It's sickening to me to watch games today and see how easily teams do things. It pains me to watch QB's like Alex Smith, Ryan Fitzpatrck, Bryan Hoyer, Teddy Bridgewater, Derric Carr, Cousins, Dalton, Winston, etc.move their teams up and down the field, get WR's in space, move their star wide outs around the formations, and put their teams in positions to win. Even if they don't score , it's not hard and painful to watch. There isn't a constant struggle to pitch and catch, or a one sided barrage of 2 yard out routes. TE's catch the ball in the seam up the field, and because of the spreading out defensive backs and LB's having to keep that in mind, the play calling isn't completely predicable. The running backs can run against 5 or 6 man boxes instead 7-9 man boxes because they don't have a bead on the upcoming play. I believe most of these teams have some pretty creative route trees, or their WR's are do a very good job of creating space. I don't see All Pro names like Smith, Frederick, Martin, Witten, Bryant, or Romo.. You know, the "top of the line on paper, 1st-3rd round top tier guys. But I don't see the high pressure, nervous struggles either.
On the other side of the ball, Hardy, Lee, McClain, Gregroy, Crawford, Jones, Hitchens, Carr, Claiborne, Ok, not as much talent, but most certainly enough to be considered middle of the pack, a 15-17 rank defense at worst. The problem??? The constant desire by a tired, "old school", scheme to try to get it done with rushing 4 guys straight up the field 90% of the time. Again, as I watch all the games this morning it reinforces my thought that with the current way the NFL plays offense, you can't win on defense with this old mentality. Teams pass the ball now on 1-2-3 step drops. Then add, the complexity of the routes most teams use, if you give a decent QB 4-5-9 seconds to the throw the ball, you are TOAST. It's not only the refusal to blitz that hurts us. We stunt less than any team that plays football. I mean football, just not the NFL. I watch more complex defenses on Friday nights. There is no excuse to run this vanilla of a defense. It puts you behind, befeore the game begins. OC's know that after a few long drives, or quick outs by the offense, the front four on this DL will begin to tire, and they will be able to do whatever they want. Late in the game, forget about it.
The division leader in the NFCE has 5 wins. That's laughable. But, with the talent we have, it is INEXCUSABLE that we only have 3 wins. Someone has to take the blame and heads must roll. We won't get what a reputable franchise deserves. A true leader that brings in a top notch supporting cast. But at the very least, we need to see changes!!!
