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I've watched this game twice and would advise you to at least watch the highlights on ESPN's NFL Live today if you don't have a copy of the game. Flozell gave Cole beat down. He manhandled Trent one on one more often than anything else. If you just watch those highlights you'll see Cole get dominated by one man, not held by any, and be no where near Romo on some very big plays.
Philly got good pressure with their blitz package, but not with a four man rush. Cole battled all night, but he wasn't special. Adams was special blocking him though. Ware was doubled as much as Cole was and was the more impressive player. To the IDP vexing bit. I think this is the time of year to seek that CB nobody saw coming. For me it was Leigh Bodden last year. Just looking at free agents in a few leagues and the following names get me thinking.Charles Woodson -- Just keeps on doing it doesn't he? Opponents should be throwing quite a bit against them too.Chris Gamble -- Taking away from Marshall? Interesting. I know he isn't respected much around here.Ellis Hobbs -- I would have liked him better with Brady healthy keeping offenses desperate, but he's scoring especially if you use returns.Tye Hill -- Might be an under the radar IDP. He is fearless tackling and excellent in coverage. Injured last year with decent numbers.That's four, but I'd like to hear you guys dust off a few more.While he's not a corner, a certain Bruin safety a certain Bruin fan gave several heads ups to is all over the field lately -- Chris Horton. Comments on him?
Also, what's the story behind what happened with Crowell, and what his future holds?http://forums.footballguys.com/forum/index...howtopic=418658
Norton shared his thoughts on the podcast, so you'll definitely want to listen to the show later today.I was very much looking forward to watching the NE-NYJ game this weekend. Two interesting 3-4 defenses, plenty of young talent and some veterans worth scouting. Unfortunately, I got 12 minutes on the DVR before the wind killed the power and saw only a few snaps of the Patriot defense.I've gone back and forth on Harris all offseason long, and finally decided that his production last season was too impressive to ignore and left him in my top five. Nearly everyone other than Tony did the same. I had concerns that Harris wasn't a sideline-to-sideline player, that Pace and Jenkins might solidify the front seven enough to give some others a chance at competing for tackles. I'm still not convinced that Harris has slipped all the way to an 85 solo tackle guy, but he certainly bears watching at this point.Hopefully, I'll get another Jet game soon and have some more detailed thoughts. For now, I think it's correct to consider Harris a matchup-dependent LB1-LB2.
Brandon Carr could be the answer
I could see him pulling a Fred Bennett. Aggressive good tackler, will be thrown on a lot. Playing in a cover 2 can't hurt either, and he's on a defense that will likely be facing as many offensive plays as any in the league.
Always great to read that anything that drops out of your brain CC
I think Greg White is likely to play a little better now that the contract issues are behind him. I think Adams, Haye and White are all underrated (outside of deep IDP circles) and should be a formidable group when they're all healthy. Each have their own issues to true DL1 status, however, with Haye possibly the most all-around player of the group. Adams had a solo and three assisted tackles last week in addition to his two sacks, though it was likely due more to the poor effort of the Atlanta OL than a burgeoning trend of improved run support.Ruud anchors the LB group for the foreseeable future. Despite what happened in Week 1, it's probably June's job to lose at WLB if Brooks moves on at season's end. June is signed only through 2009, however, so Geno Hayes might get a shot relatively soon. I think Tanard Jackson has proven himself the best player in the secondary right now. His IDP upside is limited by the FS/Cover-2 role he'll play. Talib may end up being the most interesting option, if he can stay out of trouble once he earns a starting role.
I want to echo Jene's sentiments here, with a little more enthusiasm for Adams and Jackson. He showed me a very quick and strong first step vs. Atlanta, and had the look of a natural pass rusher and finisher. He also showed that he can uncoil like a viper when he's within striking distance like the great ones (See Abraham's sack/FF from this game for a textbook example). Jackson just missed an INT and was also playing with great speed and instincts. I see defensive touchdowns in his future.
I'm not as worried about Cole as John is. The Eagles have always tried to rotate their linemen to keep them fresh during the second half, so the "lost" snaps to Howard, etal aren't a major issue. While it's true that Cole has been handled at times over the first couple of weeks, I saw plenty of instances where he was shedding blocks well on rushing plays and enough pass rush against Flozell Adams to keep me from fussing about him too much.Getting another premium pass rush option would be nice, but there's enough variation in the pass rush scheme of Jim Johnson that it's not absolutely necessary for Cole's continued success. I won't be surprised to see Cole have a good game this week at home against the Steelers.
I think the talent issue will play a role on two fronts. Calvin Pace and Kris Jenkins have improved the run defense and a healthy Eric Barton puts two solid tackling ILBs in front of Rhodes. What Rhodes really needs, however, is for Dwight Lowery and Darrelle Revis to continue to progress in coverage and for the Jets to find a competent cover safety to pair with him. Until both of those things happen, Rhodes is going to be well off the scrimmage fairly often and struggle to beat the ILBs to the ball in run support.He's on pace for 65 solos after two weeks, a solid increase from last season, but isn't likely to get back to the 75+ range of 2005-06.
Gamble is in a contract year. I'm not sure there's anything more to it than that. It was more than just nagging injury that limited his effectiveness over the past two seasons. He strikes me as one of those streaky cover corners who'll run off a number of solid weeks, then drop off entirely for long stretches like a Deltha O'Neal or DeAngelo Hall when they get out of sync and lose a little confidence. Hill is a mess right now. He looks terrible in the highlights that I've seen and was rumored to be losing his starting spot last week. He ultimately didn't, and a corner that covers just well enough to rack up tackles is a nice IDP option, but I'm not sure he's not going down the opposite side of the Gamble cover corner path right now.Bloom has already noted one of the two I was planning to bring up if we had gotten to this question last night. I like Brandon Carr as well and, though he got a little lost in the Flowers hype this summer, has the profile of a potential mid-season hot hand. And I like Quentin Jammer's potential opposite Cromartie. I know you're a big AC fan, but those who got Jammer much later are going to be better off.I think Horton will have a role in the Redskin defense soon, but apparently needs a better grasp of the alignments before they'll trust him over Doughty.
Barnett had eight tackles in Week 1 and faced all of twelve rush attempts from the Lions last week. Nothing to worry over with him. Hawk will continue his hot first month this week against Barber/Jones/Witten, but he's not an every week threat to Barnett.While Sanders is out, Bethea probably gets his usual bump in value, with Keiaho likely to continue his solid numbers.Nick Barnett: back down to earth this year, or just off to a slow start?Keith Rivers: after 2 weeks, is he an every week start now?Bob Sanders: if Bob is hurt bad enough to be out for any period of time, do we bump all the IND IDPs down some?Daniel Bullocks: after a good Week 2 performance, what will happen to him?Keep up the great work, guys
The Williams/Davis platoon has been good for both. Davis, on the verge of losing his job altogether according to some observers last season, has been able to play to his strengths -- a seek-and-destroy, downhill run support attitude. Williams gets to focus primarily on coverage. If anything, Davis has looked better in his role this season than Williams. Bell's injury leaves the door open a hair for Williams, but Williams will only get every down snaps if Davis goes down with an injury. Long term, you have to think those two slots belong to Jackson and Bell.
Big Mex = Speed.
Can't be injury or disciplinary issue, since he played on special teams. Shouldn't be the same old argument that the Lions like to use vets who know the system, since they specifically noted Dizon would see snaps. I don't have any explanation for this one.
Hmm. I don't trust Rotoworld, but the primary source seems to suggest the same.I'm not aware that Williams took any base defensive snaps away from Davis last week. Looking at the gamebook, there were a couple of series where Williams was making plays on early downs, and the game situation didn't suggest a lot of spread sets. I'll look at some NFL.com highlights today; I was without power until late in the second half of that game.
Interested as well.
