One Year Ago: 2010's Outlook Vs 2011

[hawkprey]

[b]If I may, (and I do may), I'd like to bring up the conundrum of the 2010 season. Remember that? I do. It was just like it was yesterday...[/b]

[font=comic sans ms,cursive]To start off the offseason, all we thought we needed was a wide receiver to complement Derrick Mason, a cornerback upgrade and a little pass rush. Ozzie gave us Boldin, and many fans had us predicting a 16-0 season, or something close to that (nothing under 11-5). I myself predicted us having the top defense in the league and winning 13.[/font]

[font=comic sans ms,cursive]Cornerback was a big concern until we traded for Wilson. We also got Housh. Thanks Seattle! Our WRs were expected to give us the passing game we always desired. [/font]

[font=comic sans ms,cursive]We were a solid team, and we were healthy. Many players came into the season saying they were "the healthiest they've been in years". Ed Reed, Todd Heap, JJ, to name a few. I pointed it out myself. All of our injured vets seemed to be healthy all at once. [/font]

[color=#0000cd]Then that "once" was gone. Foxworth got hurt. Gaither got hurt. When you look back at the season, we actually had a "hidden" injury bug. Lots of minor things went wrong with players. Aside from those starters out, we had a few out to start the season. But it's the end of the season when things got rough.[/color]
[color=#0000cd] JJ was playing hurt. Birk was playing hurt. Stallworth missed half the season and couldn't be worked in to the offense. Grubbs was playing hurt. Ed was playing hurt. Heap was hurt and missed time. Remember Pitta and Dickson filling in for the Pittsburgh game, trying to block James Harrison together? Ugly. It was the most our rookies got to spend on the field. Almost all of them were out some time or on IR. Kindle and Harewood were on IR. Pitta and Cody missed time and Reed left us soon after he became our biggest impact rookie on kick returns. We got almost nothing out of our rookie class. Just a few plays. [/color]

[b]So what went wrong? What did we neglect?[/b]
-Injuries.
-The offensive line completely gave out without Gaither. We had no run game.
-Joe had barely any protection in the pass game.
-Our receivers couldn't get separation towards the end of the year.
-We couldn't adjust in the second half on offense.
-We couldn't get pressure on quarterbacks, even when we blitzed.
-Our defensive scheme let passers fling the ball on us all day.
-Our run D was the weakest it's been in 10 years.
-The soft style defense gave up too many 4th quarter touchdown drives.

This might as well have been the breakdown of the 2008 Detroit Lions. Looking at our problems in every phase of the game, it's amazing we even won anything.

[color=#ff0000][u]Now in 2011, what are the weaknesses of our team? Which ones remain?[/u] Inexperienced receivers? McKinnie fitting in at left tackle? These are hardly anything to worry about compared to 2010's multitude of problems that gradually became evident. But the point of this thread is that any team can have plenty of unknown problems that can plague a team, or not make a difference at all. The season is still up for grabs an no team automatically IS what they appear to be before the first snap of the year. [/color]

[berad]

I still think Gaither being out for the season hurt the team the most. Namely, removing Yanda from RG and putting Chester [i](shutter)[/i] in his place. Killed our running game and, although the passing game was pretty effective, it wasn't enough especially when we reverted to running so much.

Anywho, the OL is still a point of contention; it's been shuffled again but looks very similar to our 2009 line - replace Gaither with McKinnie and add two years. The pass-rush is a place to look, too. Kruger's looked good in preseason, Kindle is back, McPhee looks promising, and that's not even mentioning the aggression a Chuck Pagano brings. CB corps is much deeper, too.

[Rugger92]

I feel you guys are 100% correct with this but I feel youre missing something. We didnt expect injuries from JJ, gaither, etc last year so Im wondering what will go wrong this year. You know the rule, what can go wrong will. What would be the biggest blow this year for our team?

Interior line- Gurode, center and guard if needed
Cornerback- We have 2 promising talents with 2 veteran back ups
Recievers- We have 2 Elite Caliber guys with 3 promising prospects
TightEnds- Again 2 up and coming talents
Defensive line- Thats stacked with McPhee and Cody and Ngata and Redding
Lineback- Stacked again, we can move JJ to interior if Ray or anyone goes down and Kruger and Kindle can play OLB
Safety- 3 strong safteies and one of em played solid Freesafety last year

What does that leave out?
QB
RB- I know people will say Ricky Williams which is good and all but I dont think he could play to a leave that we would need consistantly
Exterior Offensive Line- Who can step up and play the run and pass as well as we would need

Special Teams-Hopefully no one will go down but if they do that will change the the whole game for us.


So basically what Im trying to say is in 2010 what we thought would be strengths turned out to be fragile at the time and that caused us to rely on other things, and might I say a 12-4 record relying on a few backups is special, but Im concerned our strengths might no be as strong as we think.

THoughts?

[PWNEDbyDEANO]

Great analysis hawkprey. I actually didn't realise just how much we were playing with injuries and setbacks. I knew of Gaither's loss and how much that affected the team and also JJ being a lot less reliable than usual but it was a much bigger problem than just that.

It speaks for itself when David Reed was our biggest impact rookie even though he failed to record a single catch the entire year.

[T-ray]

I think we're in a great spot for the future.... as the experts say, "elite franchises don't rebuild.... they just reload"

[mhead66]

[quote name='hawkprey' timestamp='1315194967' post='777520']
...

[color=#ff0000][b][u]Now in 2011, what are the weaknesses of our team? Which ones remain?[/u] [/b]Inexperienced receivers? McKinnie fitting in at left tackle? These are hardly anything to worry about compared to 2010's multitude of problems that gradually became evident. But the point of this thread is that any team can have plenty of unknown problems that can plague a team, or not make a difference at all. The season is still up for grabs an no team automatically IS what they appear to be before the first snap of the year. [/color]
[/quote]
Good post, good question.

I think the two units with the most [u]potential[/u] for problems is the OLine and the pass D (due to the pass rush). Not saying either will happen, we're just talking possibilities here.

Gurode helps with depth, definitely - but LT is the huge question. McKinnie is an unknown, and LT is the most important position on the OLine. We just don't know if he'll return to his '09 form, or be a liability with a loss of ability to stop speed rushers.

The pass D - with our inexperience at CB - can be compensated for with a strong pass rush. I think the best pass rushing unit will be Ngata, Art Jones & McPhee on the DLine and Sizzle + Kruger / Kindle at the OLBs. Not to be a Negative Nancy, but I hope McPhee, Kindle and A. Jones can get it done vs. 1st teamers... But we must get more pass rush without blitzing 6 guys every play - it leaves us exposed to big plays.

Of course, injuries are always the big unknown... that's why quality depth separates the contenders from the pretenders. GB lost scads of players to injury last year, and won a Lombardi.