By Eeeeeeeegs
I don't remember a game where our defense (or any defense) played as well as ours did last night. The Defense made virtually NO MISTAKES. No missed assignments, no missed tackles. The Bears FG was a field position FG after Jacobs' fumble. They didn't drive for those points. We held a Mike Martz offense to 110 total yards.
Furthermore, the offense and special teams gave the D almost ZERO support for the first 3 quarters, which makes their performance even more impressive under that type of pressure. Let's not forget, the defense was great for 3 quarters against Tennessee despite not being picked up by the offense. Ever since we got out-schemed @ Indianapolis, our defense has played 8 very impressive quarters of football. It's a great sign.
Terrell Thomas has a nose for the ball. Kenny Phillips can do it all. I LOVE the way we were blitzing Aaron Ross. Cofield and Canty are healthy and getting a push up the middle. Osi (who was supposed to be hurt) and Tuck were un-blockable on the outside (without Kiwanuka, who already had 4 sacks). Boley was around the ball. And Jonathan Goff has really made the transition from liability to asset in the middle. I'm stunned.
That being said. Special Teams are a train wreck. Matt Dodge doesn't belong out there and he knows it. He's scared. We didn't see it last week because we didn't punt last week. I realize he can occasionally punt it 70 yards, but you have to be able to handle the ball. It cost us a FG and almost a blocked punt. Darius Reynaud is also afraid of his own shadow out there. And the holding penalties on the kick return team are killing us.
The offense showed up late. But they did do some nice things in the last quarter and a half. Chris Collingsworth (a former WR) was ready to get down on the field and fallate Hakeem Nicks, and with good reason. He's special. Move over #12, #88 is a play-maker and a pro-bowler. I thought Eli missed a lot of plays, especially early. He underthrew Smith on the first drive. Couldn't hook up with Boss on those little waggles. He let a couple of passes sail. We just didn't execute. Smith had a rare drop of what would have been a first down on a hook pattern. Bradshaw appeared to tackle himself at times. The fumbles, of course. It's almost like we're trying too hard.
My biggest concern with the offense is the o-line. With the exception of Snee, I think we're really getting a bit long in the tooth. I think Diehl (although not much older than Snee) is becoming a real problem. I'm not saying Dwight Freeney and Julius Peppers are pushovers, but It's almost like he doesn't want to bother with getting his ass out there on the outside speed rush? Where's Will Beatty? Get that guy healthy. I also think we're going to see more of Shawn Andrews. When we started lining him up at that TE position late in the game...we really started getting our RBs to the second level. Expect to see more of #73 next week @ Houston.
All in all, we discovered some really positive things about ourselves. Houston isn't a MUST win, but it would sure be nice to go into that road Dallas game @ 4-2 with wins @ HOU and home against DET. We've got all 6 division games left to play. We've got to win 4 or 5 of them, and we'll be okay. We have those 6 division games and...@HOU, DET, JAX, @GB, @MIN, and @SEA (Seattle is the toughest place to play, but at least we'll be coming off our BYE there).
We might be back on track. Jonathan Goff? I never would have thought.
