|
Right now the o-line and Brunell are just not getting it done. How many times has Portis been hit in the backfield? No system or back will be successful if they have to dodge tacklers as soon as they get the handoff.
The Ed Reed stuff of Portis on 3rd and 1 goes squarely on Brunell. He's got to vary his snap count, change protection, or even change the play if he sees someone sneaking up to the line of scrimmage. That's on the qb, get the guys in the right play.
Against the Cowboys, at least we put together a couple of drives on offense. But since then, I've seen nothing at all from Brunell besides ball pats. Why is it that we don't seem to ever have anybody open? No receivers catching the ball in space, even when we dump the ball in the flat to Portis there is always one or two guys bearing down on him. And why is Brunell getting happy feet in the pocket? Five step drop, he pats the ball five times and takes a sack or throws it at somebody's feet.
But it's not the time to bench Brunell. We'd just be starting all over with Ramsey and I'm not ready to see Crazy Patrick throwing picks quite yet. We've got to get some continuity. Look the playoffs were a pipe dream, this was a team that won five games last year and had no history of recent success. So we're not that good of a football team. But we can't be this bad, we just can't be. So far the team has been playing below the sum total of its parts. We've got the wideouts, the running back, the h-back, 4/5 of the line (so I thought) and yet we can't even get first downs let alone score touchdowns.
Portis is a special back, however he's only 22 and dealing with his first bit of adversity. I think he'll show us how special he is one of these Sundays, hopefully before November hits.
|