Things to watch tonight

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by steveo395

it can't mean that much that we have the number 2 offense...the raiders have the number 1 defense and their defense is gonna blow

The reason we have the #2 offense is because Gibbs has placed a strong emphasis on evaluating the passing game. He has called way more pass plays than he normally would throughout a regular season game. Ramsey, Brunell, and Campbell have all been asked to air it out so Gibbs can evaluate what he has in the passing game.

The underlying key point there though, is that Gibbs feels that the running game is good to go and doesn't need a ton of evaluation, otherwise he'd crank it up a bit. He didn't use Portis hardly at all until the Steelers game, and he didn't really run Betts a whole lot either. He wanted to evaluate the running game a bit vs the Steelers, and the O-line and Portis showed what they can do. Once Gibbs saw it was kicking butt, he put the running game back in his pocket, and decided to work more on the passing game.

You can't take much from the fact that we're the #2 offense. But you can take a couple things:

1) Gibbs is confident in the running game.
2) The running game worked against one of the toughest run Ds in the league.
3) Gibbs still figures to lean on the running game, a phase of the game carrying a lot less risk of turnovers.

The fact that we've been airing it out so much is no indication of what we're planning on doing in the season. It's a setup. Gibbs is making the rest of the league realize that we're not afraid to throw on you anymore. So when they keep safeties out of the box, here comes Clinton Portis. I guarantee that's what he's thinking.

After all, how do you win football games in the NFL?
- Run the ball, and stop the run.
- Take care of the football.

The #1 thing I'm taking out of this preseason is that we can run, and we can stop the run. The only question is can we take care of the ball.