BigEZcajin
Saints Lifer
- Joined
- Jun 17, 2002
- Messages
- 650
- Reaction score
- 911
- Age
- 41
Offline
With the Giants taking measurable hits on defense, the announcement of Brett Farve retiring, Chicago losing both their receivers and having virtually no offense, and the rest of the competing NFC teams not improving their teams enough to make a noticable difference, I think we gained major ground with what we were able to accomplish so far this offseason.
The only loss of significance is Jeff Faine to TB (who blatanly overpaid for him). We have signed all contributing forces to keep our team in tact. We have only bolstered our Defense with the signings of Vilma, Gay, and McCrary, not to mention what we do in the draft (which all indications point to addressing Defense with our top picks).
If we can land a TE like Troupe to help us convert those 3rd and longs and not rely on Colston to make that catch up the middle, or that 8 yard hitch we have been accustomed to seeing, we can keep our offense on the field and not rely on creating turnovers (which didn't happen last year or in '06) and basically play the "let's outscore them" game the Patriots played in '07 in a weak NFC. It's when we fall behind by 14 points midway through the first quarter, develop no rythm on offense, and play catch up until we start coughing up the ball is when, in my opinion, things started to fall apart for us last year.
The defense has not improved, and will not improve, enough for us to stop the deep ball. We are going to give up our fair share. We aren't going to create enough turnovers either. But we are forgetting that we have the best offense in the NFC (maybe second best to Dallas), and a solid run defense. All of our major competition in the NFC didn't improve like we did (and the aforementioned got worse). Dallas is the team to beat--and for some reason I just feel like we match up well with them and have their number.
Last year just wasn't our year, and to be honest, we would have never been able to get Brady off the field if we somehow made it to the big game anyway. I am thinking the stars are aligning for us this year. The FO has done its part. Now its time for everyone on the team to step up their game (namely Bush, Grant, David to name a few), get off to a quick start, stay healthy, and rely on newcomers like Vilma and McCrary to create enough disruption on defense to get the ball back to the strength of our team, its offense.
My gut feeling is that they will, and we are going to have a very enjoyable and emotional ride to the Super Bowl in '08.
The only loss of significance is Jeff Faine to TB (who blatanly overpaid for him). We have signed all contributing forces to keep our team in tact. We have only bolstered our Defense with the signings of Vilma, Gay, and McCrary, not to mention what we do in the draft (which all indications point to addressing Defense with our top picks).
If we can land a TE like Troupe to help us convert those 3rd and longs and not rely on Colston to make that catch up the middle, or that 8 yard hitch we have been accustomed to seeing, we can keep our offense on the field and not rely on creating turnovers (which didn't happen last year or in '06) and basically play the "let's outscore them" game the Patriots played in '07 in a weak NFC. It's when we fall behind by 14 points midway through the first quarter, develop no rythm on offense, and play catch up until we start coughing up the ball is when, in my opinion, things started to fall apart for us last year.
The defense has not improved, and will not improve, enough for us to stop the deep ball. We are going to give up our fair share. We aren't going to create enough turnovers either. But we are forgetting that we have the best offense in the NFC (maybe second best to Dallas), and a solid run defense. All of our major competition in the NFC didn't improve like we did (and the aforementioned got worse). Dallas is the team to beat--and for some reason I just feel like we match up well with them and have their number.
Last year just wasn't our year, and to be honest, we would have never been able to get Brady off the field if we somehow made it to the big game anyway. I am thinking the stars are aligning for us this year. The FO has done its part. Now its time for everyone on the team to step up their game (namely Bush, Grant, David to name a few), get off to a quick start, stay healthy, and rely on newcomers like Vilma and McCrary to create enough disruption on defense to get the ball back to the strength of our team, its offense.
My gut feeling is that they will, and we are going to have a very enjoyable and emotional ride to the Super Bowl in '08.
