This game was erily similar to not only the Jacksonville game last year, but also the Superbowl. Our offense came out looking sharp, energetic, on the move and the Chicago fans were silent. We then stall on first and goal and take a 3-0 lead. Chicago kept giving us chances, stalling themselves and only being able to muster 1 TD and 2 FG's in 3 redzone opportunities. Then, the wheels really starting falling off......
Give Chicago credit, their defense looks very impressive. However, we were (as well as the rest of the nation) expecting a much closer game. Not all the blame falls on Hasselback, but he IS throwing a lot of interceptions and he IS under a lot of pressure. There were numerous times that both Gray and Locklear were flat out beat and out muscled last night.
We were not all that impressed with our defensive scheme last night as well. As much as we love Lofa, he missed on 3-4 tackles and was out of position quite a bit. That adds up over the course of the game. He needs to learn from these types of games. Our pass rush? Non-existant. Grossman had ALL day to pass back there. Please tell us we are not going back to our conservative Ray Rhodes sit back in zone type defense........that killed us in the past!
Finally, our offense is still flat from a play calling perspective. Please, please, please run Hassleback out of the shotgun on third and long vs. having him audible to the Mack Strong up the middle draw. That play is OLD!!
Finally, congrats to the Dawgs for picking up the win vs. AZ...their schedule get really rough from here on out....USC, Oregon, and WSU all on the road. Yikes!
Finally, finally......we finished the week 8-5 in our pro picks and have a 38-17 overall record.
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