Hats Off To The Defense

[gafin]

Jeeeeeezus. Some people are hard to please. The defense flat-out balled. If not for AJ Green (you remember him, right?) and a thankfully limited number of Gio Bernard snaps, we would have virtually shut them down. We made Dalton look like a 50 QBR player, not a 112 or whatever it is lately. We shut down Green-Ellis and we forced a serious number of 3-and-outs. Not to mention the turnovers and the game-winning safety.

That was a terrific defensive performance. Any other opinion is frankly ignoring what stares you in the face.

I agree they played real good for how long they were on the field and against a really good offense. Being an older guy I remember great defenses of the past so I wouldn't call their performance great. They give up too many third and longs. But like I said in the other post, the NFL has changed, you can't completely shut down anybody anymore.

 

[Heinegrabber]

That long drive in the third quarter probaly saved our ass. It kept our offense off the field and right now second half offense is not our strong suit.

 

[where's th'fish]

Had to play against the Bungels 93 offensive snaps and still dug deep when it counted.

Well, they were only on the bloody field for that long because they couldn't get off it on 3rd down.

This is a very interesting game to analyze from that perspective. Miami only had four possessions in the second half, and two were killed by that idiot ref on the left sideline. A third was the game-tying FG. And without the Tanny to Wallace interference, there is no safety. So they get a pass in my book.

But the defense... gee. They had a pick-six, sure, with the Bengals driving in the red-zone and sandwiched between a pair of TD drives that ate almost the entire 3rd quarter. Net result was we lost our one TD halftime lead. Ciny had two more possessions, the FG at the end and the drive that ended with the Ellerbee interception. But we didn't force a single punt in the 2nd half! And you have to account for the fact that the turnovers were only made possible by bad plays by the Bengals (as well as give them credit for some great execution at times).

And then in OT we finally get a stop! But after allowing many yards which drove us to being pinned down. We finally had one excellent defensive series to end the game. Hooray! I'll take that over the turnovers after allowing 50 yards every time.

All in all, like I said, a hard game to draw conclusions from for the defense. But the important thing is we won, and it was a well-deserved, hard-fought win.

 

[CalDolFan10x14]

Came up huge when they needed to. There's no way we were going to hold Dalton, Green and company down the entire game. Sure the D gave up some yards and missed a few easy tackles, but they were very opportunistic in this game. Props for them making the game changing plays when needed.

 

[CA Dolfan]

As great as they played with the turnovers.
You can't leave your defense on the field for over 40 minutes in a game

It is true they were on the field way too long. I can't imagine what the conditions would have been like if it was a day game.

 

[maralieus]

Defense ways playing great. Pulled it out when it mattered.
I love winning on a safety than kicking a FG. I hope they are pumped and ready to make a run.

Me too, cuz without them playing like last night, there is no run.