Hostile;4502067 said:
I disagree, we have 4. Miles, Dez, Jason, and either Felix or Demarco.
Hostile, let me explain in more detail what I mean.
There are 5 non-quarterbacks that can either attack the defense by going out for a pass on a given play. The Saints and Packers bring in 3 excellent, fast wide receivers on every play and have a fast, seam tight end stressing the defense. The defense often has to go to nickle or dime to attempt to matchup.
For most teams, corner 1 and corner 2 are decent and they may even have a capable 3rd. Nobody has a good 4th corner. The Saints and Packer don't care that you take out their #1 because they are going to attack your #3 and #4 corner or #3 corner and 6 foot safety trying to matchup with an NBA small forward and wr 3 guy that runs 4.35. We saw this last year with Laurent Robinson. He was not a better player than Miles Austin but he got covered by the short, slow kid with no safety over the top.
We don't have that anymore. We have better WR1 and WR2 than the Saints, but our WR 3 and WR 4 are not close. Our tight end serves the same function that their WR1 does on alot of plays, but Witten is not the matchup nightmare that Graham is especially when covered by a linebacker. In fact, there has never been a matchup problem like Graham.
As good as Dez and Miles are they do not have the advantage that the Packers/Saints' 4th wide receiver has over the 4th corner because they are being covered by corners 1 and 2, often with safety help.
Felix and Murray can do some Marshall Faulk lite stuff out of the backfield, but they are not going to cause the bad substitutions that those other teams will. Even if they do it well, they won't be any more of a pain than Sproles.
The Packers don't even pretend to run the ball. They just bring in waves of quick, fast receivers that you can't touch past 5 yards.