The half way breakdown

[blindzebra]

It's the half way point so it is time to make a breakdown.


The good: We are in the thick of the playoff hunt, nobody has actually beaten us we have beaten ourselves, we have destroyed the Eagles.


The bad: The NFC East and South are loaded with teams in the playoff hunt, we beat ourselves and should/could be 8-0, 7-1, or 6-2, we face all 3 division opponents on the road in the 2nd half.


The awful: Injuries, we have had more injuries and scares that we are struggling to overcome.


The half way grades:


QB: B/B+ Bledsoe has been better than I expected, but we have seen enough flashes of "bad Drew" and he is way to dependent on the players around him and coaches controlling him to get a higher grade.


RB: B+ Jones durability is in question and A-train has made me wish Eddie George was still here, but with spotty blocking we still have ran the ball above average and have found two solid rookies.


WR: A-/B+ Probably our best unit on offense even though it was our biggest worry before TC. The offense has not been the same since Crayton went down.


TE: B+ Witten has been underused and the injuries to Adams and Crayton have forced us to max protect even more.


OL: C/C- Inconsistent is the only way to describe them. When we pass protect we can't run block, when we run block we can't pass protect. Rivera has been a disappointment.


Offensive grade: B They are the unit most responsible for our losses. Through untimely mistakes and questionable strategy we have wasted too many chances to put teams away.


DL: A Hands down our strongest unit. Ellis and Glover are having great years, Ferguson has been solid and we have seen solid contributions from 3 rookies.


LB: B We have had some big plays and some bad plays from this group, and with as much inexperience as we have that is not surprising. Ware has lived up to his draft position most of the time and inside play has picked up. The strong side has given us very few plays and Burnett has been a non-factor so far.


CB: A- Other than a couple of errors this group has been outstanding. Newman has been playing at an all pro level and Henry has been close to that level. Glenn has made some big plays and bad plays. The young guys behind the top 3 have been a non-factor on defense.


S: B- Roy is having a very solid season, the FS spot has been lacking. Davis had a big game against AZ, hopefully that is a sign of him coming on.


Defensive grade: A- While the offense is not scoring enough in our losses, we have given up a few too many big plays at bad times. But this unit is much farther along than I thought it would be.


Special teams: C+ McBriir has been solid, our coverage units have improved. Thompson has made some solid returns but he is a heat seeking kicker missile, Crayton was starting to get it before he got hurt and Price does not seem comfortable returning punts. Deep snapping and kicker have been below average.


Coaching: B We have assembled a lot of talent, but we not done a good job on game day. We have made some what the heck was that calls, and played for FGs too many times and it cost us two games.

 

[DallasEast]

OL: C/C- Inconsistent is the only way to describe them. When we pass protect we can't run block, when we run block we can't pass protect. Rivera has been a disappointment.

The loss of Adams has to figure into this grade, but I do agree with your assessment. The rotation of Gurode and Johnson has not strengthen the interior of the offensive line as I believed it would.

Johnson's primary weakness is snapping the ball. He wants to shutdown his guy, but forgets to hand Bledsoe the ball. Turnovers are not in Parcells vocabulary and Johnson needs to improve on his ball exchange. Now.

Hate him or love him, old fogey Adams is still a top 10 left guard in this league.

For all his gaffs, Pettiti has impressed me most on the OL. His improvement has been slow, but noticably better as the season progresses. He is still a year away, imo, but I love 'im at right tackle.

Of all the guys who I expected to not have mental mistakes, it was Riveria. His adjustment from Favre to Bledsoe is taking longer than expected. Still, he's as solid as they come at right guard.

Tucker? Don't get me started. I'm praying. They say that prayers can come true.

Excuse me. I have more praying to do.

 

[DLCassidy]

QB: B/B+ Bledsoe has been better than I expected, but we have seen enough flashes of "bad Drew" and he is way to dependent on the players around him and coaches controlling him to get a higher grade.

Bledsoe has been the team MVP at the halfway point hands down. If he doesn't warrant an "A" noone on the team does.

 

[Zman5]

I give him A- .

 

[Zaxor]

blindzebra It's the half way point so it is time to make a breakdown.

I was gonna do this also but I will just add my comments


The good: We have lots of room to improve.... mostly on the Defense and the O-line


The bad: Their still seems to be too many A) predictable calls/real head scratchers B) lack of going for the kill when the other team is on the ropes

The awful: I don't find any one thing to be awful... either in proportion or performance


The half way grades:

QB: B/B+ Bledsoe has been better than I expected, but we have seen enough flashes of "bad Drew" and he is way to dependent on the players around him and coaches controlling him to get a higher grade.

I agree... I was and am still sceptical about Bledsoe but so far he has exceeded my expectations but than they where pretty low to begin with..



RB: C Not sure whether to blame the O-Line or the RB's or both...I'm gonna choose both this is an area that I hope improves the most over the next half

WR: A-/B+ Probably our best unit on offense even though it was our biggest worry before TC. The offense has not been the same since Crayton went down.

I agree that this is the best unit on our offense

TE: B+ Witten has been underused and the injuries to Adams and Crayton have forced us to max protect even more.

Catching the ball they do fine but Witten needs to do a better job blocking especiallly the first part of the season but he seems to be getting better everygame

OL: C/C- Inconsistent is the only way to describe them. When we pass protect we can't run block, when we run block we can't pass protect. Rivera has been a disappointment.

agree...Rivera...I also expected more than we are getting from him...This unit along with the RB's will determine this team's fate

Offensive grade: B They are the unit most responsible for our losses. Through untimely mistakes and questionable strategy we have wasted too many chances to put teams away.

this unit gets a C- they are way too inconsistent

DL: A Hands down our strongest unit. Ellis and Glover are having great years, Ferguson has been solid and we have seen solid contributions from 3 rookies.


LB: B We have had some big plays and some bad plays from this group, and with as much inexperience as we have that is not surprising. Ware has lived up to his draft position most of the time and inside play has picked up. The strong side has given us very few plays and Burnett has been a non-factor so far.


CB: A- Other than a couple of errors this group has been outstanding. Newman has been playing at an all pro level and Henry has been close to that level. Glenn has made some big plays and bad plays. The young guys behind the top 3 have been a non-factor on defense.


S: B- Roy is having a very solid season, the FS spot has been lacking. Davis had a big game against AZ, hopefully that is a sign of him coming on.


Defensive grade: A- While the offense is not scoring enough in our losses, we have given up a few too many big plays at bad times. But this unit is much farther along than I thought it would be.

pretty much agree with everything

Special teams: C+ McBriar has been solid, our coverage units have improved. Thompson has made some solid returns but he is a heat seeking kicker missile, Crayton was starting to get it before he got hurt and Price does not seem comfortable returning punts. Deep snapping and kicker have been below average.

Agreed though I might grade them down to a C because the ST has caused us some games

Coaching: B We have assembled a lot of talent, but we not done a good job on game day. We have made some what the heck was that calls, and played for FGs too many times and it cost us two games.

also gets a B from me but closer to being a B- than a B+ we should have done a better job with finding a replacement for Cundiff...also like I said some of the playcalling on OFF and DEF are sometimes real head scratchers

Summary: This team is better than I expected they would be at this point of the season...I had them as a .500 ball club and they still may be though it looks like they have a better than good chance to possibly be 10-6..

Whats not to like about our young defense they improve game to game and I for one am really looking forward to see how good they can be...

Our Offense is far to inconsistent for my liking and they need to run the ball a good piece better than they have over the first half of the year...As you all know if the running game can pose a threat than playaction works ...making Bledsoe and the WR's/TE's good enough to take this team a long ways in January...

lets hope for no more injuries to our players and lets take the East

Go Cowboys

 

[blindzebra]

Bledsoe has been the team MVP at the halfway point hands down. If he doesn't warrant an "A" noone on the team does.

He's fumbled 10 times and we lost 4 of those.

Parcells said recently, "We did not have that problem last year and the only thing new is you."

The controlling of bad Drew causes Witten to be under used, and leads to our conservative nature while protecting leads and playing for FGs.

None of that gets factored into a QB rating.

 

[LaTunaNostra]

Tough grading, BZ, but fair.

 

[junk]

He's fumbled 10 times and we lost 4 of those.

Parcells said recently, "We did not have that problem last year and the only thing new is you."

The controlling of bad Drew causes Witten to be under used, and leads to our conservative nature while protecting leads and playing for FGs.

None of that gets factored into a QB rating.

bad Drew.....lol. Funny, but probably more true than many would like to admit.

I have no doubts that Drew's success so far is directly tied to BP's management of him.

 

[DLCassidy]

He's fumbled 10 times and we lost 4 of those.

Parcells said recently, "We did not have that problem last year and the only thing new is you."

The controlling of bad Drew causes Witten to be under used, and leads to our conservative nature while protecting leads and playing for FGs.

None of that gets factored into a QB rating.

The bad snaps are a mystery to me. If it is Bledsoe, why hasn't there been any bad ones when Gurode was in there? Why hasn't Bledsoe had this problem in the previous 12 years? Just asking. It's puzzling.

As for the "controlling of bad Drew", protecting the QB 1st has always been a Parcells trademark. Particularly when you have a rookie RT and a LT who's never played over there before. And some of the play calling is overly conservative because that's also Parcells nature.

 

[blindzebra]

The bad snaps are a mystery to me. If it is Bledsoe, why hasn't there been any bad ones when Gurode was in there? Why hasn't Bledsoe had this problem in the previous 12 years? Just asking. It's puzzling.

As for the "controlling of bad Drew", protecting the QB 1st has always been a Parcells trademark. Particularly when you have a rookie RT and a LT who's never played over there before. And some of the play calling is overly conservative because that's also Parcells nature.

You don't have 113 career fumbles without some exchange problems, and we have had fumbles exchanges with Gurode at center too, I believe one in preseason and one in the regular season.

Parcells is on record about protecting Drew from Drew, and not all of that is about pass protection.

There is a reason he has him making his reads short to deep.

There is a reason we have not ran a lot of deep routes.

There is a reason Price's role has been limited.

It is to keep bad Drew to a minimum.

 

[junk]

You don't have 113 career fumbles without some exchange problems, and we have had fumbles exchanges with Gurode at center too, I believe one in preseason and one in the regular season.

Parcells is on record about protecting Drew from Drew, and not all of that is about pass protection.

There is a reason he has him making his reads short to deep.

There is a reason we have not ran a lot of deep routes.

There is a reason Price's role has been limited.

It is to keep bad Drew to a minimum.

I wish "bad" Drew had a goatee so we could distinguish him from "good" Drew. Then at least we would know what to expect.

 

[blindzebra]

I wish "bad" Drew had a goatee so we could distinguish him from "good" Drew. Then at least we would know what to expect.

It's not that hard.

Bad Drew pats the ball and causes you to scream at the TV, "Throw the damn ball, already!"

or

"Witten is open, Witten is open."

or

"Noooooo, Glenn is triple covered, stupid!"