Well, offensively I was close. This did not at any point feel like a "get right" game and I am flumoxxed that we needed to have Tyrod Taylor and 2/3 of the Texans receiver corp drop out of the game from injury to put any separation between us and them. Could certainly be that the rumors of the Texans' demise were a bit premature -- certainly their coaching staff is doing an excellent job -- but this is still a team who's fighting for third place in the division which includes a winless Jacksonville berfet of talent and a winless Indianpolis who's starting the 47th best QB in the NFL. The offense did what they were supposed to do. Scary moment to see Baker stumbling around after a botched tackle attempt with his left arm hanging there out of socket. The rookie (Schwartz) was looking for the defender, not the ball, and even went so far as to stop his route to avoid contact. That is not a good sign. In other rookie news: Demetric Felton is a player, fantastic first NFL reception by that guy! Offensive line, specifically Jack Conklin, had a day to forget and hopefully that was an anomally. The defense? Well... outside of Grant Delpit, did they even show up? I was patient in 2020 with Woods' scheme because we knew he didn't have the players. Yes, the decision to give 100% of snaps of Sendejo was mind-boggling as he was *at best* a stop-gap, but nevertheless... he got a pass. Week 1, sure... that's the Kanas City Chiefs. Woods gets a pass -- plus he's starting a bunch of new bodies. But against Davis Mills and the Houston Texans... and the output looks like what we did yesterday? Now I'm starting to wonder. I'm at least going to buy the domain name: https://www.firejoewoods.org/ and hold it for safekeeping. He's got through Q1 (two more games) to right that ship before we activate the site and go live with calls for his removal. Overall, I felt better after a loss to Kansas City than I did after a win against Houston. And suddenly, Chicago doesn't appear to be a slouch, either. Fields struggled but expected when taking a field after the starter goes down to injury and having received no practice snaps. I guess we're still waiting to see who gets the nod - Dalton or Fields - but next week is sure to be another tightly-contested one until this defense figures out what a tight end or third down is.
Maybe it's something in the air, because I swear the Buckeyes are having the exact same problems on defense. What is going on with just letting TE's roam free??
Gotta agree SAS, the D is not showing up. Couple bright spots: Delpit "played" .... and played well, Newsome played well. On the other side of the ledger: where was Garret? JJ, and Ward had some of the worst ratings among their peers ????? Joe Woods has to take the heat. He's got talent now, but we still can't get off the field. He seems to be scheming "contain not attack", but he has the personnel to be a lot more aggressive IMO. Stefanski will never publicly question Woods, but he's no fool, and this can't continue. Let's hope he's in his ear "suggesting another approach".
I didn't see what his rating ended up at, but I believe Ward was a perfect 100% on completions when targeted which is wholly unacceptable for a Top 4 pick playing for a contract extension. I said it after the Newsome pick, but I think Greg's addition was less about insurance against Greedy and more insurance for Ward.
