Not much else to say. Want to know all your thoughts about how Pouha/Green played today in Jenkins stead, and how you guys'll think we'll fare for the rest of the season, based on today's sample..
They played pretty well. Fargas ripped us a new hole, but outside of him, they played well. Didn't see much Gholston today which was surprising. They probably wanted the bigger guys there to clog up the holes. Edit. With that said, I still really want Terrence Cody.
Didn't like Pouha much... he plays better at DE when we want to stop the run. Next draft we need to address the position...
There was a bunch of big runs up the middle, but they seemed to hold their own for the most part and didn't really let big runs when the Raiders were on our side of the field. I would give them a B-/C+.
In the first quarter Ghost made the best play I have seen him make all year. He got off his block and stopped the Raiders' runner.
The run defense was poor but the Raiders put themselves in enough of a hole early on that it didn't get exploited all that badly. Run D is going to be an issue for the rest of the year and likely the reason we do not make the playoffs.
next week is the real test... we really have to slow the wild cat. Based on 2 weeks ago, we certainly won't be stopping it, especially now that big Jenks is out. but if we can contain the thing, we will be ok I believe...
true. the raiders ran for i think 100+ yards, which makes me terrified of miami. we were lucky they dug themselves into a hole, and had to pass the rest of the game. and lets draft that 365 lb cody from alabama, the one who blocked two field goals yesterday.
Cody is a man-mountain, I think he'll be going top-10 especially for teams running 3-4. I thought the DL was very serviceable today considering big Jenk out and Ellis playing injured/out most of the game. I wonder if the long runs are more a symptom of our scheme and LB play than interior DL, because we've given up pretty good rips in all games, but also consistently have a lot of stops for no gain/ loss of yardage against the run.
Devito had a great game, especially early, seemed to be in the backfield pretty often. he's not playing nose, but you have to remember this is a different sort of 3-4 D than what Mangini had, the nose isn't as demanding a position to play under Ryan, it's really just one of three linemen, and Devito could be the new third. In other words, the loss of Jenkins wasn't significant because he was the nose, it was significant because he was by far our best player on the line. He actually took a pretty good deal of his snaps in places other than over center. Our problem isn't finding somebody else who can handle playing nose, it's finding somebody who can bring half as much to the table as Jenkins brought every day.
We gave up big chunks of yardage up the middle today. It was a so-so performance from the NT spot. A so-so performance won't be good enough next week; RR better come up with something crazy.
Good point; in Baltimore, Ryan didn't have a massive nose tackle type, Kelly Gregg (6-0, 315) playing, and yet their defense was still tremendous. you're right that what hurts is that jenkins was our most dangerous pass rusher; i'm confident rex'll find players that'll make the defense work and make it be dominant (be it finding someone to play the NT from within, like a Devito, or finding a pass rusher this upcoming draft that can come in and both rotate in at De and at NT). To open up the second half of the Monday Night game, Ryan went to a 46 defense for a short amount of time and it seemed to have real success against the Wildcat, but then he abandoned it. I still wonder why he did that.....but i agree, he's gonna hafta get really creative to stop the Wildcat this time.
It appears as if the NT either made a nice play or was exploited. Little middle ground. Saw a couple nice plays by Devito and Pouha. The best defense against the Dolphins Wildcat would be for our offense to ground and pound the Dolphins defense. This keeps the Wildcat off the field and the defense fresh. If they are behind, mistakes with a young QB are bound to happen.
We had alot of different guys step up in that spot and overall it was solid. DeVito did okay but did miss a couple tackles. Howard Green i thought was stout. Pouha played solid aswell.
We line up in a offset 3-4, so basically we lined up in a 4-3 just about as much as the 3-4. Overall I think they did well considering it's just game removed from the injury.
Run defense still suspect, 30 yard run up the middle Devito got pushed right out of the way but Scott and Harris weren't there to help out...
