Week 11 AMA: Rizzler Ball

Rouxble said

You have said that consistently, and the evidence has definitely been there these last few weeks. Could we even win these last two games without him?

And one other question—while the defense appears to be playing better, the results are still not great (900+ yards given up these last two weeks). What does this team need to do to not depend on missed field goals and other errors to stay in games?

Congrats on the new job, and good luck.

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There's still issues with pressure. While they got to the QB a few times last game, the pressure wasn't great considering the sheer number of drop backs (going off of memory/film, I didn't take notes or check stats). There's also still the chunk and explosive plays and general leaky yardage on certain drives.

What stands out is the defense playing better situational ball. I kind of put weeks 5-9 in a different bucket than weeks 1-4 and 10-11. The week 3 and week 4 losses were really an abject defensive failure when it came to situational football (you could actually throw week 9 into that group too). Tons of 3rd down conversions and the defense committing penalties and blowing coverages late on game-clenching drives.

Right now there seems to be a bit more resilience. That shows up on 3rd down, in the red zone, late in games, etc. I don't think they're gonna be able to shore up the pressure (other than bringing more guys) in the next few weeks, but if they can keep winning the situational battle, there's a chance ot keep things on track (i.e. winning games).