Thoughts on the defense
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They played their balls off last night. I'm worried about em from here on out though and this is why.
1) Weedens back. I know he did good last night and maybe there's someone upstairs that somehow gifts that guy with the ability to play NFL caliber football consistently for the rest of the season. But....I think Buffalo gamed for Hoyer and Weedon got the benefit of that. Once teams know it's Weedon again and game for him, it's back to quick 3 and outs. I fear the defense will have to win the rest of the season for us.
2) Losing mugshot is a big deal despite how deep we are on the line. I hope he just has some chest bruise or something that was causing him to be short of breath. He's probably the strongest guy on the interior and the most athletic. With Winn out too we lose alot of depth at the interior and that's what's basically made our defense so good. So far the edge's have done a good job turning everything back into the interior and they've been sweeping up tackles.
3) We need Sheard back big time. I love Mingo but he's still a newb. The Spiller 5k run was all on Mingo. Safeties filled up inside he cannot EVER let a tight end seal him inside. Right now we dont' have a good rotation at the OLB'ers. Kruger is playing practically every snap and it shows. We paid him 8m to put pressure on the qb and he's not really doing it. So far this season the only way he's shown he can sniff the qb is by bullrushing. He's not getting there but the bullrush is effective in that it sets the timer forward to get the ball out. But he's tiring out at the end of games, we need someone to rotate out with him too even after Jabaal comes back. I was kind of hoping that cleveland might try to pull away from Indy one of their OLB'ers of which they have alot of depth at. I don't think they would have parted with him but would have been nice to pull their rookie out in the Trich trade.
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The person that would spell Kruger is Quentin Groves....who is also out. And yes, we need to get both Groves and Sheard back into the rotation. Armont Bryant did some filling in.
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Safeties are a major concern...the pick six was a result of shitty Qb play...not great defense
Mannuel moved the ball right down the field and he's average or just above...good Qb's will expose this
secondary...that said they are light yrs ahead of where they were a few short years ago and getting better
The time between when the ball arrives and when they get there is getting shorter.
I do agree with you that teams will wear down this D if the O can't sustain some drives
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Kruger needs a break. He isn't getting close. "BUT" he's a beast in the run game. Nothing breaks out when teams run to the right. He turns everything. I never watched him play in Baltimore but the scouting report on him was that he was one of the worst run defenders at that position in the NFL, something he even talked about in his presser when he signed with us. Well he fixed whatever it was. I just wish he could throw in a swim to the inside every now and then. He doesn't edge rush with any leverage either, get's pushed out wide. Mingo I understand when he gets pushed wide, he's a smaller dude just trying to track star it around the corner. Kruger has get his lean on when he goes around the corner, dude isn't fast enough to edge rush the way he's trying.
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