I don't know what game you were watching, but here's how their RB's stacked up against our RB's:
Jacksonville 26 carries for 77 yards, 2.96 yards per carry
Dallas 20 carries for 85 yards, 4.25 yards per carry.
We weren't forced to go to our passing game. We started off early passing the ball, my guess is that Parcells felt that we'd have a hard time running the ball against their defense but could take advantage of their secondary. We started out the game passing and using a lot of 4 and 5 WR sets.
Actually we only ran on first down 10 out of 21 first down plays we had before we got late in the game and had to pass the ball However, we ran the ball 7 out of 13 second downs before we got late into the game and had to pass the ball.
Problem was that Bledsoe was awful and at the point they ran the ball 5 out of 6 times on 2nd down, it was a conundrum...do you try to give yourself the first down/leave yourself with a short 3rd down play....or do you rely on your QB who is playing bad?
From a pass protection standpoint, yes. From a run blocking standpoint, no. Their run numbers were putrid, however Leftwich had a lot of time in the pocket to throw. Then again, we didn't seem to blitz much sans 3rd and long plays.
The O-Line and the run defense weren't the issue. In fact, calling out the run defense is ridiculous. Bledsoe's INT were due to bad throws on his part and bad reads on his part. He had good pockets and plenty of time, he just didn't play well and it killed us. On defense, we didn't get any pressure on Leftwich and he started to get on a roll. There were plenty of times were we had good coverage and all he had to do was go to a checkdown back who would gain ample yardage.
If Bledsoe plays an average game, we most likely win this game easily. If we get some defensive pass rush, we probably win this game. But I don't think you can ask much more from our run defense and our O-Line was hardly the problem yesterday.
YAKUZA
