melton might be inactive if Brent was active. It appears that they like T. McClain better than Melton at this point. They played DE Boatright at DT at the end of the Skins game. I thought he looked better at DT than at DE. He looks really thick for a DE.

 

[StylisticS]

I think Brad this morning said it wasn't a severe high ankle spring regarding Hitchens. Still, he possibly won't play on Sunday.

 

[Everson24]

Hitchens may have been our best LB in december. This is going to hurt far more than most realize. I do not like Carter as the WLB. He lacks instincts in the run game and is not a physical linebacker. Hitchens is physical, a great tackler and has great instincts and seems to fire up the defense.

 

[MissouriCowboy]

Way Crawford is playing and McClain looked solid I M ok w/if Melton is out. Hitchens being out concerns me.

 

[Doc50]

Hitchens will probably be back in 2 wks.
Melton - we can live without him. With what we have, he is expendable; and even if he fully returns to form by next year, we won't pay him what he thinks he deserves.

 

[TwoCentPlain]

They played DE Boatright at DT at the end of the Skins game. I thought he looked better at DT than at DE. He looks really thick for a DE.

This year, all our defensive lineman look better at DT than DE.

The glass is half empty say it is because we have no talented DEs.
The glass is half full say we have a friendly DT scheme and talent at DT.

Can we play four DTs? Are we already playing, and have been playing, with four DTs the whole year?

 

[DFWJC]

Yeah, definite concerns about the defense.
They've over-achieved, imo.
Marinelli deserves recognition for sure.

 

[dbonham]

This year, all our defensive lineman look better at DT than DE.

The glass is half empty say it is because we have no talented DEs.
The glass is half full say we have a friendly DT scheme and talent at DT.

Can we play four DTs? Are we already playing, and have been playing, with four DTs the whole year?

Mincey is pretty close to a DT, at least as far as RDEs go

 

[xwalker]

Mincey is pretty close to a DT, at least as far as RDEs go

He was. He said recently that he started the season at 290 but is not down to 267.

 

[morasp]

It will hurt if Hitchens can't go.McClain should be back but they said his knee injury is the type that won't just heal with a little rest so they were trying to pace him by limiting his snaps. I'll bet we see a lot of nickel defense which may not be a big change for them anyway.

 

[Cowboy_Shawn]

McClain was out due to sickness, not injury. Hitchens was playing MLB so McClain will be available for that position.

They are still a little short on depth. I think Cam Lawrence was playing on the busted TD play by Desean Jackson.

There have been rumors for a few weeks that Melton might be inactive if Brent was active. It appears that they like T. McClain better than Melton at this point. They played DE Boatright at DT at the end of the Skins game. I thought he looked better at DT than at DE. He looks really thick for a DE.

Melton has been a complete non-factor for about a month now. I'm not too concerned about his absence.

Josh Brent can probably come in and exceed Melton's December production.