radar55 wrote:I find it interesting that for the last couple of years as the offense struggled, it was NEVER the entire offenses fault for the failure. The first words out of everyones mouth was "ITS PONDERS FAULT". That being said......we now seem to have an offense that can score an average of all most 30 points a game but the defense cant stop anyone let alone hold onto a lead.......except for yesterdays fortunate fumble.
So, it makes me wonder? Why isn't there an equal amount of vitriol directed at any singular player on the defense? Surely the entire units abysmal play can be explained by simply identifying that one person that's to blame for the entire units failure cant we? It seems to work for the offense.
For the record.....I AM NOT A PONDER SUPPORTER......I am simply confused why it is that some people seem to be willing to make excuses for the play of this defense (as a whole unit) while at the same time so willing to put all the blame on one player on the offense.
It's Josh Robinson for me so far. If you have to pick a weakest link anyway, for me it's surely him. I wouldn't be surprised if his total targets / completion this year now isn't like 36 out of 39 targets / completed. In fact one play he was beat so bad Rhodes actually almost made the play FOR HIM leaving his guy and nearly closing in time to break up the pass.
Thing is, he wasn't that bad last year and I think I remember them moving him to Winfields position in the slot. So clearly he isn't understanding that position, I wonder if there's any chance he could move back? Or have they tried that too?
mondry wrote:It's Josh Robinson for me so far. If you have to pick a weakest link anyway, for me it's surely him. I wouldn't be surprised if his total targets / completion this year now isn't like 36 out of 39 targets / completed. In fact one play he was beat so bad Rhodes actually almost made the play FOR HIM leaving his guy and nearly closing in time to break up the pass.
Thing is, he wasn't that bad last year and I think I remember them moving him to Winfields position in the slot. So clearly he isn't understanding that position, I wonder if there's any chance he could move back? Or have they tried that too?
He was pretty bad last year, too. I think he got demoted midway through the season.
“Some people think football is a matter of life and death. I assure you, it's much more serious than that.” --- Bill Shankly
mondry wrote:
It's Josh Robinson for me so far. If you have to pick a weakest link anyway, for me it's surely him. I wouldn't be surprised if his total targets / completion this year now isn't like 36 out of 39 targets / completed.
I believe I saw a stat before the last game and the number was a seemingly impossible 31 of 32 or something like that, so if may actually be worse than what you're saying.
Hunter Morrow wrote:Josh Robinson has allowed 34-37, 377yds, 110.1 QB rating on season.
I knew he was bad, but THAT BAD?!
Yep, that's about what I expected. Call up winfield and give him whatever he wants. Like Ponder being the anchor to the offense Robinson is the same to the defense. Hard to stop anyone when they can literally just say "hey, let's throw to whoever Robinson's covering today" and have a 92% completion rate.
Maybe when it's 92 completions on 100 attempts for 1000 yards they'll think about benching him.
Robinson seems like a "Frazier's guy" or "Spielman's Guy."
Josh Robinson is godawful but for whatever reason somebody with authority is enamored with the the guy.
We've had so many pet players that were draft reaches and just pathologically held onto by this organization.
Troy "Stonehands McGillicuddy" Williamson and Tarvaris Jokeson spring to mind.
Right now Robinson and Marvin Mitchell are two of them. Scherels and Rhodes should be starting. They're probably
our two worst players on defense now.
Just to put our passing defense into perspective, we're on pace to shatter the all time record for most passing yards allowed in a season.
5216 - 2013 Minnesota Vikings pace (326 per game)
4796 - 2011 Green Bay Packers
4758 - 2012 Tampa Bay Buccaneers
4703 - 2011 New England Patriots
4681 - 2012 New Orleans Saints
4541 - 1995 Atlanta Falcons
4511 - 2012 Washington Redskins
4427 - 2005 San Francisco 49ers
4389 - 1986 New York Jets
4342 - 2012 New England Patriots
4311 - 1981 San Diego Chargers
"Our playoff loss to the Vikings in '87 was probably the most traumatic experience I had in sports." -- Bill Walsh
maembe wrote:This game definitely absolves Ponder of the poor defensive play. There were people who were trying to say they were on the field too much because of Ponder or something silly like that.
Well yeah, Ponder was on the bench xD, but I see what you're getting at. The defense was on the field too much this game too. Pittsburgh had the ball 36:27 to our 23:33 (20:30 to 9:30 in the first half) and ran 72 plays to our 50. The difference is, with Ponder the defense was on the field too long because of all the 3 n outs, with Cassel it was because we were scoring too quickly thanks to big plays. But regardless of the ToP, our pass defense is still horrible.
"Our playoff loss to the Vikings in '87 was probably the most traumatic experience I had in sports." -- Bill Walsh
808vikingsfan wrote:
Amazing part is they are actually worse in real time. Most of these end up in a take down.
Oh yeah. I remember screaming at my tv quite a lot. Didn't help, but it helped make me feel better. Pittsburgh always gets the calls. Nothing new. I'm just glad we managed to come out on top; otherwise the ref hating would be much worse.
mondry wrote:
It's Josh Robinson for me so far. If you have to pick a weakest link anyway, for me it's surely him. I wouldn't be surprised if his total targets / completion this year now isn't like 36 out of 39 targets / completed. In fact one play he was beat so bad Rhodes actually almost made the play FOR HIM leaving his guy and nearly closing in time to break up the pass.
Thing is, he wasn't that bad last year and I think I remember them moving him to Winfields position in the slot. So clearly he isn't understanding that position, I wonder if there's any chance he could move back? Or have they tried that too?
I don't think there's any question that Robinson is the weakest link.
Hunter Morrow wrote:Robinson seems like a "Frazier's guy" or "Spielman's Guy."
Josh Robinson is godawful but for whatever reason somebody with authority is enamored with the the guy.
We've had so many pet players that were draft reaches and just pathologically held onto by this organization.
Troy "Stonehands McGillicuddy" Williamson and Tarvaris Jokeson spring to mind.
Right now Robinson and Marvin Mitchell are two of them. Scherels and Rhodes should be starting. They're probably
our two worst players on defense now.
This is one of the problems with rating a GM based on the number of draft picks who start. Just because Robinson and Ponder start doesn't make them good picks. It's an obvious point, yet there are those who still judge a productive draft years later based on who remains on a team and who starts. Crazy.
Demi wrote:
Because there was an easy change to make to improve the offense...there's not much they can do on defense. The secondary is young, and not very good. The line is old. We don't have many options at linebacker.
That's just another way of saying that we lack playmakers on defense. The strength (the line) isn't as strong as it was and the weaknesses (the LBs and secondary) are still weak. It will be hard to go to the Super Bowl with this talent pool, and that wouldn't change even if we got a real QB.
But hey, jettisoning Ponder would still feel really, really, really good to me.
