Quote:
Originally Posted by 70Chip
I agree with this. Against Pittsburgh, for example, our defense forced two TOs early on which gave the offense the ball at or inside the 50. What did the offense do? They had to settle for FGs. I don't care how dominant a defense is, you need an offense that is capable of scoring more than 10 points. After the midway point of the season 10 points a game was about all our offense could muster.
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Truth is though, if not for that blocked punt (a unit that sucked all year), we probably win or are at least in the game in the second half.
BHA pointed this out in another thread, but the general lethargy of the offense in the first quarter when game strategy is fairly neutral was terrible all season long. We always performed better later in the game than we did earlier in it, but whereas a healthy offensive unit led comebacks against New Orleans and Philadelphia (two very good teams), they failed to come back against the St. Louis', Pittsburgh's, Baltimore's, and Cincinnati's of the world.
There was a pretty clear line between the aptitude of this team in the second half of games drawn in the sand between Weeks 5 & 6, and then again between Weeks 14 & 15. What two events occurred during those two weeks?
1) In Week 5, Chris Samuels hurt his knee and was less effective from that point out the rest of the year.
2) In Week 14, Samuels tore his labrum and missed the rest of the year.
The season-long issue with sustaining offense was a receivers issue. But the ability that the team had early on in the year to put teams away and not turn the ball over appeared to be a line-based issue. As the line decline, those dominant fourth quarters turned to mediocre performances in losing efforts as we chased points against the best defenses in the league.
Bottom line: If we want a great offense, we need to rebuild the OL and have the Receivers develop. If we want to win close games, simply one or the other will suffice.