the VG board football thread

The Mongoose said
I think Bushrod has a hurt ankle. He looks totally gimpy out there. I remember seeing it happen a couple games ago, watching him limp off the field.

So while the o-line has been bad all year, having a gimpy Bushrod (who can barely hang on when he's healthy) doesn't help.

I don't know what's wrong with Stinch. He looks slower. Maybe age?

Jahri got paid. There's less intensity with him.

Goodwin just let Babineaux through last night on that pick six. Just a lack of effort.

Haven't noticed Nicks messing up much.

Those guys just all seem fatter, slower, and lazier this year. Maybe they can gear it up for a playoff run or something.

I think a big factor is that our scheme doesn't help them as much this year. The playaction pass with a pulling guard doesn't fool as many people this year, since we did it all last year. It's our big-play look. And teams are looking for it.

As for Reggie, I dunno. I'm rooting for the dude. Last night seemed like a perfect time to use him to counter the blitz. When people blitz us, it should be a simple matter of dumping it to Reggie in stride behind the blitz and making them pay for sending rushers. We did it once last night for a 4 yard gain, easy peasy.

I don't know why we didn't do it more. He's simply not featured in the game plan. Which might be a good thing, I dunno. Can't figure it out. The dude should be better than what he is.

Part of it is that they had to keep Bush in the backfield to pick up the blitz. The o-line was so pourous that they couldn't afford to leave Brees without a back to protect him unless they really spead out the formation and Bush is excellent at blitz pickups.

That being said, Bush got at least two nice passes with space to work. On one, he ran out of bounds when it looked like he could have gotten a few more yards by turning up field. On the other one, at aroudn the 10, he would have scored if he just turned up field, but instead, he tried to run parallel to the line so he could cut the corner and then either turn up near the boundray or go out of bounds. But, instead of being able to run all the way accross the field Thomas DeCou caught him from behind. I like Reggie and he does a good job on blitz pickups and is good at getting the 4 or five yard pass that gets you to 3rd and 5 instead of 3rd and 10, but he just isn't making any plays this year and he hasn't made enough in the past. I think he has tremendous talent, but he just doesn have the instincts to make the proper cuts to make big plays.