WPBtoRNOFinFan
Practice Squad
Just a few thoughts....
1. The team - The sky is NOT falling, when one game against a solid team goes poorly, everybody looks at every aspect of our team as being suspect (except for our linebacking from what I've read.) Lets be honest, personnel-wise, our team is in great shape. Our quarterback is a top-5 quarterback, everybody is doubting Ronnie Brown, again, after a preseason of facing some VERY tough defenses.
Lets look at the three "meaningful" preseason games where RB got any kind of significant playing time. Lets look at the Baltimore Ravens, with one of the best run blocking lines facing off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Aside from having a bohemoth line, they also have two Pro Bowl caliber runningbacks, and a former rushing champion, and their entire rushing offense, given time to set in and try to establish the run and wear down the defense, only managed 3.0 yards per carry on 34 carries total.
Again, looking at the Dallas Cowboys with a solid back in Julius Jones, who has a decent to good offensive line blocking for him, running against a banged up defensive front seven (missing a few key players) managed 4 yards per carry, which is respectable.
The Panthers surrendered about 5 yards per carry, but they also played against the #1 rushing offense in the league, who ran the ball 47 times, with multiple backs, and might I add...they do have Michael Vick.
We faced Pittsburgh, who arguably has a better front seven, a better defensive anchor in Casey Hampton, and by far the best linebackers of the four teams we have faced. I think that, especially behind our mediocre offensive line, Brown's preformance was average. Not good, not bad, just average. Pedestrian. By no means do I feel that Brown is any of those, I feel that Brown is going to be a great back in this league.
Bottom line, our rushing attack will improve against Buffalo and the fan reaction will be discussed later in this post.
Our wide reciever corps did well, a couple of dropped balls (CHAMBERS!!!!!) but an impressive preformance by Welker!
O-Line, just got outplayed and manhandled in run blocking, in pass pro we did alright, not that great.
D-line did well, I feel we will have a top, albeit aging, unit again this year
Linebacking corps is good, we need to find an upgrade over Donnie Spragan in the near future/offseason.
Our secondary, with Travis Daniels, will be slightly improved, but with speed recievers against Travis Daniels, who ran a 4.5 40, and that is while not being hobbled by a sprained ankle, that could present a mismatch and a problem. I feel that unlike people calling for J. Allen to be put in and "thrown to the wolves" that these people are foolish and are writing off our season already, essentially. Remember the people that were calling to start Sage/Cleo once we were eliminated from playoff contention? And this is after one game!. Allen needs time to adjust to the pro game and get ready for prime time. He has the good coaching and all of the physical gifts to become one hell of a player.
Now, for my feelings about some of the fans on this board.
Some are so incredibly short-sighted and tend to forget things very quickly. Granted Harrington had a solid preformance in the pre-season, but Daunte did a better job, and has done a better job over the duration of his career. The people who were crying for Harrington to start over Daunte after one game are ridiculous. The people saying we are in maaajor trouble at RB are just as short-sighted. This team only has two suspect areas: Secondary and O-line. Yes, we have an aging front seven, but Saban has done a damn good job trying to make it a younger group. I feel we are on the verge of being a championship team and that the fans need to stop thinking that ever single aspect of our team is questionable.
That's my rant!
1. The team - The sky is NOT falling, when one game against a solid team goes poorly, everybody looks at every aspect of our team as being suspect (except for our linebacking from what I've read.) Lets be honest, personnel-wise, our team is in great shape. Our quarterback is a top-5 quarterback, everybody is doubting Ronnie Brown, again, after a preseason of facing some VERY tough defenses.
Lets look at the three "meaningful" preseason games where RB got any kind of significant playing time. Lets look at the Baltimore Ravens, with one of the best run blocking lines facing off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Aside from having a bohemoth line, they also have two Pro Bowl caliber runningbacks, and a former rushing champion, and their entire rushing offense, given time to set in and try to establish the run and wear down the defense, only managed 3.0 yards per carry on 34 carries total.
Again, looking at the Dallas Cowboys with a solid back in Julius Jones, who has a decent to good offensive line blocking for him, running against a banged up defensive front seven (missing a few key players) managed 4 yards per carry, which is respectable.
The Panthers surrendered about 5 yards per carry, but they also played against the #1 rushing offense in the league, who ran the ball 47 times, with multiple backs, and might I add...they do have Michael Vick.
We faced Pittsburgh, who arguably has a better front seven, a better defensive anchor in Casey Hampton, and by far the best linebackers of the four teams we have faced. I think that, especially behind our mediocre offensive line, Brown's preformance was average. Not good, not bad, just average. Pedestrian. By no means do I feel that Brown is any of those, I feel that Brown is going to be a great back in this league.
Bottom line, our rushing attack will improve against Buffalo and the fan reaction will be discussed later in this post.
Our wide reciever corps did well, a couple of dropped balls (CHAMBERS!!!!!) but an impressive preformance by Welker!
O-Line, just got outplayed and manhandled in run blocking, in pass pro we did alright, not that great.
D-line did well, I feel we will have a top, albeit aging, unit again this year
Linebacking corps is good, we need to find an upgrade over Donnie Spragan in the near future/offseason.
Our secondary, with Travis Daniels, will be slightly improved, but with speed recievers against Travis Daniels, who ran a 4.5 40, and that is while not being hobbled by a sprained ankle, that could present a mismatch and a problem. I feel that unlike people calling for J. Allen to be put in and "thrown to the wolves" that these people are foolish and are writing off our season already, essentially. Remember the people that were calling to start Sage/Cleo once we were eliminated from playoff contention? And this is after one game!. Allen needs time to adjust to the pro game and get ready for prime time. He has the good coaching and all of the physical gifts to become one hell of a player.
Now, for my feelings about some of the fans on this board.
Some are so incredibly short-sighted and tend to forget things very quickly. Granted Harrington had a solid preformance in the pre-season, but Daunte did a better job, and has done a better job over the duration of his career. The people who were crying for Harrington to start over Daunte after one game are ridiculous. The people saying we are in maaajor trouble at RB are just as short-sighted. This team only has two suspect areas: Secondary and O-line. Yes, we have an aging front seven, but Saban has done a damn good job trying to make it a younger group. I feel we are on the verge of being a championship team and that the fans need to stop thinking that ever single aspect of our team is questionable.
That's my rant!
