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We cannot win a championship if....

Texanmike02

Texanmike02

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OK. So we all saw a few people come down hard on Matt and Kubiak in the first half. (A whopping 3.25% of the season btw.) It is true that if we see exactly the Matt we saw last year and the exact same Kubiak we saw last year. So what else can't we see?

We can't be a 2 corner team. Mccain has to show up.
We can't be a 1 pass rush team. Somebody not named Watt needs to get to 8-10 sacks.
We can't go to sleep offensively. I can live with the first half of the first game but you can't do that game in and game out.
We can't get down early and often. SB winning teams don't get down early every game. You luck runs out.
Matt has to be the Matt we saw today. If he isn't going to be lightening fast he has to hang tough and make throws. Matt looked like he had forgotten about fat ass albert tonight.
We can't be a 3 threat offense. In years past that was enough. Tonight I saw what looked like 5-6 weapons on offense. I mean legit weapons. AJ (obviously), OD, Graham, Hopkins, Tate, Foster (he didn't look great early but he started to run harder after sitting on the sideline for almost the entire series.
We can't be predictable. Everyone was on Schaub today... On 3rd down he was 6 of 10 with 4 conversions. We need that. We pulled off a fake punt.
The defense has to play more zone. I know Wade is a great DC but we have to mix it up a little. If you are playing a QB with a high football IQ you can't pull man def on 85% of your snaps (by my rough count). You have to disguise coverage and delay blitzes (see the Manning sack) on occasion. Get the QB out of rhythm.
We can't continue with the penalties, I'm looking at you Lestar.


Cushing has to be the player capable of making that INT and pressuring the QB.

Oh, btw... Joe Mays was a beast today. Big time against the run.

It is not a matter of if this team can win a SB or not, AS CONSTRUCTED. It is a matter of if the players will take risks at the right time, be disciplined, stay at home and the coach will recognize the time to make the mold. This is a team capable of winning, along with about 5-6 other teams. Nothing to do with can't, or a coaching problem, everything to do with discipline and the right mixture of luck, health, work hard and staying calm. If Matt stands in there like he did today, the QB play will be fine.

34/45, 346 yds, 3 TDs 1 Int.

Don't give me "it was garbage time". There is no garbage time in a game you win by a QB. He converted on 3rd and 18, 3rd and 13, 3rd and 11 and 3rd and 8. Manning, Brady, Luck, Eli or any other QB you want to call "elite" would take both his stat line and his result today. In 2010 Matt put in these kind of performances all year but the defense was the worst I've ever seen. He put that team on his back several times that year and they slithered off. This time the D nutted up and held up their own.

Mike
 
Texanmike02 said:
OK. So we all saw a few people come down hard on Matt and Kubiak in the first half. (A whopping 3.25% of the season btw.) It is true that if we see exactly the Matt we saw last year and the exact same Kubiak we saw last year. So what else can't we see?

We can't...

Mike
Click to expand...

Who were the Ravens last year, the Giants in 2011, the Packers in 2010, or the Saints in 2009?

None of those teams were perfect, we don't need to be either. What we can't do is get too far ahead of ourselves, or get stuck too far behind. The only thing that matters is the hear & now, the next play.

We've got problems like every other team in the NFL. We've got limitations & gaping holes like every other team. One of those teams will win the Super Bowl & it might as well be us.

We need to focus on the next play & be determined to be the best we can be.
 
76Texan said:
We did mix in some zone looks; I don't know how often though.
Click to expand...

We started mixing some zone in the second half.. more man zone than straight zone...

You have to do that. If you run straight up man all game then the QB just looks for the weak link, look at how quickly Rivers got the ball out in the first half compared to the second.... compound that with his escapability that he showed almost every time the pocket broke down... But when you take away his presnap read?

Dude he was maddening us in the first half (moving people in motion to identify coverage).... that BS stopped in the second half.

Mike
 
Let`s stop talking about why we can`t win a championship and start talking about why we CAN win a championship...
 
Texanmike02 said:
We started mixing some zone in the second half.. more man zone than straight zone...

You have to do that. If you run straight up man all game then the QB just looks for the weak link, look at how quickly Rivers got the ball out in the first half compared to the second.... compound that with his escapability that he showed almost every time the pocket broke down... But when you take away his presnap read?

Dude he was maddening us in the first half (moving people in motion to identify coverage).... that BS stopped in the second half.

Mike
Click to expand...
Rivers threw a pass to the TE Green in the first half into a 2-deep zone under.
I've only watched up to the second TD; sure, we played man a ton, but that's what we do. That's what you have to do if you want to bring a safety down into the box.
 
LikeMike said:
Let`s stop talking about why we can`t win a championship and start talking about why we CAN win a championship...
Click to expand...

It isn't about why we can win a championship. We're on a short list of teams that CAN... but only one team will. It will be the team that is best able to hide their deficiencies, play consistently, get a little lucky and stay healthy. "Why we can win a championship" is pretty simple, top to bottom we've got talent that only 4-5 teams can match. That's the only reason we "can" win the SB. Recognizing what your potential pitfalls are and what you have to avoid in order to win a SB is the only way you can expect to. As fans, we should be educated/interested enough to learn that stuff too.

Mike
 
Dont forget people we didnt have Antonio Smith either, we got 2 sacks, JJ was still in the back field a lot, TBH he looked rusty to me but towards the end he began making plays in the back field again.

Watt, Smith, Cushing, JoJo, Manning, (The way mays was playing) add in Ed Reed and we have one of the most talented defenses in the NFL. I'm not worried. We will destroy most opponents we play.

As far as offense goes i like what i saw last night, OD, Graham, AJ, Hopkins, Tate man they looked good. And guys dont forget Foster didnt play all pre season, he is still a beast and we will all be thankful to have foster soon enough i gurantee you !
 
76Texan said:
Rivers threw a pass to the TE Green in the first half into a 2-deep zone under.
I've only watched up to the second TD; sure, we played man a ton, but that's what we do. That's what you have to do if you want to bring a safety down into the box.
Click to expand...

When you watch, do me a favor, watch the motion. Tell me how often we react to the motion in the defense. I really think Rivers was using that to diagnose our defense in the first half. Not necessarily who he "was" throwing to, but eliminating options when he wasn't. I thought that in the second half Rivers was slower to get rid of the ball and it seemed (perception) that we didn't move as much when he sent someone in motion.

Mike
 
Texanmike02 said:
When you watch, do me a favor, watch the motion. Tell me how often we react to the motion in the defense. I really think Rivers was using that to diagnose our defense in the first half. Not necessarily who he "was" throwing to, but eliminating options when he wasn't. I thought that in the second half Rivers was slower to get rid of the ball and it seemed (perception) that we didn't move as much when he sent someone in motion.

Mike
Click to expand...

I saw a lot better coverage in the 2nd half, prob why he was slower to get rid of the ball, JoJo in the 2nd half actually looked like his old self minus the first drive by SD after half time.
 
EllisUnit said:
I saw a lot better coverage in the 2nd half, prob why he was slower to get rid of the ball, JoJo in the 2nd half actually looked like his old self minus the first drive by SD after half time.
Click to expand...

I actually thought JoJo and KJ played awesome games! Even on the long pass to Floyd, JoJo had good coverage and came close to swiping the ball out of his hands. It was just a perfectly thrown ball by Rivers and an excellent catch by Floyd... in those situations, the offense is going to win every time.
 
We can win a championship because quite frankly the AFC is a mess!

The Pats are barely going to be able to field a team this week
The Ravens are not what they were
The Broncos as good as they looked Thursday still have holes and if they have to play the whole season like Thursday Mannings arm will fall off
The Bengals....they are us a few years ago
The Steelers are done
The Colts still have swiss cheese for an oline and can not stop the run
 
... we don't make it into playoffs.

Like what others have said, there's no such thing as a perfect team. Every team in the NFL has holes and major issues. The Broncos can't run the ball, Patriots' secondary is still horrible and they're running out of receivers, etc... If we make it into the playoffs, we have an excellent chance at a championship!
 
Texanmike02 said:
When you watch, do me a favor, watch the motion. Tell me how often we react to the motion in the defense. I really think Rivers was using that to diagnose our defense in the first half. Not necessarily who he "was" throwing to, but eliminating options when he wasn't. I thought that in the second half Rivers was slower to get rid of the ball and it seemed (perception) that we didn't move as much when he sent someone in motion.

Mike
Click to expand...

I've been looking; and I must say that even from last year, it was never the variation of the scheme (because there has been plenty); in the end, it's all about execution.

It is not to say that the scheme can't help sometimes; but you just have to execute for the scheme to have any validity to begin with.
 
I've been watching some more, and come back to the same conclusion.

Probably, the best inside look to Wade's scheme is to listen to Troy Aikman.
He's kinda boring in a methodological way, but he does hit the nail on the head when he said that offense can't not really key on his defensive look.

The variations are always there; they are just not easy to detect with normal eyes.

The concept of match-zone/match-man in combination with straight man and a slew of zone concepts can be tied up together in a neat package, if only the players can execute them. It does require the guys to work together (J Jo and KJax have been operating very well out of that concept.) The rest of the team has to follow suit. In short area, you just have to be able to cover man; that's all there is to it. You may have a little help here and there, but you can't rely on it.

It is really a tough deal for the D nowadays, you just have to stick to your main concept. There are holes in the zone and there are drawbacks in man. Wade's match-zone concept offer the expansion to go either way.

It all boils down to execution.
There are enough variations within the scheme to move either way, zone or man.
 
76Texan said:
I've been watching some more, and come back to the same conclusion.

Probably, the best inside look to Wade's scheme is to listen to Troy Aikman.
He's kinda boring in a methodological way, but he does hit the nail on the head when he said that offense can't not really key on his defensive look.

The variations are always there; they are just not easy to detect with normal eyes.

The concept of match-zone/match-man in combination with straight man and a slew of zone concepts can be tied up together in a neat package, if only the players can execute them. It does require the guys to work together (J Jo and KJax have been operating very well out of that concept.) The rest of the team has to follow suit. In short area, you just have to be able to cover man; that's all there is to it. You may have a little help here and there, but you can't rely on it.

It is really a tough deal for the D nowadays, you just have to stick to your main concept. There are holes in the zone and there are drawbacks in man. Wade's match-zone concept offer the expansion to go either way.

It all boils down to execution.
There are enough variations within the scheme to move either way, zone or man.
Click to expand...

I watched the first half again last night. I saw just as much zone as I did the first time. But if Trent Dilfer says we play too much man, I guess that's all anyone is going to remember.

Definitely a lot of man, almost exclusively on the outside.... but those aren't the guys getting beat like a drum. It's the guys in the middle of the field where it's mostly zone getting worked over.
 
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