The Good and The Bad . . .

[Mr. Scot]

The secondary continues to allow easy completions. I have long disagreed with the 7-12 yard cushion that our starting CBs give, and I, for the life of me, cannot understand why it is given on every play. Sure, it has its advantages, but you must mix things up. Allowing the receivers to get a free release creates a vulnerability, and Eli took advantage of it last night.

We got an answer on this a short time back (I forget if it was newspaper or radio) but Fox prefers to keep the offense "in front of them", meaning that he's okay with giving up the short stuff as long as they don't give up the big play. Yes it gives up yards, but it's - conceptually - more effective in the Red Zone because the offense has less room to work and the defense less field to cover.

For the record, I really, REALLY hate that philosophy.

So what if you prevent one big gain? Ten short gains is just as bad, arguably worse since it takes more time off the clock.

You say you're good in the Red Zone? Cool, but seriously, why let them get that far? Why fight off the ropes? Why wait until someone is in your living room before you try to fend them off? Sheesh

This whole 'bend, don't break' thing really wears a defense out. It's the reason why our defense all too often seems strong in the first and second quarter but fades in the second half. And that's, as often as not, when they give up those big plays that the defensive blueprint is supposed to prevent :nonod:

Fox was hired to be the Panthers head coach in part because of his aggressive style of defensive coaching. And yet each year, he seems to become less and less aggressive in his defensive philosophy.

I really don't get it :confused:

[MurkN]

Jake made a block on someone when DeAngelo had that one cutback run. It was nice to see him getting into the action.