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calia · 10-21-2013, 05:35 PM

While at 2-4 there's a lot of disappointment to go around, I tend to think that recent trends on offense AND defense are pretty strong (special teams, now that's a widly different story).

Right now, we're yielding up 389 yards a game -- 24th in the league. Yesterday, we gave up 359 yards, and the last two weeks (against the Raiders and against the Cowboys, we did much better). After giving up a zillion yards in the first 3 weeks, our D has improved a good deal. To put it in perspective, if we dropped the average to 359 yards (yeterday's total), we'd be at 18th in the league. While that still isn't anything to brag about, given where we started at two games at about 500 yards, it is real improvement.

And our offense has generated the 4th most yards per game. Yeah, yeah -- I hear folks about the garbage time yards, but yards are yards, and we put up 45 on Chicago. Anytime you put up 45 points on any team in the NFL, you're doing something right.

What has killed us the last few weeks are turnovers and special teams. Special teams has been a killer -- 3 TDs in two weeks. Ugh. That's appalling. And it isn't as though our special teams has generated points; indeed, the most notable thing our teams has done is get a kick blocked by the Raiders. And the turnovers have killed us. We basically gave up a TD to Dallas with one; Chicago scored within 3 plays of the bad pick from RGIII. If, and that is a big if, we clean that up somehow, I think the D is playing well enough -- and the offense is surely playing well enough -- that we can and should rattle off a number of wins from here out. Other than SF, Denver, and the Chiefs, are we really afraid of any other team on our schedule? If we can go the rest of the season losing only to those 3 teams, we will finish 9-7 and that is likely to be enough to win the NFC East.

But we should take this one win at a time. Next up, the Broncos. Let's get after Peyton. The Colts showed how that can work.

10-21-2013, 05:35 PM	#189
calia Playmaker Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: Woodside, CA Age: 58 Posts: 4,023	Re: Skins vs Bears postgame While at 2-4 there's a lot of disappointment to go around, I tend to think that recent trends on offense AND defense are pretty strong (special teams, now that's a widly different story). Right now, we're yielding up 389 yards a game -- 24th in the league. Yesterday, we gave up 359 yards, and the last two weeks (against the Raiders and against the Cowboys, we did much better). After giving up a zillion yards in the first 3 weeks, our D has improved a good deal. To put it in perspective, if we dropped the average to 359 yards (yeterday's total), we'd be at 18th in the league. While that still isn't anything to brag about, given where we started at two games at about 500 yards, it is real improvement. And our offense has generated the 4th most yards per game. Yeah, yeah -- I hear folks about the garbage time yards, but yards are yards, and we put up 45 on Chicago. Anytime you put up 45 points on any team in the NFL, you're doing something right. What has killed us the last few weeks are turnovers and special teams. Special teams has been a killer -- 3 TDs in two weeks. Ugh. That's appalling. And it isn't as though our special teams has generated points; indeed, the most notable thing our teams has done is get a kick blocked by the Raiders. And the turnovers have killed us. We basically gave up a TD to Dallas with one; Chicago scored within 3 plays of the bad pick from RGIII. If, and that is a big if, we clean that up somehow, I think the D is playing well enough -- and the offense is surely playing well enough -- that we can and should rattle off a number of wins from here out. Other than SF, Denver, and the Chiefs, are we really afraid of any other team on our schedule? If we can go the rest of the season losing only to those 3 teams, we will finish 9-7 and that is likely to be enough to win the NFC East. But we should take this one win at a time. Next up, the Broncos. Let's get after Peyton. The Colts showed how that can work.