damione lewis on what is wrong with the D

[PANTHER PRIDE 52]

we got the next 3 games

[scpanther22]

is lewis a free agent next year cuz i heared some talk about him not being with us next year...idk y i think he's a good part of our D

....IMO either lewis or kemo will not be starting here next year..i am thinking lewis

[rayzor]

I think that's probably a big deal. Think about trying to learn a new language and how you have to THINK in that language. It's not "natural" and it makes your reaction time slower to come up with the correct phrases, etc. When you go from what sounds like it was more a thinking system to a more reacting system, I would think you have to retrain your mind to an extent.

yep. it reminds me of being in one band where the guy whose band it was told everyone exactly what to play and had a cow if you played something different than what he had written. the sound was good but there was no wiggle room. everything had to work exactly how he wanted it to.

the next band i was in had very little structure at all. there was a basic structure to songs, pretty much you had to get from point A to point B but the path you took traveling between points was up to you to decide. things were clumsy at first but once we got the feel of things and learned how we could work with each other and got an idea of what the others in the band were going to be doing then things worked really well.

[GRWatcher]

Thank you, rayzor. It's a very good article and lets us, as fans often kept in the dark, know how our players are approaching the problems. I think even the offense has lost that mental edge that is needed to win. (Are you listening to me Steve Smith?) Dallas wasn't the better team last week in the 2nd half. It just seemed that they wanted to win more than we did.

There were flashes of defensive brilliance in that game. The adjustment they made to stop that 1st TD was awesome. I had seen it earlier in the game and my brain went !!. The disguises were brilliant. But then Dallas fought through those, paid close attention, and grabbed the momentum.

Which comes down to each individual player themselves. The coaches have taught them what to do in the scheme. It's up to the players to execute and that includes being mentally prepared to win. Nightline had a segment the other night that the key to being a genius in anything is practice, practice, practice.

I'm personally glad we don't have coaches like Singletary. He reminds me too much of Dennis Green but I do wish him better luck with it than Green.

[Gscottnc5]

its good to see someone speak up. We need leaders on the team that don't have "C's" on their Jersey's. Captains are supposed to be leaders but we need more guys to speak up like Lewis. Kudos to him

[rayzor]

i thnk this article and what the OP in the '52' thread said about his conversation with beason and what they were doing with game film was very good at letting us know about what they are doing. i hope it helps. i hope they are right and it's fixable. we are facing some very good offenses this year and we need them to get things fixed to have a chance at all.

Thank you, rayzor. It's a very good article and lets us, as fans often kept in the dark, know how our players are approaching the problems. I think even the offense has lost that mental edge that is needed to win. (Are you listening to me Steve Smith?) Dallas wasn't the better team last week in the 2nd half. It just seemed that they wanted to win more than we did.

There were flashes of defensive brilliance in that game. The adjustment they made to stop that 1st TD was awesome. I had seen it earlier in the game and my brain went !!. The disguises were brilliant. But then Dallas fought through those, paid close attention, and grabbed the momentum.

Which comes down to each individual player themselves. The coaches have taught them what to do in the scheme. It's up to the players to execute and that includes being mentally prepared to win. Nightline had a segment the other night that the key to being a genius in anything is practice, practice, practice.

I'm personally glad we don't have coaches like Singletary. He reminds me too much of Dennis Green but I do wish him better luck with it than Green.

i agree with what you were saying about the defense in the dallas game except for that part about dallas working through it. the defense stopped what it was doing in the first half that was so effective. they spent most of the 2nd half not moving around like they were. they weren't doing the things in the 2nd half that they were in the 1st. i blame a lot of that on the playcalling. the things that worked in that game they quit doing. i'm all for making adjustments but the adjustments aren't supposed to make you worse off.

[GRWatcher]

i agree with what you were saying about the defense in the dallas game except for that part about dallas working through it. the defense stopped what it was doing in the first half that was so effective. they spent most of the 2nd half not moving around like they were. they weren't doing the things in the 2nd half that they were in the 1st. i blame a lot of that on the playcalling. the things that worked in that game they quit doing. i'm all for making adjustments but the adjustments aren't supposed to make you worse off.

I haven't watched the game again because it will make me cry. :frown5: But I thought that I saw our D, in the 1st Dallas series of the 2nd half, doing the things that we did in the 1st half. And they weren't working like they did. The difference IMO is that Dallas' O-line stepped up. I know we stopped blitzing so much because we were getting eaten alive when we did. And I'm not sure if it was coaching or that our guys were getting flat out outplayed. I'd bet 1/3 coaching and 2/3 outplayed.

[Fireball77]

I don't know, I could be off but I think the Cats recently have had more problems against big physical OLs like Dallas has. It seems worse this year because the DL isn't up to snuff.

[CatMan72]

no problem.

i like his insights. he's pretty honest about things. probably should have been a captain over peppers but that's for another discussion.

i hadn't thought about it but i'm willing to buy that they are probably working harder than anyone else. they are sure on the field a lot more than other defenses. all the running around they are doing is because they don't know where they are supposed to be or go.

hopefully hollis will make things easier. hopefully harris will be back on the field soon. hopefully they will, as a unit, have their light turned on and figure it out.

i just don't understand why a system that is supposed to be easier and require less thinking than what trgo's did is giving them such fits. i'm thinking that meeks could be on the right track but the players are having trouble thinking for themselves. they are so used to trgo's system doing all the thinking and their role was just to go where trgo told them to go.

moving from life in a box/controlled environment into life outside of that box can be tough to adjust to. you still have responsibilities but you have to learn what those responsibilities are and find out what to do to succeed. i'm thinking that this could be a lot of the problem. that and they are over-thinking things. a lot of what they have to do is just react to what is happening around them. the problem is they have to put themselves in the right position to have the best effect.

when my daughter is just learning how to walk, i have to learn where to be to catch her when she falls. i could have the quickest response time in the world but i'm not going to do her much good if i'm across the room or have my back to her.

Good point, I can see how being free to make more decisions can cause you to hesitate while you're thinking through things - in some ways that's less freedom because now it's up to you to think for yourself.

This has been said many times, but you can't think your way through playing - you just have to react based on your training. We may be struggling on defense because guys are out there thinking instead of reacting?

[rayzor]

Good point, I can see how being free to make more decisions can cause you to hesitate while you're thinking through things - in some ways that's less freedom because now it's up to you to think for yourself.

This has been said many times, but you can't think your way through playing - you just have to react based on your training. We may be struggling on defense because guys are out there thinking instead of reacting?

that's the trgo effect.

[Snake]

he'll be around for a whilelink

Yea but we will be losing Marshall and most importantly Davis next year. Both of them along with Brayton are FAs.

[Peppers90 NC]

he'll be around for a while

2/25/2009: Signed a six-year, $24.275 million contract. The deal included a $2.5 million signing bonus. If Lewis' 2010 option bonus is not exercised, his contract will expire after the 2010 season. 2009: $2 million, 2010: $755,000 (+ $9.3 million option bonus due in March), 2011: $1.485 million, 2012: $2.115 million, 2013: $2.745 million, 2014: $3.375 million, 2015: Free Agent

So he is due $10mil for 2010, is that how much he will count against the cap or did they design this contract for the no cap year?

[thejimmy]

Why is it that NO gets a new DC, doesn't really upgrade their talent, but their D is playing much better?

Meanwhile, we get a new DC, I'd like to think we have greater talent on D, and our D is one of the worst in the league?

[rayzor]

saints didn't change schemes. just coordinators. and they didn't exactly neglect defensive personnel in the offseason, either. they did some decent moves in improving it. darren sharper? 4 INTs this year so far. one today he returned 99 yards for a TD.