Quote:
Originally Posted by rm1369
I was obviously very impressed with the D yesterday. In most ways it was a complete 180 from the Cincy game. The obvious question is why such a big difference? I’d love to believe it’s growth, but you don’t see that much growth from game one to game two in a season. It could be the nature of a very young, inexperienced D - prone to wild ups and downs. But most likely it’s a function of matchups. Hopefully I’m wrong, but I still expect to see the Cincy level D more often than yesterday’s D - at least for this year.
The two big things (besides Leonard and Hunt) I’ve been impressed with is the improved quality of tackling overall and the apparent emphasis on stripping the football. I swear I’ve already seen more attempts to knock the ball loose in these two games than I’ve seen from them in the last 5 years. I love that.
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The first half of the Cincy game they did pretty well on D
The second half was just bad.
The FORCED turnovers are a nice thing to see. Though some INTs created by the DBs would be a welcome addition. I think one easy one that would have gone for a pick six was dropped yesterday. The first INT vs Cincy was created by the pressure on Dalton. However there have been a few plays where the DBs are not making INTs but actually stripping the ball out after the WR tries to make the catch. Hooker did that once last week and one of the DBs did that this week on an end zone throw
But in general, its a welcome change with an aggressive, fast tackling D. The play by Leonard to force that fumble in the 4th quarter and pretty well end the game was great.