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I now this point has been discussed and we all agree. But one thing I wanted to point out is that the defender actually altered Gronk's body while he was going for the ball. How much Force does that take as Gronk can move well and he's 265 pounds" I'd say a defender has to put quite a bit of effort into that and it would be a penalty every single time.
- I am not one to cry about the refs, but they were awful and one sided all game. On the Brady interception, the defender clearly interfered with Gronk tackling him before the ball was remotely there. The OPI on Gronk was BS. The only time they called anything on the Lions when it was so obvious that they had to call it.
Casillas is a good player. Smart, versatile. Great STer, but also a solid LB. He's a nice addition, like so many others this year.
No kidding. Revis, Browner, Lafell, Wright, Ayers, Casillas, Branch, Blount. That's just unreal. 2 guys who revolutionize our defense, 2 guys who significantly diversity our offense, and 4 guys who provide tremendous depth and versatility. The Pats have added those last 4 players in mid-season alone. It's amazing how much people were whining earlier this season about "not having enough weapons" and "not keeping pace with Denver" in terms of personnel.
In Miami and Arizona, the Lions have faced two of the league’s best defenses over the past month; the Patriots defense, though, doesn’t compare to either of those. New England has its vulnerabilities, and the Lions failed to take advantage of any of them. Matthew Stafford had another miserable day — 18-of-46 for 264 yards — but the running game might have been even worse. Joique Bell averaged just 2.5 yards per carry against what’s been, at best, an average run defense.
Yesterday was the first time in a long, long time that I remember our defense consistently getting pressure with a four man rush.
Just think of how much more talent they could have acquired if they were "all in."
This comment by Robert Mays has piqued my interest.
Despite my low opinion of Bill Simmon's football acumen, I like the commentary over at Grantland. Barnwell has come a long way since being the worst writer on Footballoutsiders and Mays does a good job of highlighting underappreciated areas of the game.
That said, they've surprised me a few times this season with slow reaction analysis. A few weeks ago - I think it was heading in Denver, but even if not it was certainly after NE's OL issues had passed - Bill Barnwell emphasized how much NE's OL was struggling and how it was a serious problem for them. And now this. I mean, I understand that Chicago had some rushing success on them and the Jets game wasn't that long ago, but NE completely dominated Indy's running game and Denver didn't do much better. Even if you discount the small sample, wouldn't it be prudent to at least mention the uptick in NE's run D? Particularly after all the additions to the front seven in the past month?
I guess I don't understand football analysis sometimes. Everyone understands that teams evolve. It's become a cliche to say that you just need to get hot at the right time. No one of even moderate sense would say that how a team plays in September is who they'll be all year. And yet, we still seem to give those early struggles/triumphs disproportionate weight when looking at a match up.
But maybe I'm missing something.
Didn't it just happen two games ago?
It should be noted that Detroit's OL blows. And that was before losing their LT on the first snap of the game.
Against Denver? Not really.
Our run D is playing better, but it isn't entirely because of execution or talent. Here are a few other things helping us out:
1) We're scoring a ton of points. You won't be running against us if we are up by 2-3 TDs.
2) Indy's run game ranks 26th if you take away Luck's 200 yards of scrambling
3) Denver's run game is in the bottom 3rd of the league.
4) Detroit was without an incredible Guard (Warford) and Reggie Bush and even with them, they are 25th-30th in rushing.
So to reiterate, I think our run D is improved but we've also helped our run D out by scoring a ton of points and playing against teams that aren't very good at running the ball anyway.