Originally Posted by FrontSeven

I thought it was good of Dean Peas to straighten us out about what is going on with Hobbs. I have been holding off on Hobbs in hopes that something like that was his problem (actually not his problem). Sometimes those DBs look responsible on TV or to the average fan (me), but they aren't really responsible. This is life in the fast lane of zone coverage I guess.

That's the good news. I'd say that the bad news is that *somebody* screws up in that scheme often enough to make our pass defense less-than-stellar against guys like Kyle Boller and the other Manning. Peas did not mention that but he alluded to it just by talking about the Hobbs situation. If the play is busted, it's busted. Why do they get busted so often?

I don't know what to conclude about this except that it's probably been the weak point in our defenses for years. I recall that in 2002 we had big trouble stopping the run, but after we got the nose tackle situation under control we never really had much trouble versus the run. But trouble against the pass seems to be our weak point for a long time. Look at the three SBs and you do see a lot of passing yardage allowed, and even a lot of long TD catches. I don't care about the rankings for the league, and that we don't rank at the bottom, etc. I only care about how offenses prefer to exploit us, and it's usually by air. The Browns did a number on them. The Eagles did a number on them. The Colts didn't this time but they were missing major chess pieces.

I think every team has such weaknesses in pass coverage though. Look what Brady did to the Redskins, who were reputed to have an excellent pass defense. Pass defense is not a perfect science - that is my conclusion. You have to give up yards on pass defense at some point. We certainly do.

That's what I see as the good news and bad news about Peas' message. Given that our red zone defense seems to be improved, I certainly don't rate our pass defense as "lunchmeat" by any stretch. I do expect teams to pick on that zone though, and go right down the field on them at times. It's not going to be an easy three games to glory. Nothing new there. If it's not easy for us, though, think about how hard it's going to be for Indy or the Cowboys.

In the end we have the offensive horsepower, but I'm expecting more shootouts than I thought we'd have after picking up Adalius. There is a vulnerability that that we have not solved yet. I suppose it's possible that we'll solve it too. One thing they are good at is adjustments, and they may be getting something new installed as we speak.