Quote:Maybe you're confused with where I was going with my post. Was the gist of my post specifically talking about the Steelers game? Was the secondary from yesterday the planned secondary for this season? The planned secondary was supposed to be, as we were sold on last year, Ball, Evans, Cyp, and Gratz. 2/4 were high draft picks (2nd and 3rd), one was signed within the first week of free agency, and Evans was a 6th (who wound up benched to start the season and is only playing because the Guy he was benched for was also atrocious and released). That is not a secondary that in its second year together should be allowing every QB to turn into a first-ballot HOF QB, yet that's exactly what they did, until yesterday. Yesterday they showed progress, but it took them 5 games into their second season to get to a point where they looked like they knew how to play football. So many people are saying "this is what you should be expecting because of all the rookies and uncertainties" but that only applies to the offense. The defense should not have been as bad as it was the first 4 weeks. Hopefully yesterday will be the beginning of the norm and not an outlier. Until we find out though, I don't think expecting the defense to look like they know how to play football when its base is supposed to include 7 veteran free agent signings, and a 2nd, 3rd, and 6th round pick all in their second years, constitutes a "magical turnaround."  (Poz is excluded from this tallying of the defense because he was already here, and on a large contract, when Dave got here, so he's the only one on the defense not handpicked by Dave. Therefore I don't count Poz' play against Dave.)

 

Edit: And to the "2 cast off CB" comment; Ball was signed within the first week of free agency and Blackmon was claimed off waivers (from a team with "such superior talent" to the Jags that he was let go because of a "logjam" we were told all last year.) last year. They're both in their second year on the team, playing the same role they did last year. That hardly classifies as "cast off." Its not like when the team signed Youboty in November, after he had been cut by the Bucs during final cuts, and then threw him out there as a starter.