Not a whole lot of drop off from where Brian is at the moment. Earlier in the season, McCoy looked even better hitting the hole. Westy was looking like he was getting back into explosive form just before his concussion. Shady’s pass protection is improving but nowhere near Westy’s, who few seem to realize is a GREAT blocking back. Totally under-appreciated. McCoy also seems like a fumble waiting to happen a la Tiki Barber’s earlier days. Knock on Wood. He can produce, however, both as a runner and receiver, so the play-calling doesn’t really change with McCoy in there.
Donovan, a la Donovan, was real good his first game back and is now seemingly settling into his mid-season malaise. Hopefully he will pull himself out of it without needing to be benched, cause if he is, he just might not get his job back this time. I think he’ll come around, if he looks at some tapes of the way he played BEFORE 2004, when we decided to become a Boom-or-Bust offense full-time until looming play-off elimination forces us to bring some sense to the offensive play-calling. If we can spread the ball around, it will open up the big play, but if we spend all day imitating the run-and-shoot sans the run, it will be a LONG day, cause our play-calling has SUCKED and we have shown no ability to make adjustments on game-day, but OC Marty seemed to address that this week. We’ll see.
Defensively, we miss Dawk, but I think his impact in Denver is greater than his loss here has been. I think he brings attitude, leadership and BELIEF to the Broncos. Here, there seems to be enough leaders emerging to offset his loss. The mad scramble after losing Bradley at MLB really hurt us early in establishing our Defensive Persona, but now we are seeing what we have. Witherspoon looks like he could work out. The transition to McDermott has been, JJ RIP, EXCITING. Think about the impact and energy Spags brought to NY. It’s the same scheme, but, if anything it is more wide-open. Sean is making JJ look like a conservative play-caller. He is adding new wrinkles every week, and he seems to trust his players and they seem to be just as excited to play for him. I like that he has addressed some of Jim’s shortcomings as a DC. For instance, Jim never used big tackles cause he wanted guys to get pressure, but we would get burned by Brandon Jacobs-like backs with our offense going 3 and out or having drives of 2 plays and 75 yds…either way putting our D back out on the field over and over. We use a rotation, but we haven’t had a run-stopping plug like Antonio Dixon in Forever. He doesn’t start, but he keeps the pressure off of Bunk and Pat, who are great against the run, but not designed to do it for 37-40 minutes a game. Little things like that have made me a quick believer in Sean and what he is bringing to the table. Plus, even without Dawk, it is the D that has established it’s personality. The O, with all the potential in the world, is still struggling to figure it out. This offense could be the Saints offense, SERIOUSLY, if they decided to actually RUN a west coast offense with Donovan in there, but they only seem to do that with a backup in. Right now this team passes and if it works, great, but if it doesn’t we just keep doing it over and over until we have no other choice, which sucks for the D. The inability of the O to sustain drives is what keeps this D from being best in the league, and keeps other teams in the game.