secondary issues...

***bruce4life*** · -10-16-2006

we obviously still have secondary issues. brown has been hurt which kills us, but hill is not ready to take a serious role in the secondary and fisher when he plays hurt, kills our defense. The bye will help players heal up for the rest of the year, but i think something has to be done. There are a couple of interesting players on the market. Nate Clements and Brian Kelly come to mind, while free agents like Troy Vincent could be had at a cheap price. SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE Y'ALL

***MASSIVE*** · -10-16-2006

Originally Posted by bruce4life

we obviously still have secondary issues. brown has been hurt which kills us, but hill is not ready to take a serious role in the secondary and fisher when he plays hurt, kills our defense. The bye will help players heal up for the rest of the year, but i think something has to be done. There are a couple of interesting players on the market. Nate Clements and Brian Kelly come to mind, while free agents like Troy Vincent could be had at a cheap price. SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE Y'ALL

I think in these next two weeks we will be picking up some help for our secondary. But we still need better play from our front four and lets stop with the zone/prevent defense! Lets get after them with a blitz maybe we give up a big play or maybe we don't but it would be better than what I saw at the end of that game!

***RAMMAN68*** · -10-16-2006

Originally Posted by bruce4life

we obviously still have secondary issues. brown has been hurt which kills us, but hill is not ready to take a serious role in the secondary and fisher when he plays hurt, kills our defense. The bye will help players heal up for the rest of the year, but i think something has to be done. There are a couple of interesting players on the market. Nate Clements and Brian Kelly come to mind, while free agents like Troy Vincent could be had at a cheap price. SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE Y'ALL

Not sure if we want to bring in an aging safety like Vincent, but if they could pull off a trade for Clements or Kelly without betting the farm I'm all for it.

As for the current crop of CB's, Butler needs to be starting opposite Brown. Those two are the best CB's on our team IMO. Hill still has some work to do before he's ready to handle to starting role, and Fisher is, well, just bad even when healthy. Bartell needs to be moved up to Nickle/Dime back to provide some depth.

***bela*** · -10-16-2006

Playing against the Rams is a lot like playing against the Seahawks now.

You absolutely must get pressure on Bulger/Hass, and stop the run. The Hawks/Rams will score some points, you just have to limit the damage.

Your secondary was being forced into 1 on 1 coverage because of the blitz, and being left there for 4+ seconds. I don't care whose back there, they are going to struggle under those circumstances.

***chipperjones*** · -10-16-2006

The secondary can't get much worse.Give Bartell a shot.Also congrats to Victor for sack number 1, here is to many more.

***general counsel*** · -10-16-2006

Bela hit the nail on the head. The issue isnt the secondary, the issue is the pass rush, or lack therof. You cant give a guy like hass that much time to throw or he will pick you apart. We cant get pressure with our front four and that explains why we are getting killed in the secondary.

Hass made some literally perfect throws yesterday. Not much you could do on some of those throws, but on the last drive, we just couldnt get any pressure and he picked us apart.

ramming speed to all

general counsel

**AvengerRam** · -10-16-2006

Here is a complete list of the NFL CBs who can stick with WRs if the opposing QB is unpressured:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

That is all.

**Nick** · -10-16-2006

Originally Posted by bela

Your secondary was being forced into 1 on 1 coverage because of the blitz, and being left there for 4+ seconds. I don't care whose back there, they are going to struggle under those circumstances.

Originally Posted by general counsel

Bela hit the nail on the head. The issue isnt the secondary, the issue is the pass rush, or lack therof. You cant give a guy like hass that much time to throw or he will pick you apart. We cant get pressure with our front four and that explains why we are getting killed in the secondary.

Hass made some literally perfect throws yesterday. Not much you could do on some of those throws, but on the last drive, we just couldnt get any pressure and he picked us apart.

Originally Posted by AvengerRam

Here is a complete list of the NFL CBs who can stick with WRs if the opposing QB is unpressured:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

That is all.

This pretty much sums it up. Sometimes it's easy to just point the finger at the personnel covering a guy and say he's the problem because he's not covering better than he is.

But the good teams aren't the ones that have four Pro Bowl shut down corners. They're the ones that are able to get a pass rush and force quarterbacks into making throws they want to take back later.

That's not to say that talent in the secondary is great or won't be addressed. I think the talent in the secondary is okay, and I think they'd actually be quite a bit better if the Rams were more successful pressuring the quarterback. That's not to say we won't try to bring some help in next offseason, but again, you don't need an all-world secondary for this scheme. We desperately need to remember that defending the pass isn't a job left solely to the guys in the back. It's as much if not more dependent on the front four as well.