I suppose it was an entertaining game and another solid performance by RG3 but the defensive secondary AND coaching is terrible. To be specific, the Bengals first two TDs are perfect examples:
1. The very first play of the game is a Bengal wildcat formation. Dalton is sent wide and D. Hall is covering him. A.J. Green (one of the best WRs in the game) is in the slot and backup safety Dejeon Gomes is sent to cover him one on one. D. Hall and Gomes looked at each other as if they thought about switching but didn't. I get that this is a wildcat formation and you are not expecting a deep ball to be thrown but still just to be sure, why is Gomes one on one with no safety help covering Green? It is a great job of the Bengals of creating and exploiting a mismatch. I would much rather have Hall than Gomes on Green. That needs to get fixed.
2. The Bengals second TD. It's a second and 20 at midfield and Haslett decides to send the house. I don't understand why he does this. We sent in seven defensive players and granted we nearly got the sack but Dalton was able to complete a quick seven yard out and then to compound what I believe is a bad play call, Josh Wilson slips and misses a chance to push the WR out of bounds for a short gain and in turn leads to a 48 yard TD since there was no one back to support. Last season, Haslett would call the zero blitz play and it is a high risk/high reward play. If you don't get immediate pressure, it is a TD waiting to happen and it burned us in at least both Dallas games last year. Again, he sends the house and it killed us yesterday. I don't mind sending a safety blitz or a corner blitz or an extra LB but why send the house on a second and 20? In my mind bad play call with a bad play by Wilson to compound the problem.
Those were the two plays that bothered me the most on defense. Still, the secondary is proving to be a major liability and to me it is compounded by the defensive coaching. What's worse is that Haslett just got an extension. What was supposed to be the strong point of our team is showing that it can't stop anyone. This has got to get fixed as we are the worst defense in the league giving up ridiculous number of points and yards.
On a positive note, Orakpo's replacement, Rob Jackson, played well. He got the INT for a TD and he made a tremendous play stopping a run for a big loss. The question I have is what happened to him the rest of the game? It looked like I saw more of Chris Wilson and #55 as the game wore on. Wilson is a decent pass rusher so I don't mind seeing him but it just seemed like Jackson was taken out of the game.
Also, our run defense is sound and has been in all three games. The front seven is decent so I don't know why we don't give more help to our secondary. Haslett is overly aggressive so to me, he is just as much to blame for the ridiculous number of big plays we are giving up as the players are.
Offensively, RG3 has been better than advertised. He continues to impress with both is arm and feet and decision making. Can't fault him at all.
I also like our running game. Morris is a gem as he runs hard and seems to understand the zone blocking scheme Shanny likes to run as he consistently hits the right hole and can run hard and has shown that it will take more than one guy to bring him down.
It was good to see Fred Davis get involved as he had 7 catches for nearly 100 yards.
The BIG issue I had with the offense was what the F is Jordan Black doing as the backup LT?!!!! The guy was out of football last season and basically retired. He lost a lot of weight and then got the call from Shanny and had to put on a bunch of weight and get back into football shape. HE SUCKED!!!! Yes, Williams is our best offensive lineman so it's going to hurt any time he goes down but WTF is Black doing as his backup?!!! If you just watched him on every play, it looked like a big piece of S that Robs spit out trying to block. He was a major reason that RG3 took 6 sacks on the day. Seriously, there were several plays where he was just outclassed in an embarrassing performance by him. I can only hope Williams injury is not severe otherwise, RG3 is in serious trouble.
After three games, I feel pretty good about the offense. I am ticked off about the defensive secondary and defensive coaching. That has to be corrected and Jordan Black scares me. Will be interesting to watch these two story lines.
HTTR!!!
3 comments:
The defense is having major issues. The offensive line is weak and has been a cause for concern. RG3 is runnng the ball wayyy too much. 15th leading rusher in the nfl is too high for a qb. Hes taking a lot of hard hits. Especially in the bengals game. That is a recipe for injuries left and right. An injury will happen if they dont protect him better or if he keeps running. The current offensive line simply cannot protect him. I really dont know what the coaches can do about it. I dont even think the bengals or rams pass rush is that great. The secondary is terrible and you are right haslett seems like he does not know what hes doing. No thought given to the defensive scheming. Just send the house and and see what happens and they are getting burned for it. Gave up 3 huge td passes. It was a career day for dalton and green. Green i have to say is an amazing receiver. Last week bradford looked like a hall of famer against the skins d. Surprising because he looked more like himself this week against the bears. This has to be frustrating because its hasletts third year and youd have to expect to see some major improvements on d. They seem to be going backwards. I know the skins have a sole bright spot in rg3 but it has to be frustrating to continously see major weaknesses on this team leading to losses and more losses. I know its rebuilding but it seems like rebuilding from previously failed rebuilding is what keeps happening. If josh freeman has a career day against the skins something really has to be done about haslett.
The Deadskins are totally crazy to have Bob run the ball like he is. I understand late in a game where you need a play, but running Bob so often is just playing with fire.
Imagine what is going to happen to the Deadskins if/when Bob gets hurt and cannot play. Do you really want to say, "Let the Cuz Era begin!" I don't think so. If that happens, the Deadskins won't win another game this year with the D and O-line they have.
JSR, lets be fair. RG3 is not the sole bright spot. RG3 is not running the entire offense and putting up all the points. He is obviously a key component but there are other players that are doing well. Again, Morris has been very good at RB. I'm good with Davis at TE. WRs are solid with Garcon, Hankerson, Morgan, Moss, and Aldrick. All these guys have contributed significantly.
Up until Williams injury, the O line has been pretty good. The problem is that Jordan Black is unbelievably bad as a backup. We have to have someone better than him. He is an embarrassment and his play directly led to at least two of RG3's sacks.
Defensively the front seven have been solid as well. The problem is the secondary but more troubling for me is the coaching of the secondary. We are not putting these guys in position to be successful. Why line up a backup safety on A.J. Green? Why send the house on a second and long? These are coaching errors that put the players in difficult situations to be successful.
I don't doubt that we need more help in the secondary but the coaching needs to step up and help these guys.
It really isn't rebuilding from previously failed rebuilding. We have gotten much younger and gotten much more deep. We are putting up significant points and that certainly isn't all RG3's doing. If we can get the secondary figured out, we'll be fine. That's a big "if" but there is no doubt that some of the issues they have had are coaching related and Haslett and Co. get paid big bucks to straighten this out. That has to happen.
Robs, agree that there are too many designed runs. I don't mind too much the QB draw plays as it gives RG3 an opportunity to slide or go out of bounds. What I don't like are the option plays they were running. That is priming him up to take big hits. That's what we saw yesterday.
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