Let's give it up for Mr. O'Neill

[StickyBun]

https://twitter.com/WillRagatz/status/15...4608849923

[Guest]

OK, so O'Neill is great. Darrisaw has been great. Cleveland's been good. Bradbury's having his best season ever. Ingram has been beaten a few times, but he's probably the best RG we've had in years.

So what gives? Why do we still keep seeing so much pressure? Is it just my imagination? I suspect it's coming mostly from blitz packages, having just played two of the blitz-happiest teams in the NFL.

Cousins also ranks bottom ten against the blitz, so until we can pick it up consistently, or make teams pay for doing it, we'll continue to see it. I think this probably has a lot to do with why we rank so poorly on 3rd down, but lead the NFL on 1st down. Teams rarely blitz on 1st down. 

[Guest]

@"MaroonBells" said:
OK, so O'Neill is great. Darrisaw has been great. Cleveland's been good. Bradbury's having his best season ever. Ingram has been beaten a few times, but he's probably the best RG we've had in years.

So what gives? Why do we still keep seeing so much pressure? Is it just my imagination? I suspect it's coming mostly from blitz packages, having just played two of the blitz-happiest teams in the NFL.

Cousins also ranks bottom ten against the blitz, so until we can pick it up consistently, or make teams pay for doing it, we'll continue to see it. I think this probably has a lot to do with why we rank so poorly on 3rd down, but lead the NFL on 1st down. Teams rarely blitz on 1st down. 

2 things, IMO. Yep, teams are blitzing. Its the only way they've been getting pressure. Kirk will make them pay soon once the offensive skill players settle down and get the hot read offense better. Secondly, yep its a bit of our imagination. As fans, we are very harsh on the team play to play. A too close to the forest to see the trees thing. I'm guilty of it as well. The Eagles game there was pressure.

[Guest]

At the 1/4 way mark, it will be interesting to compare OL stats for this year vs previous...

I think there's a lot fewer sacks to-date, but that could be my imagination too.