The wide open receivers on D are a frustrating return from last year. I don't think that Dom is playing conservative though. I think he is trying to set up DBs for INTs with the soft zone coverage by letting them anticipate and jump routes. The lack of turnovers makes this type of coverage look awful though. He actually needs to play more conservative and not rely on the pick-6 to save the day; especially on third and long.

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I hate zone defense. Love in your face, tight man to man coverage.

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My thoughts. Coaching is hurting our team. Offensive and defensive play calling doesn't seem to be surprising anybody. Offensively we are running plays the other defenses want us to run. To many 10+ yard routes so defenses can play deeper on the zone and make the holes smaller to throw in. Need to have more slants and drag routes to pull the LBers up to open the mid range routes.

Defensively, I think we always play 1 man short because the holes in the zones are just huge.

Though I was happier with the run plays called the last game and a half.

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Tramon said in a post game the Saints are hard to play against cause you can't really press all their receivers by the way they stack them and run their routes. I guess that's why they played off.

Still it's been well documented that zone defenses are bad against certain QB's. The Saints will run their route right to an open area and sit there. The only way this can be avoided is getting instant pressure on Brees, but he has a very good Oline and releases the ball quick.

We have the personnel this year to play mostly man coverage for the most part around the board so I think this is the way we should go. I'm not that upset with the amount of pressure we are bringing. It looks to me like we are being aggressive in that area.

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Thanks for the stats. I guess its just certain stretches in games (like what we saw yesterday) where our defense can't get off the field to save their life makes it seem so much worse.

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Mine:

Offense: I'm not worried about the offense, other than the OL: Newhouse is still maddingly inconsistent, I still think Bulaga is overrated as a tackle, and I think we may miss Wells more than we think. I don't think this is the Mark Spitz/Mr. Mrs.Colledge days -- it's improved over that, but I still worry about Rodgers' long-run health.

Defense:
1. I still hate the 3-man rush -- I think it virtually guarantees a 15-20 yard gain by the other teams. (I remember one 3rd and 17 against NO that was glaring in its rush ineptitude.

2. I'm still underwhelmed by Raji's performance. Especially when he doesn't have the Ryan Pickett there beside him.

3. I'm not yet prepared to say my draft day complaints were wrong, but I do think the rookies -- especially the DBs -- have shown quite a bit more than I expected to see in their first year. So I'm cautiously optimistic that my complaints will be proven unfounded. [grin1]

4. Walden has looked better. So has Hawk.

Special teams:
Coverage units looking pretty good. (And Detroit's really, really sucks. [grin1] )

Tim Mastay is a stud!

Coaching:
McCarthy: uneven. Horrible in first half of Seattle game. Outstanding against NO.
Capers: too damn much zone. too damn much 3-man rush. too damn much combining of the two.

Rest of division:
Minnesota 3-1. Didn't expect that. Still expect them to taper off. They're not a .750 team.
Chicago. They still suck. Who cares?
Detroit. I'm a geezer. I should have learned the most important lesson about the Lions from the Wayne Fontes era -- they're teases and pretenders, not contenders.

Rest of league:
SF tough as expected. Houston could be scary by end of year -- should run away with AFC. Atlanta, Arizona -- WTF? New Orleans 0-4: couldn't happen to a nicer team. NE still overrated, same with PIttsburgh.

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havent played our best football, out of the gates at 2-2, obviously should be 3-1, with that said i like our chances going to the next segment of the season, aaron had a real good day against the saints and he is the key to this team !!

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need to add this:

DROPS!

WHAT THE HELL is with the drops?

next to wide open recievers nothing annoys me more than drops!

[palm] [palm] [palm] [palm] [palm] [palm] [palm] [palm] [palm]

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