Quote:
Originally Posted by CRedskinsRule
For whatever reason, our D ALWAYS starts slow, but it is rare that the D doesn't "get it". One or two big plays don't make or break a game, and I also remember Moss running free in their secondary. The game is 60 minutes, last week, we played 60 minutes for the first time in a long time. If we do that tomorrow, I firmly believe we will win.
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If Orton had hit the open Royal in the second quarter though, the improvement in the second half wouldn't have mattered. It's one thing to bench Rogers for blowing a man coverage responsibility, but once Hall and Kareem Moore both made the same mistake, I think it's too far into the season to write it off as early game jitters.
Part of me wants to think that once the secondary adjusts to actually having a reliable pass rush, their play will improve, but I've been concerned about this group since the preseason, and I'm worried that facing a lot of simplistic passing games has really masked major deficiencies.
I think our D has been average going back to the start of last year, but I get the feeling that we're not going to stay average anymore. Either the strength of our pass rush propels the defense back towards the top of the league, and we make a playoff push in the second half, or a thinning secondary forces us into more basic coverages, and teams with vertical threats absolutely expose us.
I'm willing to bet that we take away Dallas' run game and either make Romo look really, really terrible, or he has a record day against our secondary if he doesn't. And, well, it's getting closer to December, so perhaps we have that going for us.