How much of that is due to them being ahead in a majority of their games? Teams abandon the run to try and catch up. It certainly helps. They also only have 222 attempts against them thus far on the year. That's including today where the Rams logged 33 carries. They face 22 carries a game which includes QB's scrambling which will throw off the numbers a little if one wishes to truly get into the number of carries by running backs against this defense. The previous week against the Raiders they faced 15 rushes in total. 15 is insanely low. They matched that total against the Chargers. This team is built to play with a lead, not to go toe to toe with someone. They are not built for that style of play in my opinion. Their defense is certainly beatable, they lost Nate Irving as well and could not replace him in time for the game last week as that player was quasi on the roster with the Saints and their dirty dealings. Long story short their defense is not one I would fear. I would certainly respect it, but I wouldn't fear it as much as Detroit's; and we almost beat them.
Probably quite a bit. Going into this weekend, they had the fewest rushes against (189), so you're totally spot on. However, their 3.2 yards/carry also led the league, so they are also talented. They had allowed only 11 runs over ten yards all season (#1) and are particularly good at stuffing runs at or behind the LOS (12.4% of all rushes -fourth best in the NFL). It's not exactly the best match for us. We are a boom-or-bust running game, near the tops in the league in both big rushes and zero/negative rushes. Interestingly enough, the worst team in the NFL at stuffing the run is New England (4.9%), and it's a huge reason we match up so well against them.
Certainly aided heavily by teams abandoning the run to try to catch up to them with big leads. It's going to come down to Lazor's planning again. He needs to be at least as creative as he was against Buffalo...hopefully a little earlier.
We're currently 7 point dogs @ Denver. Let's see if it fluctuates a lot this week, like the line did last week for the Buffalo game.
They have two games just in the last month they have faced only 15 rushing attempts. That includes QB scrambles. Consider that for a second, no one will have high rushing totals with that number of carries. They only face 22 carries a game, which went up to reach that total after their game against the Rams where they faced 33 carries.
You're totally right. However, I expected the per-carries stats to be closer down to earth than they were. I would've assumed that playing defense with a big lead, you would try to encourage teams to rush on you by using more prevent schemes, thus engendering slightly higher than normal averages. Honestly, I haven't watched the games yet; hopefully I'll give them a review this week. But all the stats seem to indicate a talented run defense. Also, the average team faces 26.8 rushes a game, so 22 isn't totally on another planet. For perspective, we average 24.7 rushes against.
I think we go 4-2 and we get in, anything less than 4 wins and we won't make the playoffs. We should beat the Jest twice so we need 2 more wins against some pretty tough teams. I think if we beat Denver we are in amazing shape with the schedule but thats a big if. Its probably a bad thing that they lost today, they might have taken the Rams lightly we won't be that lucky.
That would require us to not suck on offense in the first quarter, not suck in the red zone and be consistent on special teams. If we could do all that, we could win out while still sucking at making plays over 20 yards. Maybe ask Santa. Tis the season.
I don't expect us to beat Denver, but I think we can. This was not a good day for us, Saints tanked to Cincy, the Chiefs won, Colts need to make a comeback and Tennessee needs to take Pittsburgh tomorrow.
Its Crunch Time.The good teams will rise to top while the pretenders will wither away.The questions is in what category do we belong to .Last year we were pretenders.This year we will find out soon enough.
I don't see us winning at Denver, despite their injuries. although, if J Thomas is out, I'll feel better about keeping it close. I see us losing a close game and then rebounding and winning 4 out of the last 5.
I think this is true, but his losing offensive weapons hurt. Welker is done and provides nothing, they have no backup TE and are down two backs. Thats with me assuming Sanders plays. Manning looked awful yesterday and I had to sit and watch it.
Not wishing ill will to anyone, but it would be really nice if they were all too sore to play this week. I don't care how the wins come, or what players are on the other side of the field. Getting to 7-4, with a trip to play the Jets after that, would be the most awesome thing thats happened for the team in more than a decade.
Ankle injuries are almost never bones. If theres any ligament damage he could miss time. Even a tweaked ankle will likely cayse him to miss most of practice this week since at 260 pounds, thats alot of pressure on an injury. Have to think that the broncos playing the chiefs after us might make any questionable decisions lean more towards rest since the chiefs game is much more important. Even if the Broncos lose vs us and rest for the chiefs then beat the chiefs, they'll of had swept the chiefs meaning that the chiefs have to finish a full game ahead in order to win the division.
Crunch, against most teams I'd agree with you, but against the Bronc's, arguably one of the top 2-3 teams in the conference, we could play well and still lose...that's no consolation. We have to beat the jests and Vikes, teams we should beat, and then we have to pull out a win against at least one of the tougher teams we play (Ravens, pasties, Bronc's)... Will that happen? Well, that's kinda tough to say with a Philbin lead team... EDIT: not necessarily due to his ability to coach, but his quiet confidence type coaching approach... The winner's mentality sometimes is lacking with his teams...imo
They're calling it an ankle sprain and that it's a minor injury. No ligament damage. In other words, we should expect him to be there even if they list him as questionable.
