Bye Week Adjustments? One That Stevie Wonder Can See For Sure

[Guest]

@greediron said:
Interesting that Kearse was the defender to end the game the last two weeks.

Did Kearse really do much that last play?

It looked like Allen put too much on that ball and it simply bounced off of Fant's helmet. Not sure Kearse did much but hold on to the jersey.

Either way, I'll take it and run to the bye week with a win vs stewing on a loss for 2 weeks before playing @ Seattle. 

[Guest]

@purplefaithful said:

@greediron said:
Interesting that Kearse was the defender to end the game the last two weeks.

Did Kearse really do much that last play?

It looked like Allen put too much on that ball and it simply bounced off of Fant's helmet. Not sure Kearse did much but hold on to the jersey.

Either way, I'll take it and run to the bye week with a win vs stewing on a loss for 2 weeks before playing @ Seattle. 

He had tight coverage and Fant gave him a big shove.  That is why his hands weren't up to catch the pass.  Kearse grabbed the jersey to keep from getting pushed away.  Love that he threw Fant down at the end.

[Guest]

@greediron said:

@purplefaithful said:

@greediron said:
Interesting that Kearse was the defender to end the game the last two weeks.

Did Kearse really do much that last play?

It looked like Allen put too much on that ball and it simply bounced off of Fant's helmet. Not sure Kearse did much but hold on to the jersey.

Either way, I'll take it and run to the bye week with a win vs stewing on a loss for 2 weeks before playing @ Seattle. 

He had tight coverage and Fant gave him a big shove.  That is why his hands weren't up to catch the pass.  Kearse grabbed the jersey to keep from getting pushed away.  Love that he threw Fant down at the end.

That's what I saw and was afraid the refs were going to throw a flag and call Kearse for holding the jersey and ignore the push.  They did the right thing  and kept their yellow hankys in their pocket.

[Guest]

I agree, Kearse needs to be a regular on defense, never understood how Harris got the safety spot ahead of him, not even close to the same level of talent.  Need to start working in Hill.  I know Hughes got a late start this year, but he sure doesn't seem to be the answer.  We do not have one DB other than Kearse that I feel good about or would give a big contract.  

[Guest]

Zimmer has been pretty poor coming out of byes. It seems like he tries to play each team with the same system and game plan. Like he thinks his system is superior enough to beat everybody instead of tailoring the game plan to attack each individual opponents weaknesses.
Maybe he's handcuffed with a lack of defensive talent.
Cousins finally plays better and the Vikings suddenly have no defense. It's maddening for Vikings fans.
I cringe to think what is going to happen up in Seattle.

[Guest]

@JR44 said:
I agree, Kearse needs to be a regular on defense, never understood how Harris got the safety spot ahead of him, not even close to the same level of talent.  Need to start working in Hill.  I know Hughes got a late start this year, but he sure doesn't seem to be the answer.  We do not have one DB other than Kearse that I feel good about or would give a big contract.  

I think Harris is much better in coverage.  Kearse is more like a slendee LB.  And it seems to me that Hughes is playing well.  Like the Dallas game, they hit some pretty incredible throws 

The deep ones over Rhodes and Waynes were well played.

[Guest]

I have major concerns about the defense. It's clear that they are a step down from recent years, but what's less clear is why they have struggled so much. Certain things are continuations of longer trends like Rhodes struggling or the defense playing poorly against inexperienced mobile QBs. However, there are other things like teams having too long to throw, other CBs like Hughes and Waynes struggling, and poor interior pressure from our DTs that are bigger concerns for me. The really frustrating thing is how often our CBs seem to get beat in tight coverage. They can't make every play, but the fact that they let Courtland Sutton look Julio Jones is embarrassing. I'm not sure what the fix on that is, but until the corners start playing better, I have a hard time seeing this as a championship level D.

One issue that I'd love to see fixed is to bring in a dedicated returner. Unfortunately, Sherels is on the Dolphins, but it's pretty clear that neither Abdullah nor Hughes are cutting it. Abdullah lost a fumble on a kick off, only to be bailed out by Sendejo of all people. Even when he does return it, he never seems to get back to the 25. Then you have Hughes, who was an explosive returner in college, but has had major issues safely fielding punts, muffing two punts today and those are not outliers. At this point, I'd rather fair catch every punt and take a knee in the endzone on every kickoff than risk letting Abdullah or Hughes try to return a kick. Sadly, I don't expect anything to change here, but I think we're seeing how fortunate we were to have a reliable punt returner in Sherels for so many years.

[Guest]

Kearse isn't a regular on D for a reason. He's a valuable backup.

[Guest]

@StickyBun said:
Kearse isn't a regular on D for a reason. He's a valuable backup.

Kearse isn't starting because he is in Zimmers dog house. I'm not even sure Zimmer knows where to play him.

[Guest]

@Norse said:

@StickyBun said:
Kearse isn't a regular on D for a reason. He's a valuable backup.

Kearse isn't starting because he is in Zimmers dog house. I'm not even sure Zimmer knows where to play him.

He's in Zimmer's D-house because of the deal with the police, but before that he still wasn't starting. You've got Smith and Harris in front of him. To your point, he's a hybrid something-or-other. He's long and that helps in red zone coverage on D.