gawd, when is this streak going to end guys? The sad part is watching the vikes game when the Lions was up 10-0 I was like wow, they are playing good. I think the Vikes had 4 or 5 three and outs in a row.
It's rough. Could we have beaten the Vikes with Culpepper at the helm? Who knows. We were 2 different teams from the first half to the second. I think we'll take Washington this week at home. Our running game looked strong against the best rush defense in the league the past three years. Having Manny Ramirez start at guard over Loper made a huge difference, and Pettigrew was locking down the edge every time. If we could eliminate blown assignments and penalties, we could handle the Redskins easily. Foote looked great last week and Delmas was laying the wood as well. We need to take away Cooley and Portis and we'll be fine.
Well you're defense looked pretty decent for part of the Minnesota game, so I think you have upset potential. Washington's offense has been terrible so far. They've only scored one offensive TD and that was at the end of the Giants game when NY was playing prevent D and the game was already out of reach. And now their starting guard is out for the season. BlazersBlood, what's been your opinion of Stafford so far? Below or above expectations? I remember you were in favour of drafting him back in June.
I know you didn't ask me, but I like Stafford. However, he is going to take awhile to adjust to the NFL. IIRC, he threw a lot of picks in college, and that has translated over so far. I think he'll be fine in the future, but I think his best bet was to sit out for a year and just learn the offense and then win the job next off-season. Culpepper's injury threw a wrench into those plans, though.
I never expected him to start off like Matt Ryan. The TEAM went 0-16 last year. Our only problem wasn't the QB. Matt doesn't have a strong defense to lean on, and he's a rookie. He split reps all preseason with Culpepper and hasn't gotten in sync with his receivers. On top of that, he's never had to read an NFL defense before (preseason doesn't count). He's still learning what he can and can't get away with. The growing pains are always painful. Right now you can tell the game is moving very fast for him. The chemistry just isn't there yet. I listened to a radio interview he did, and he gave an example of where it looked like he threw a ball low and at Calvin's feet. The radio DJs asked him about just "lobbing it up to CJ" and Matt said that he thought he'd cut in front of the CB, but CJ went behind. So when he threw the ball at the break, it looked like he pulled the ball and it was about 3 yards behind and short, when in actuality, it was just a misread between him and CJ. They'll work those kinks out eventually, and the only way to do that is to get PT. He either works it out now or later, and I'd prefer that he gets up to speed ASAP. So long story short, I guess my expectations were not that great to begin with because I knew that this team was a long ways away from being mediocre. I'm not ready to place the blame on Stafford yet. Yes he's played like crap, but that wasn't unexpected. The playcalling was better in the 2nd game, but it was almost too conservative. The running game looked much better against the Vikes. Our pass defense is still terrible. We've still got a lot of holes. I still believe in Stafford and his performance in the first 2 weeks have not swayed me at all. He has the tools and work ethic to make it in the league.
