[RaidersOftheCellar]

Originally Posted by Megatron96

Have mostly felt the same about the defense this season. And last, for that matter. Though, imo, the defense was good enough to win a Sb last season. The offense completely collapsed vs. CIN in the 2nd half, while the defense played more than well enough to win that game. But that's old, rehashed news.

The defense needed to get younger, faster and more athletic. Well, Veach/Spags have done that. But it aint Madden; it was always going to take some time for them to learn the playbook, adjust to the speed of the NFL, gel, etc. As is normal for human beings, some are adjusting and getting comfortable quicker than others.

Will say that the more i look into it, the more it looks like the secondary misses a HB-type safety. Only 1 INT between them, and 9 PDs. They don't make offenses pay at all for throwing between the numbers downfield.

Considering how often the DL gets pressure, those guys should be piling up a lot more stats than they have. The eyeball test suggests that they're late to the party, but also that they're not taking the right angles.

Saw one play a couple days ago from the DEN game that should've been an INT for Reid, but he takes a bad angle like he expects the ball to be underthrown by about 5 yards, but he also doesn't hustle; he kind of jogs over so he's short and he's late. Resulted in a big 3rd down conversion that never should've happened. you watch that play, and you have to think, "HB, even having lost a step, makes that INT."

Yeah...it probably would have been a bad idea to give Mathieu another contract (although he wanted to stay badly so he may have accepted a big discount), but they could use him right now.