Hollis Thomas in 2007 (1 Viewer)

[northerng]

Peytonknows, that is one of the first things that stood out to me while watching the game live. I made a couple comments in the game day threat regarding Hollis coming in and the run stopping. I have also made a couple comments about Hollis eating his fat contract.

The reason I am mad is not because he is so fat he can't play but because he came in so overweight that it is taking away from the team because he is not on the field nearly as much as he normally would be. The guy has an obligation to the coaches, front office, fans and the other 52 men on the roster to show up in to camp in top form. He did not and still is not at his playing weight.

You hit the nail on the head. I don't care if he played good. Because of his total lack of consideration for his teammates (demonstrated by showing up to camp as a blimp), he's only able to play a small portion of the defensive plays. Guys like that are the antithesis of the "team" concept.

 

[natedog]

When did Thomas finally get into the game,I recall seeing him in starting the 3rd quater.I can't figure out why they use Clancy as a NT, 2 gap type player.........He looks small on the T.V screen.

 

[State Of Affairs]

I agree. I only saw it live once (plenty for me, thank you), but I saw Hollis in on many plays. Besides actually making the tackle several times, he also clogged the middle a lot, only to have Shanle and Simoneau miss Addai coming through the gap. Hollis and Fujita played well. Will Smith played well, just too aggressively, often blowing right by the play in his efforts to school Ugoh (I put this to smart offensive planning on the Colts' part). It's bizarre, because in truth, he outplayed Ugoh, yet at the end of the game, it appears that Ugoh got the better of him (really it was the Colts coaching staff that got the better of him) because of his lack of actual tackles and sacks. Despite slamming Peyton to the ground several times, he was always just too late to land the sack.

On offense, EJ had himself a great game. He blocked well, caught the ball well, and fought like mad for everything. He's not going to make tons of yards after the catch, but he's going to grab a lot of passes for needed yards. Can't say much for anyone else, but I think Deuce would have been a much larger factor had Coach Payton stuck to ramming him up the middle in the second half of the game. I know several have decried the O line's blocking, but I believe the staff gave up way too early on the old "pound 'em 'til they're dust" plan.

There's a great post on this board to shows that we did run the ball, it just didn't work. Review the game info and see that we ran ourselves into third and long all day and didn't convert.

 

[bclemms]

There's a great post on this board to shows that we did run the ball, it just didn't work. Review the game info and see that we ran ourselves into third and long all day and didn't convert.

We ran a bit more than usual in the first half, I'm not arguing that. We were balanced.

You can't just run the ball against the Colts and expect it to work. You have to run a certain way and have to stick with it and wear that team down. You have to pound them between the tackles and do it with running plays that get the back moving downhill quickly. We did not do that. Not only did we completely abandon the run in the second half but when we ran in the first half it was counters, traps and runs to the edges. We ran Deuce a total of 4 times up the gut in the first half and twice up the gut in the 2nd half. After that the runs were all slow developing runs or designed outside runs.

Here is the name of the QB's that beat the Colts last year.
David Carr
Vince Young
David Garrard
Tony Romo
and JP Losman came very close.

 

[meily]

i'm gonna have to agree with you on this, I made a post about the game also and in it I said that Hollis needs to be starting and Simmons needs to be spelling Simoneau more so he can eventually take his spot, Simoneau has no impact at the point of attack, he gets engulfed by his first blocker and thats it, when the play is by him thats when he can pursue (cause thats when the guy stops blocking him) Hollis plugged the middle, is athletic enough to get around his first initial block, I think we will see more of both (Hollis, Simmons) next week vs tampa.

 

[Domeination]

How many of us said after the Chicago game that on D we need 3 things: a young, big, talented nose tackle who could eventually take over for Hollis; a hoss at MLB; and a bonafide starting RCB. We also said the downfall of the Bears game was not running Deuce enough behind Karney. Football isn't rocket science, after all. Well, here we are at the beginning of the 2007 season, and what have we done? We addressed the 3 big defensive needs with re-tread free agents, two of whom we picked up almost by default (b/c Indy and the Cardinals didn't want David and Clancy). Now, I think picking up Clancy was a smart move because at that time we were thin at DT, and he's a serviceable backup whom we didn't have to give up a draft pick for. But we still don't have the heir apparent to Hollis, Simmons has hardly seen the field, and David is a work in progress. (We have to hope he progresses.) To add insult to injury, Payton made the same mistake against the Cover 2 he made in Chicago by not consistently pounding Deuce behind Karney in Indy. I'm trying to tell myself it's just one game; things will get better; we'll rebound; Payton proved what a good coach he was last year; we have team leaders like Drew and Deuce who won't let this team give up. I just have to believe.

 

[OldTimeGamer1966]

How many of us said after the Chicago game that on D we need 3 things: a young, big, talented nose tackle who could eventually take over for Hollis; a hoss at MLB; and a bonafide starting RCB. We also said the downfall of the Bears game was not running Deuce enough behind Karney. Football isn't rocket science, after all. Well, here we are at the beginning of the 2007 season, and what have we done? We addressed the 3 big defensive needs with re-tread free agents, two of whom we picked up almost by default (b/c Indy and the Cardinals didn't want David and Clancy). Now, I think picking up Clancy was a smart move because at that time we were thin at DT, and he's a serviceable backup whom we didn't have to give up a draft pick for. But we still don't have the heir apparent to Hollis, Simmons has hardly seen the field, and David is a work in progress. (We have to hope he progresses.) To add insult to injury, Payton made the same mistake against the Cover 2 he made in Chicago by not consistently pounding Deuce behind Karney in Indy. I'm trying to tell myself it's just one game; things will get better; we'll rebound; Payton proved what a good coach he was last year; we have team leaders like Drew and Deuce who won't let this team give up. I just have to believe.

I agree with you and the many other people that have stated this. We have Deuce for a reason we need to use him. Also the rams used Marshall falk even with Martz who is like Payton or vica versa and Falk is not even the battering ram DM is. Where the Rams fell from grace or really when was when Martz didn't use Falk enough. I have faith Payton will correct this but i also thought he would have learned from the Bears game. Third times a charm we hope.

 

[MrVoodoo]

I, personally, feel that HT did a great job in the game but their line did an outstanding job in run protection as well. There are basically 3 areas of concern that I had during the game.

1. 3-tech. It seemed like our NTs were doing really well at drawing in double teams, but our 3-techs could never make anything happen.

2. Mark Simoneau - I made the comment during the game that it seemed as if just as soon as Peyton snapped the ball Mark would disappear from the defensive side of the ball.

3. Scott Shanle - He couldn't cover last night and was having a very difficult time shedding blocks to get to any tackles. Scott Fujita was the bright spot on our LB corps last year and remains that way this year.

I still don't find myself too concerned with Jason David or the secondary. They seemed to always be having to make up for the ineffeciencies at Linebacker and that covering other people's backsides is what led to their giving up the plays... not everytime but it felt watching it that if we had 2 better LBs in the game we could have been able to focus more on covering the receivers than covering the receivers and the running backs.

 

[Saint Droopy]

I was one of the guys that got flames last year after I said the same thing about Simeneau after 5 games...

 

[Speck Killer]

I think that since Payton has now been here a year we are gonna see if the man plays favorites or the best players. Everything I have seen about Payton tells me he does not care who you are individually and that he will put the best 11 on the field, but now we are really gonna see if that is true or not. Last year we had nothing to compare him to but now that a season in under the belt, we will see. I agree about the Simmoneau thing and remember until last year this dude was like 3rd string in Philly. I hope that Payton will not play favorites and do what is right for the team and get another linebacker in there pronto. If Simmons is too hurt then I understand but if not he needs to be in there.

 

[lasgo]

i couldnt agree with your statement more H thomas is a big part of our defense clancy isnt going to cut it

 

[Jay Foster]

I, personally, feel that HT did a great job in the game but their line did an outstanding job in run protection as well. There are basically 3 areas of concern that I had during the game.

1. 3-tech. It seemed like our NTs were doing really well at drawing in double teams, but our 3-techs could never make anything happen.

.

I asked a question in the thread I started about this. Here it is again:

Please tell me at what time in the game and what quarter that you saw Hollis Thomas draw a double team? If this happened all game by Thomas and our other nose tackles, can you explain why our LBs were getting run over by a freed up offensive linemen?

In other words, how is it that an offensive linemen that was supposedly doubling up on our NT was downfield blocking our LBs at the same time?

In fact, these questions would be for anyone in this thread that thinks our nose tackles did such a great job.

 

[Bespoke]

I asked a question in the thread I started about this. Here it is again:

Please tell me at what time in the game and what quarter that you saw Hollis Thomas draw a double team? If this happened all game by Thomas and our other nose tackles, can you explain why our LBs were getting run over by a freed up offensive linemen?

In other words, how is it that an offensive linemen that was supposedly doubling up on our NT was downfield blocking our LBs at the same time?

In fact, these questions would be for anyone in this thread that thinks our nose tackles did such a great job.

Zone blocking principles, 2 blockers double up on a down linemen and then 1 of them releases to the 2nd level to seal of a Lb.

 

[Jay Foster]

Zone blocking principles, 2 blockers double up on a down linemen and then 1 of them releases to the 2nd level to seal of a Lb.

Really? Then tell me at what time and what quarter that you saw that actually happen.

Since so many on this thread claim it happened all game, I'm quite sure we have many who can point out all the times and quarters where this happened.


And let me add: if that were the case, then we have two choices:

(a) might as well cut Hollis Thomas right now because he would be worthless the way we run our 4-3

(b) change the way we run our 4-3.

 

[Six Saint]

Buster Davis has been dropped by both Oakland and Arizona. why do you think he can do anything here. His attitude may be part of the problem, also. A good college linebacker is not always a good pro linebacker.

Agree about Hollis Thomas. One of the commentators, foget which one,on ESPN the other day said that the Saints defense is much better when Thomas and Young are in as opposed to Clancy and Lake. i agree. the pthet to should be used in relief only for a few plays.