(04-22-2019, 09:51 PM)Bullseye Wrote:

(04-22-2019, 09:30 PM)americus 2.0 Wrote: 2017 they (D line) were awesome, 2018 they seemed full of themselves coming into the season and it showed- except for Campbell- he worked his [BLEEP] off. Yes there were injuries to the team that kept the D line on the field a lot more than usual but Ramsey was getting burned left and right and a lot of folks saw it and talked about it. 

I'm not saying he's a bad player, I like the guy, but he runs his mouth too much sometimes.

1.  I would differ with your indirect assessment of Ngakoue's play.  Ngakoue played quite well last year.

2.  There were reasons the play of the defense fell off, including:

• a dramatic fall off from the offense.  With the injuries and poor performance coming from that side of the ball, the defense played with fewer leads and were left on the field for too long;
  
• A decrease in the quality of the depth;  once Fowler was traded, the pass rush took a hit.  While Fowler had his share of detractors here, it is without question he provided far more of a pass rush than Smoot.  Once he was out of the rotation, Ngkoue and Campbell had to play more snaps and were not as fresh or exposed to as many favorable match ups.  When Smoot was put in the lineup, he didn't have the production that fowler had, and that impacted the rest of the defense.
  
• I think maturity played a role  As professionals, this group had not had sustained success.  While there were circumstances beyond their control that adversely impacted their performance, I think focus, for whatever reason, was an issue, which is one reason why the defense could look like total garbage in the first half in the first Colts game, then look stellar against the same Colts team later in the season.  I believe the team as a whole learned from last year, and in a strange way, if sufficiently re-stocked this week-could be better for it.
  

3.  As far Ramsey, he had a down year by his standards.  There was at least one blown coverage against the Colts, and given the excessive number of crossing routes that OBJ ran, some say he had a bad game week one, though I don't put much of that on Ramsey the way some of you do.  Late in the year, he played through the injury.  But even a down year by his standards makes him the best player on the team and among the best in the league.  His mouth didn't have anything to do with it either way.