the VG board football thread

The Mongoose said

There's a hard to identify vibe about the offense that feels a lot like 2010 as opposed to 09.

I know it's preseason, yadda yadda yadda. No time to panic or anything. But the timing seems off.

Even in 2010, our offense put up numbers. But they weren't the cold ruthless killers they were in 09. It always felt forced. These two preseason games have felt the same way.

I hope they sort it out. A strong running game will make them look tons better than last year. Truth is though, I wish they already looked sharp as a blade, like the Patriots currently do. Still time to get there.

It's just that 2010 was disturbing. They never hit that rhythm. And this looks the same.

Click to expand...

I actually think the first team offense had that rhythm tonight or at least was close to it. If not for Brees inexplicably holding the ball out to be knocked away, it would have been 14-14 in the ones vs. ones. Obviously you can't take that away, but what I saw was holes for the running backs to run through and a deep passing game. Both were missing last year and tonight it looked like they were starting to build to that critical mass they had in 09. Will they ever be that good again? Maybe, but they won't be the same team that could go deep 5 times a game. Teams just won't let us do that anymore. So, Payton has brought in Ingram to give us the power running game that will force the safeties up so we can get the ball deep again. We aren't there yet, but I saw signs of it starting tonight.

As far as the defense, the truth is that outside of Malcom Jenkins, Greer, Porter, Vilma and maybe Robinson, we aren't that talented. ( Who knows about Franklin and Rogers in this system). So, when we don't scheme and we don't blitz, they are going to look like crap. Yes, the bad tackling and lack of effort on D is a concern, but that seems to happen over and over again in preseason.