Anybody else concerned about the DL casualties?

I'm concerned, but not panicking. Not much we can do anyways other than hope some of the new guys step up.

Thought about potentially getting Jarvis Green back short-term but Houston signed him a few days ago.

It almost wasn't enough.

AndyJohnson said:

I know you meant that tongue in cheek, but it may actually be correct.

Click to expand...

Anyone else concerned about DL?

How many teams can lose 3 starters/rotation guys off their DL (Wright, Brace, Deaderick) and survive the playoffs? We can put a decent starting 3 our there in G Warren, Love, and Vince, but after that it's pretty thin, and this DL has always depended on rotation.

Very concerned about handling a running game like Baltimore's.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

I am concerned as well. When this D was at its best is when they were freely substituting DL (and other players) on almost every down. But I do think getting Spikes back will help slow down the run game. Also McCourty seems to be a good tackler for a CB in the run game. And guys like Chung have another year under their belt.

My hope is that the O is able to get a initial lead enough that the D can play one dimensional football and have to pass.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

No. BB will deal with it.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

Couldn't agree more. This is a problem.Playing Vince W. for 65 out of 70 snaps is not good against running based teams like Balt. KC and even the Jets.This will not be easy.
I was hoping Mike wright would be back but it dosen't look good. I think this a bigger problem than what people think.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

Well if you think about it, the defense has been at it's best since the 2nd half of the Detroit game. Since then only the Packers game they really struggled out of 5 and a half games. And you look at who was missing in those 5 games:

Lions: Wright/Pryor/Deadrick(healthy scratch)
Jets: Wright/Pryor/Deadrick(healthy scratch)
Bears: Wright/Pryor/Spikes/Deadrick(2 snaps)
Bills: Wright/Pryor/Spikes/Deadrick (healthy scratch)/Brace (7snaps)
Fins: Wright/Brace/Spikes/Deadrick/Brace

So essentially we've already been playing without Wright and Deadrick. And you're swapping Brace with Pryor, with the return of Spikes. I think we'll be fine even though it would've been a huge help to have gotten Wright and Brace back. But the replacements have done fine. Remember our DL in 2001 was a rookie Richard Seymour and a gang of cheap veteran FA pickups like Anthony Pleasant/Bobby Hamilton. They did very well in the playoffs against some good running teams, BB will get it done with what he has. And even if a team can exploit our run D, they still have to find a way to stop our offense. The chances of doing both are very slim IMO.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

I think the week off could really help. Although we are running thin on DL at the moment, the extra week to get the healthy guys fresh and ready to go could be huge. Especially giving Big Vince a break to recharge after playing so many snaps in recent weeks. To answer your question, yes I am a little concerned about the DL, but I trust that BB will be able to do enough with the personnel available to give us a good shot.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

This is definiatley my concern for the team. Right now I think big Vince is as valuable to this team as anyone - even TB. As good as Ngata is in Baltimore, I think Vince is the best in the league in the league at his position. Week in and week out he has been our anchor on defense. Losing brace to IR this week is not going to help. I have confidence that the team will get it done, but it is hard to feel great about a position that you have signed two guys off the street in the last month.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

i would call this the biggest concern going into the playoffs, which really tells you something considering its mostly been OK in the reg season


so long as the offense can withstand long drives, the DL i believe should be fine, but we need to not have any more injuries there

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

I'd rather have those guys in there obviously, but it's not a huge concern for me at the moment. For one thing, we've been seeing (and will continue to see) several different front seven formations and combinations. We'll see a standard 3-4 with Wilfork, Warren, and Love, we'll see a 4-3 with one of those guys, pryor, and maybe Moore and Cunningham with their hands down. We'll see sub packages, etc, that will allow us to use the smaller, quicker bodies and give the big guys a rest in the game.

Aside from that, we'll have two weeks off to get the big guys ready, then (god willing we win) they just have to suck it up for one more regular practice week and then it's two weeks until the Super Bowl.

It can be worked around, even if it's not ideal.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

This has been my concern since Wright went down. We've had other threads on this subject. The DL is really our only weakness.

HOWEVER, the reality is that the team has been playing fine with the subs. As some else posted, we are basically bringing in Pryor to replace Brace. Deaderick hasn't been used much lately at all.

Also, the linebackers are in more. Both Fletcher and Eric Moore have had solid reps.

BOTTOM LINE
Our line is Warren, Wilfork and Pryor. We have Love in the rotation as well as the linebackers. We also have Cohen and our street free agent of the week. I agree with most posters (and most media). The patriots are the best team in the conference, and the team that we match up worst against is BALT.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

Well, if heaven forbid Wilfork goes down, we're royally screwed. But otherwise, not too concerned.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

I am definitely concerned. I think Bill Will handle it well but this is a bad time to be missing all these players. I think we are fine as of now but if anyone else goes down, it will be hell.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

If we go 4-3 with tully or another end then we are going to be run on for sure.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

PATSYLICIOUS said:

Well if you think about it, the defense has been at it's best since the 2nd half of the Detroit game. Since then only the Packers game they really struggled out of 5 and a half games. And you look at who was missing in those 5 games:

Lions: Wright/Pryor/Deadrick(healthy scratch)
Jets: Wright/Pryor/Deadrick(healthy scratch)
Bears: Wright/Pryor/Spikes/Deadrick(2 snaps)
Bills: Wright/Pryor/Spikes/Deadrick (healthy scratch)/Brace (7snaps)
Fins: Wright/Brace/Spikes/Deadrick/Brace

So essentially we've already been playing without Wright and Deadrick. And you're swapping Brace with Pryor, with the return of Spikes.

Click to expand...

Hopefully Pryor's eye is OK but assuming it is then this post hits the nail on the head. Granted they had big leads in all those games but early on the defense was rallying to the ball and effective against the run to the best of my recollection. The message here is simple, they've been playing shorthanded over there for the better part of the year and they've found a way to make it work.

Wilfork, Warren, Love, Moore, Pryor, Cunningham - they'll make this work.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

satz said:

If we go 4-3 with tully or another end then we are going to be run on for sure.

Click to expand...

Assuming you're referring to the 4-2-5 alignment, I'm not worried. Teams have not been able to run on this formation with the exception of the week 2 Jets, Cleveland, and the first drive of the baltimore game. I think the Pittsburgh game, where they were in the "sub" package most of the time, with Crable getting a lot snaps no less, reinforced a lot of confidence in this alignment.

IMHO (for what that's worth), Tully is the 4th best OLB in this formation. The other three are solid against the run.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

JackBauer said:

Well, if heaven forbid Wilfork goes down, we're royally screwed. But otherwise, not too concerned.

Click to expand...

This.

If Wilfork were injured, I honestly don't know how we would stop anybody. But with Big Vince there, we can patch something decent together.

And that's why the man is our defensive MVP without a doubt.

I also think Warren is huge, though. He has played less of late, been banged up a little it seems. We need him to be a consistent factor along that line.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

Yeah, the DL is probably my greatest worry, too. Wright coming back would ease my mind a bit, and maybe a couple more weeks will finally do it. That being said, the DL seemed to have a really good game against Miami, and it's not like this current state of affairs is anything new. We've been really banged up since Det.

I'm not really worried about Baltimore's run game. We contained it thoroughly early in the year, and it's pretty overrated. It's clearly inferior to ours in every conceivable way (total yards, YPA, TDs). They only trouble me because they have the defense most proven to keep Brady from dominating.

Re: Anyone else concerned about DL?

BradyManny said:

This.

If Wilfork were injured, I honestly don't know how we would stop anybody. But with Big Vince there, we can patch something decent together.

And that's why the man is our defensive MVP without a doubt.

I also think Warren is huge, though. He has played less of late, been banged up a little it seems. We need him to be a consistent factor along that line.

Click to expand...

I third that. I should have added that to my original reply...gotta keep the big man healthy!