Its Gotta Be..

[hurrykaine]

I think its a mixture of strategy and poor offensive line play. When you block with 8, you only have 2 receivers amidst a multitude of DBs and they have no shot. Blocking with 8 during a blitz is fine, but then you gotta make 'em pay - Brunell does this sometimes (e.g., on his 4th down completion to Coles yesterday), but not consistently enough. Our 7-8 blockers sometimes had problems against the front 4 of Cleveland, and they didn't even blitz much - that's a waste of manpower.

The O-line didn't give up any sacks, but they're not moving the opposing D-line enough to create holes for Portis or passing lanes for Brunell. Portis needs to pick up his game...he was looking dazed sitting on the sidelines at one point - he will have to be key in the Bmore game if we expect to win.

I've thrown in the towel this season as far as playoff expectations are concerned. I hope they use the season to get the offense more smooth, turnover free, and figure out the right QB to run the offense. Brunell was ok yesterday, and can't be held responsible for our TOs, but we need him to be better than just ok. The defense will be fine.

IMHO, the key is to keep the team intact for next year....I do believe we will see things start to turn positive in the second half of the season. Still, I shudder to think what will happen when we play in Philly & Dallas.