Interesting times.
How 'bout them Falcons? Looks like they're going to continue their mind-boggling streak of never having had back-to-back winning seasons. What a franchise.
Also, while all eyes are on the Colts and Saints, I'm real interested in seeing the Chargers and Packers just get hotter and hotter. With the running game finally getting some wheels (though we'll see how it does against tougher opposition, Bears are who we thought they were) and the O-line seemingly solidified (the hole they pulled for Grant's TD run was a beaut), this team looks unstoppable. Their only real issue, assuming their sack numbers and running numbers don't drop right off against tougher opposition, are injuries. That kind of thinness at key positions isn't something you usually get away with come play-offs.
Chargers are even worse. That's a monster team right now, and I don't think any other team would feel comfortable going up against them. The running game is shit, true, but the O has too many weapons to switch to if you take one out, and the D has reached a whole renewed level of hard-hitting since Siler's been starting.
Those teams'll be interesting to watch in the playoffs.
TwinkieGorilla said:
collapsing the pocket, attracting double-coverage, allowing blitzers to make plays and making plays against the run?
Oh, awesome. So, uh, when did this happen? I've seen about 3 Pack games in total, I think, and all I've seen when Raji was playing was him subbing in as an end at times. I think I've seen him making one sack and one or two tackles for a loss - you know, the kind of plays you expect from a one-gap defensive tackle - but I can't recall anything you just listed.
Cimmerian Nights said:
I don't watch all the pack games but when his LBs have the freedom to fly around, the front 3 of the 3-4 is doing their job. 3-4 NTs are not sackers/tacklers, they are space-eaters.
Yeah dude, I'm not new at this, you know? But didn't I just say Raji hasn't actually played much - if at all - as a 3-4 NT until this week? I mean, that he wouldn't be a starter at NT was to be expected, though his streak of injuries certainly had an impact, but I've only seen him in at end or lined up off the 0-gap, even as an undertackle together with their starting NT. I never saw him lined up against the center a single time in any Pack game I watched.
Since he's lined up as a one-gap tackle, he makes one-gap tackle plays, not so much holding blockers as bursting through the line to make plays. Awesome. That's what Raji's good at. That's not what a NT in 3-4 is supposed to do though. See? I ranted about this endlessly after the draft, Raji is a talented player that does not have the specific talents to do what the Pack needs at NT.
So, he hasn't actually played NT until this week, when he took almost all of his starting snaps at NT (he was out a bit with an injury, man that dude's been hobbled a lot). I didn't see the game, so it's hard for me to know how he did. If someone can tell me, please do, pundits don't write too much on NTs, though Scout.com
notes:
Raji, on the other hand, played nose tackle almost exclusively (24 of his 25 unofficial snaps). He teamed with Jenkins and Jolly to help the defense make a key third-down stop late in the third quarter. Linebacker Nick Barnett and safety Atari Bigby were the beneficiaries. They stopped running back Kahlil Bell cold on a third-and-1 from the Packers’ 45-yard line when the Packers’ defensive line all but cleared out the Bears’ offensive line. The Bears led 14-13 at the time.
Raji (two tackles) otherwise failed to make much of an impact going up against the Bears’ Pro Bowl center, Olin Kreutz.
“There’s some areas in the run defense we can play better than we did,” said Capers, “but it was good to see him get in there and get a full game under his belt inside.”
Cimmerian Nights said:
Dude, obviously that doesn't ring true when you lose your way out of the playoffs like the Steelers have with losses to KC, Raiders, Cleveland. There's nothing to be gained from a 5-game loss streak.
I know, I was just kidding. There's losses that toughen up the team, and then there's losses that show decline, like the Patriots and Steelers are having.
