the VG board football thread

I disagree - I think the whole "sky is falling" attitude about the defense is way overblown. I also don't understand why opponents can't find some success against us without our fans going into meltdown. There are, after all, 31 other professional teams in the league with professional caliber players. The Raiders team we played last night went 8-8 last year, had the best rushing offense in the league (and I don't care if McFadden was out - they can still block), and is on the upswing. We held them to 20 points and doubled their score.

The tackles have been getting decent push, but the ends have lost contain at times. Overall, I think the truly vanilla scheme is holding this defense back. I'm not even sure they're shifting their gaps at times. I think they came out of the gate so hard against SF, that they just decided to dial it down and let the position battles play out.

I also don't quite understand the Shanle hate. He is a smart player who just loses on ability from time to time. Better than a Mark Fields-type missile that finds himself out of position every play. I'm glad we don't have a team full of Shanles, but if that's our biggest problem (and I don't know that that's true) we're doing OK. I wouldn't mind an upgrade at that position, but I'm surprised (OK, not really) at the crying about it.

I kind of agree about the backup safeties. Amaya made a couple of plays, but I don't think he is the answer. That position seems to be a holding tank for special teams players. I still don't know whether the team is planning on bringing back Sharper, but I would like to see him in that group, for sure. Jenkins and Harper is a pretty good combination, but there's not much behind them.

Green Bay is going to be a test, for sure, but too many people are writing that game off already. In 2009, we came out of the gate hard. With all of Williams' toys he has to play with this year, I expect the same. GB is going to be a battle.