Most of the team has the better part of three games under their belt and the off season injured players have a full two. Anyone who wants to ignore the fact that most of this team had little to no preseason and many had almost no training camp is just fooling themselves. This team was always going to need to play itself into shape and the defense more so than than the offense.
So Far we have...
Week 1: The team looked completely unprepared to play football.
Week 2: Even on a short week they looked much better, on both offense and and defense.
Still not good enough. Still a losing team. But the defense will get better as the season goes on and if the offense can build on this performance and in particular the offensive line can play at a similarly high level this team will have an opportunity to turn the corner this year.
If they can come out on 11 days rest and play well against Atlanta then this season might not be over yet.
Sorry for the optimism, I know how you all feel about that. But this team mailed in TC/PS and we were never winning the first two games. Maybe that is something to criticize Judge for (I for one certainly think it is) but they came back from that piss poor performance last week and played hard tonight. If the can build on that performance, make more of the plays that are there to be made, clean up the mistakes, learn to be more aggressive then what they build will be capable of winning games against any teams.
On the other hand if they don't, count me in the blow it up crowd. The next 4 weeks are put up or shut up time for Judge.
Well as far as the defense in concerned look to last year first couple weeks it was the same story. I do think they were expecting more pass rush out the gate, but with no Leonard in the preseason he needs to play himself into shape and ojulari needs to develop. But I expect the coverage schemes to get more complex and more consistent as the season goes on.
It's still early, but two weeks in and the most damaging things we see are that our strongest unit coming into the season is now a weakness (Defense) and our weakest unit just lost the best player in Gates.
Was never a fan of that pick. I doubt he has much of an impact this year. On the positive side, Thomas looks legit so one bust avoided (Fingers crossed) while another rears its ugly head.
Playing for a FG when a TD was needed....coaches were settling
They are playing not to lose...everyone else is playing to win
Playing it safe...the coaches are not putting the players in best position to be successful.....saft coverage, why.
The other teams are dictating the match up....not our guys.
These coaches have lost a grasp on what is needed to win.