dmw

I am with you but I am afraid that the Defense under Dean Pees will always be that passive bend but don't break mentality (except if always breaks in the fourth quarter). Hard to have a fearsome defense with the defensive philosophy is a very passive one! I would love to see us getting back to our defensive identify and breaking teams will with our defense. Heck... we used to win games with our defense alone. I just cannot envision that under Dean Pees. I am with you... would love to get back to having a fearsome defense (but we may need to get rid of Pees for that to happen)! In my opinion, the defense was aggressive early in the season, when Jimmy Smith was in the game. Without our top cornerback, Pees did loosen the D to make up for the drop in coverage skills in the secondary. That change also affected our ability to stop the run. You could see it on the screen and the defense's rating against the pass and run.

Two things that happened in this game stand out in my mind. Both were veteran moves: 1. Perriman got the defender to look the wrong way by faking his attention in the wrong direction and then adjusted to the ball on the defender's other side. 2. Suggs double clutched on the strip sack of McCown. He started to swipe his arm down for the strip, but McCown hadn't yet brought his arm back to throw. Suggs pulled his arm back slightly and brought it down again when McCown pulled his arm back to throw. Both were veteran plays, one by a rookie (for all purposes). In fact, I haven't seen many veteran receivers fake defenders so badly on a catch. Way to go Perriman. Keep it up!

In-game delays are a concern, especially for the fans at the stadium. I know first hand from a Ravens-Jets game on a rainy, cold night. If the owners want to change the replay system to increase the number of reviews, they should also decrease the time taken for each review. The college replay system, which uses a booth replay, works very well and is much quicker than the NFL system. There is no compelling reason to delay the game while an official on the field travels to an on-field monitor. Of course, then the owners might have to pay an extra official for each game.

According to the contract amount, $4.5 million, it is an exclusive-rights franchise tag. The nonexclusive amount is $4.1 million.