lightsout

Those defenses operated differently than we did today. Snow LOVES sending pressure. We saw it that last series. We stacked up the line, put our safety in the box, and blitzed at least one linebacker. Every time. Why did it fail? Because you need odd fronts to have two things. A dominant nose that is immovable and requires double and triple teams and linebackers that can read and react quickly. Your ends have to be great two gap defenders. I love our DL, but that isn't what they do. They attack hard and squeeze poo down. They don't jam up the blocker and shed to either side effectively to dominant both gaps.

Let me just break down why Zeke ate us alive. It's not because we're bad. It's because our game plan was awful. We expected a throwing attack, they didn't give it to us much. We actually ran a lot of 5 man fronts, but they were shell fronts. We lined up with a nose and two guys lined up at 3tech, with our outside backers walked up on the line. They're boxing on the edge, but that means they're not fighting for inside control and they're not going to be able to squeeze the end man on the line down inside to take away the b/c gap. So you essentially put 3 on 3 inside, hat on a hat. And since they ran so much power and belly, they would just down block and pull the backside guard. This left us utterly out of position and with no bodies to get to the lane. It's easy blocking for Dallas. Same situation with zone schemes. Add in missed tackles/bad decisions by linebackers on angles and gaps to hit, we're looking at roughly 250 yards rushing and a one score game. Despite our OL, despite the refs, despite empty possessions and a turnover, we were within a score and 2 point conversion...if only we had ran more 4 man fronts and not made the run game so easily available.

Again, staying in odd fronts and blitzing when they're running the ball means you get gashed by the run. This is why they ran all over us. Literally only ran zone and power/belly all day. This is bad.

Darnold pressing because this OL can't block longer than 1.5 seconds, defense completely imploding because we are relying on penetration inside to help and it's not getting there. Corners flat out losing guys in coverage. Fix it for next week. I'll take 3-1. Just gotta fix our second half game. It's terrible.

And where the fug were in the first half when we were competing? Sit down, clown. You just wait until poo goes bad and talk about how bad we are.

Can we blame him with this OL being turnstiles?

Every big play they have had has been afforded to them via a complete no call that was clear as day to literally anybody watching.

Because they were criminally offsides.

Most blatant offsides you can have. No call. Like how the hell are these refs gonna get away with this?

This is why I hate odd fronts. Running lanes are too easy to open. If we don't answer here, you can take it to the house.

Yeah he didn't get smoked. He got beat by a step, it was a good route. If he doesn't step up on the first move, it's a wide open out route. That's about as good of coverage as you're gonna get. Perfect design and throw.

Hassan gets absolutely mugged, right by the ball carrier...and no call. fug. These. Refs. Seriously, I want a player or coach to eat the fine and drag the refs for this poo.

Odds are they're going back to Zeke heavy here. Step up defense. Time to earn the hype

Time to put this game into our own hands.

Huge stop. Defense bowing it's back.

Should've never got to this point because 1) that was a goddamn fumble. 2) that was a goddamn hold. 3) that was a goddamn push off. fug Dallas and the refs.

Yeah this is a fix and I'm not even mad about it. Cowboys not playing on primetime, can't have them lose to Carolina at home.

Blatant push is blatant.

I still remember in 2015 that we didn't really get respect until like, week 6 or 7. And even then it was slight until closer to week 10 when the media started really believing the Panthers were for real. We have a strong D and an offense of guys the casual non-panthers football fan doesn't know the names of outside of CMC and Darnold. We will play a good game. We're not getting destroyed. Whether we win or not hinges entirely on how well the defense plays. Offense will keep pace to a certain point I think.

Skoal is the Walmart brand of dip. Like, sure, it's not the worst and there are definitely worse options to be had, but my god why would you purposefully choose it over some of the other clearly better options that won't hit your wallet any harder?

Well TD came back from all of his injuries and had a pro bowl career, but I think that's more the exception than the rule. I'm hopeful for CMC as it was a non-contact injury but still, it's worrisome

Yeah the lingering is what worries me. I don't want an expensive and hobbled CMC.

I'll say this about CMC. I had a slightly torn labrum in college from a football injury. It still doesn't feel right sometimes, especially if I'm going heavy on overhead press or if my bench form falters. Granted the labrum doesn't self repair like a partially torn hammy will, but still. This has the potential to nag/reoccur with CMC going forward

I'm suspecting Horn is gonna be out 6-8 weeks. Possibly shorter, depending on severity. CMC is likely dependent on an MRI today. If it's not a full tear, and it doesn't appear to be, then I think he'll probably be out for anywhere from 3-8 weeks. Honestly, not even that worried about all this. I'm very zen-like about it. Maybe the 3-0 record has me optimistic but it just feels like we're gonna be fine.

With 888 yards, Sam Darnold has the 2nd most passing yards behind Kurt Warner among QBs that have started 3-0 all time. Kurt's number? 900 yards, I believe. This offense could be a recreation of the greatest show on turf.