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Originally Posted by jdlea
I agreed with your post up until the shot at Portis. He had a good game aside from the 2 fumbles. So...let's look at the fumbles. The first lead to 3 points...that didn't break the team's back. What killed the Skins was the 23 yard run he had called back right before the fumble.
The second, I remember happening, but I don't remember if the Raiders scored on the ensuing possession, while I believe they did, they shouldn't have. They took over at like their own 35 or 40. The D should have been able to stop them from scoring. In addition, I am of the belief that Clinton was down and the play should have been challenged, but that really doesn't matter now.
Finally, I would like to know what your solution to the "problem" with Clinton Portis would be. Start Ladell Betts who got hurt again? What about last week when Portis averaged around 6 yards a carry? He averaged over 4 this week, which isn't bad, he just had 2 giveaways, I know that hurt, but that's a particularly bad day. Niether of them killed the team. The D just needed to step up more than they did, and I agree that Joe should be putting teams away, but he plays tenative.
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I have alway's felt that Betts was a better fit for us than Portis, but the reality is the guy can't stay healthy, his best position is as a quality backup. My actual solution to the Portis problem is well documented, it was not to trade for him in the first place, Shawn Alexander could have been had for less than what we gave up for Portis and a much better fit for Gibbs, or we could have used draft pick's for either Kevin Jones, or Stephen Jackson, I really liked Julius Jones as well coming out, but he seems to be a lot like Betts at this point, very good when healthy.
But that's water under the bridge now, we have to fix what we have, and the only way to do that is to use Portis on draw after draw, that's where he is best, allowing the defense to come up field and then let him use his speed and cutting ability to take advantage of that, it doesn't seem our line has really grasped the zone blocking concept that we were supposed to be running this year, Portis had a nice run that was called back on a zone blocking play, but it seems whenever he has a big gain it's on a draw, or a cut back play, and then we never see it again.
I am not a Portis hater per say, I just didn't see him fitting in to what Gibbs does on offense, Portis can easily recapture his production he had in denver but Gibbs has to change how he uses him on a consistant basis, after a year and a half and he still hasen't adjusted, I don't believe Gibbs will.