Like it or not: This is the D we are taking into the playoffs

[Brady_to_Moss]

WOnder if DEnnard will play this week..

 

[pheenix11]

What is this talk about next year? How do you know we won't have even more injuries? How about we take advantage of the 9-3 record and potential first round bye we have this year?

Who's the class of the NFC, the Seahawks? Take them out of their home field and they don't scare me at all. Especially in the cold of New York.

And for anyone worrying about going on the road to Denver for the AFCCG, I have $10 and history on my side that says that the AFCCG will be played in Foxboro this year with Manning watching at home.

 

[jal]

Huh? The secondary is light years better than it's been in quite some time, even when you're running guys like Arrington and Ryan out there on the outside. The second safety position is problematic if Gregory's not in there and I think his healthy return is pretty crucial. God willing, you get a healthy Dennard back at least for the playoffs and Talib doesn't get any worse healthwise. The Secondary becomes a major strength if those things happen.

Strongly disagree with your sort of minimizing the loss of Wilfork and [especially] Mayo, our best LB and the guy that brought everyone together on the field. TBS, Spikes really needs to get healthy if he's hurt--he and Hightower are talented, high-upside guys who really should be able to step up their games to help fill the void up the middle. You just have to scheme around their coverage deficiencies as best you can. I have a feeling that Fletcher and Collins are actually going to be two of the biggest keys as to whether this D can hold it's ground the rest of the way.

The secondary play can clearly be a LOT better and thankfully the key guys involved in that, both up front and in the back end, are not out of the year and have a chance to heal up. We've seen how well this secondary can play when Talib and Dennard are in there at full strength.

However, the bigger issue to me is covering the tight end. Mayo did a respectable job of this, neither Hightower nor Spikes are well suited to this. Given that our run D is weak enough already we can't afford to take either out of the game much of the time either. That suggests to me that you are exactly right - Fletcher and Collins are going to be absolutely critical going forward. The Denver game was very encouraging on that front, but then I saw them doing much of nothing in Houston again, so it's going to be hit or miss and we have to hope they hit when it really counts.

On offense, just keep Gronk healthy and hope our O-Line doesn't sustain more hits. The offense is more than good enough if we can do that.

 

[Nunchucks]

I am pretty sure that May almost never was responsible for covering TEs. He played weak side linebacker in a 4-3, which means his job was to run around and make plays.

 

[BelizePats]

This defense is completely different with a healthy Dennard.

The ripple effect is huge. Arrington, especially banged up as he currently is, has struggled on the outside to the point of getting replaced by Ryan &/or Cole at times. When healthy, and I'll assume by January he will be, he is as good a slot corner as there is in the league. Adding Dennard boosts two positions, tremendously.

Our run D will continue to struggle, but we might be lucky and avoid any good running teams in the postseason. When we've had our top 4 CB/DBs healthy (Talib, McCourty, Arrington, Dennard) - our secondary has been a strength of the team.

This!!! When Dennard is healthy, it significantly upgrades two positions, by pumping Arrington back to the slot where he excels. Dennard is crucial to our success in the playoffs.