First Half Grades

Nice posts, LSSpam.

My not-so-insightful comments:

Good insights on the O-line performance. And while giving all due credit to the players, implicit in your analysis is that our coaches seem to be putting the players in a position where they have the best chance of success.

I also share your concerns about our corners being exposed at some point. I think they are better than a lot of people give them credit for. (Oh yeah, you forgot to grade Turf, which had a great game on monday night and somehow allowed our corners to smother Atlanta's receivers.) Neither of them is as good as Chris McCalister, but they play hard and I believe they perform reasonably well with consistent pressure from the front four. IMO, the yearly gripe of "our corners suck" sort of assumes that good corners can compensate for a crappy pass rush, and that "shut down" corners are available in every draft. Of the 32 teams in the NFL, there is one legitimate "shut down" corner on any of them, and he plays for Denver.

In a way, our offense is really our best defense. Control the ball, sustain long drives, dominate time of possession. This has 2 obvious advantages, which is keep the opposing offense off the field and your own defense fresh. When our offense is efficient and doesn't turn the ball over, our D typically plays well enough to give us a chance to win in the fourth quarter.

Again, nice analysis. Thanks.