Khyber53

28-14 Panthers. 2 TD CMC, 1 Anderson, 1 Darnold rushing. Davis Mills actually comes out and performs well for Houston, staying calm even under extreme pressure and makes good use of the veteran resources around him.

I read that one, too. It's college data, though, and that can be pretty skewed depending on the teams used. That 36% conversion rate for 3rd and 7/8 just seems really high compared to the pro game. Somewhere out there, someone's gotta have that data, though.

Umm, our back-ups aren't getting 3-4 yards even when they get the ball. Give them some time. CMC took some time once he got here to become the superman he is. Still, that Freeman block attempt was embarrassing.

The article was a good read and it gave me a lot more insight than just about anything else I've read about Snow's defense. That being said, I'm having a ball watching it right now but I want to make sure this isn't just the flavor of the week defense before I declare it revolutionary. Buddy Ryan's 53 defense ruled the league until they figured it out.

Let's get this season down first.

It's the trenches. O-lines vs D-lines, both sides.

Broke six tackles on that play. In my mind, it always plays out like he broke 11 tackles and was headed to the Houston bench to challenge some more guys before he crossed into the endzone. Or at least, that's the way I tell my kids it happened.

Going into this season, I made a big point of saying that Rhule and Co. could well find themselves on the hot seat if they didn't outperform last year. I still think that could be the case with a late season melt-down, but I have to say right now, things are looking better than they have in years. This team doesn't have the vibe of the 2003 or 2015 seasons, but it has something, that's for sure. Hopefully it's going to be something great, but I keep trying to tailor my vision by reminding myself it's just now week 3. The Jets were a team that collapsed and are being rebuilt. The Saints had excuses and they may have beaten a Green Bay team that is unexpectedly bad (that win over Detroit doesn't wash all the stink off of the prior week). Now, we're up against the Texans and they have a boatload of reasons why they will probably lose. So the pundits will probably downplay our wins, and rightly so. I might worry more if they instead start crowning us as wonderkids this year prematurely. But, all teams have to play the teams that are on the schedule. Just because we're feeling our Wheaties doesn't mean we can demand a cage match against the champs right now. So, we're just going to have to just truck on down the road and keep beating who the schedule makers put in front of us for the next 21 weeks. For once, though, I'm really liking our chances coming out of the gates. And that's been a long time coming.

The interesting thing, I thought, was that Derrick Brown was only on the field in three of the 10 sacks we've done. Not as in "not involved in", but "not on the field" at all. Of the three sack plays he was on the field, he made the sack in the second and in the other two just tied up o-linemen. Not knocking Brown at all here, but just pointing out that he might be a defensive tempo indicator. I believe Brown is mainly playing rushing downs or spelling some of our faster d-linemen. He's being substituted out for faster guys on likely passing plays to add more dimension to the four man rush we're using most of the time and maybe to clear some square-footage to squeeze in a blitzing backer or safety (since we seem to send them up the middle more). Really would like to see some of the plays where we shut down the opponents' run games to see what kind of impact he's having there. Truth be told, whatever is going on here with him, it's certainly not broke and it doesn't need fixing.

I don't think the outcome is in doubt at all. I just hope we come out of it free of injuries. The Injury Bug really seems to be hitting the league hard to start the season.

I didn't believe in Coach Snow. I said his defense played like a bunch of old ladies last year and that he called a soft game because he wasn't up to the pro level. It looks like he's proving me wrong this season so far. Hope he keeps making me eat my words because this defense looks great.

Third and eight as the average? Wow! The percentage of conversion on 3rd and 8 for pro teams can't be very high, even for the best teams. Still, we're at a heck of a pace for defensive efficiency right now. It's hard to tell if it is the quality of the competition (or lack thereof) or if we're just really killing it out there. Time will tell but with the schedule ahead of us, it's going to be very hard to win over the sceptics until the last fourth of the season.

Man, ain't that the truth?

Dang, I really appreciate seeing these! And yeah, it's great to see so many different players making the stops. I think that everyone got used to Luke making the majority of them (followed by Shaq and Thomas Davis) back in the day. After he was gone, we had a lot of soft effort players that we've had to get rid of or retrain.

I agree but this went beyond the pale.

Poor kid. He's got the intangibles, but doesn't have any experience. Only 11 games total in college and half a game in the pros. Tough way to enter the NFL, but his team is just the next one on our carousel.

We haven't won many games yet and we haven't won many people over yet. They'll be loving us in three weeks.

Ehh, them's the breaks.

We should be better people than this.

Give 'em hell!

I agree that turning points are a big, big deal. Yesterday's win, though, had too many excuses for the Saints (I think it was still a heck of a win) for anyone outside the fanbase to think it was a turning point game. If we beat Houston, everyone will ho-hum it. Now Dallas, who I think is severely over-valued, is a turning point game. If we can bring down the big star, then the rest of the league begins to believe we're something. Me, I think Dallas' o-line is crumbling fast and they cannot play defense. A win in that game, in their house, and we get real momentum and a nice slate of games against teams going under. This is going to be fun.

One game at a time. In this craziest part of the season we still have to get past (and take seriously) Thursday night's game vs. the Texans.

This was what really worries me. Even when his kick offs reached the end zone, it was just by a hair. We apparently don't have the coverage team to risk the run backs. I'd feel a lot better if he was booming them past the end line like Slye did. It's hard to march 75 yards down the field on this defense.

So, are we keeping Zane Gonzalez after yesterday's performance, or is he shown the door like Santos and Slye before him? FG's 2/3 (long of 42) and PAT's 2/3. Will he get a pass because of the short week ahead of us or will Rhule make another move?

In the preseason I suggested that Morgan Fox might be the biggest surprise on this defense. Not a bad outing yesterday, but there's better to come!