(03-11-2018, 05:58 PM)JUNGLE CAT 2017 Wrote:

(03-10-2018, 04:16 PM)DragonFury Wrote: I don't think this roster is being built to beat a specific team in the league but more to take advantage of a trend in the league towards high price quarterbacks on teams with mediocre at best defenses. Because those teams are heavily invested in their passing games it leaves talent on the table for other positions. One example of this is the tinhorns spending a ton of money on Osweiler which meant to didn't have the space to pay Bouye as well, which allowed us to pick him up. Campbell came onto the FA market because Arizona didn't have the money to pay him, partly because Palmer and Fitzgerald had a combined cap hit of $40 million.

Conversely, teams are building defenses to stop the passing game and as a result leave themselves vulnerable to teams with a strong running game. Houston and Seattle are both teams we beat partly because those teams failed to stop the run when it really mattered. Pittsburgh counts as well but that's slightly tempered by the fact they were missing Shazier in the second game. New England eventually beat us because they were able to stop the run.

New England beat us because they loaded up to stop the run in order to put the football in Blake Bortles' hands. Any team can stop the run albeit might look like the famous 10-1 electric football formation some times.

Bortles was given the football with 2:48 left. 

Here is that drive:

Not a single rushing attempt. Not one.

What's your point? Because that drive happened when everybody knew we weren't going to run the ball. Prior to that last drive the Patriots stopped dead pretty much every single running play. The five longest runs in the second half covered 14, 7, 3, 3, and 3 yards. Our longest run the 4th quarter was 2 yards. Yes, the Patriots loaded up against the run but you're forgetting the most important thing: it worked.

Pittsburgh was in Cover 0 with 10 men in the box (TEN!) on Fournette's 90 yard run. Seattle was crowding the line (six men on the line, two more in the box) when Fournette went 13 yards on 3rd and 11 to seal the victory. Plenty of teams played the run and we still beat them. The Patriots beat us by playing the run and it ended up costing us the game.

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