Seems like last year especially, we gave up a scoring drive within the first 10 minutes of the game in addition to badly mishandling the 'middle eight' (last 4 minutes of the 1st half and first 4 minutes of 2nd half) more times than not and a few games that we gave up late scores (some didn't cost us, some did). Can we reverse that trend and score first consistently this year? Part of that, I think, was on the offense but part was on a defense that looked to me to be very passive and vanilla their first 2-3 series most games and we inevitably gave up points early thus putting more pressure on our slow-as-molasses offense last year.
Am I remembering incorrectly? I recall being behind early almost every game whether by 3 or 7. Then, we absolutely crapped the bed multiple games in the middle 8. Hope we can reverse those trends.
I'd really like to see our defense, right from the opening kickoff, being aggressive and attacking without taking ridiculous risks. Laying back in soft zones and giving up 3-5 yards on easy plays early seemed like a strategy we employed way too often for my tastes. Only after we got down a score did it seem like we switched things up to combat the opponent. Seems like we were always adjusting to what the offense was doing and not making THEM adjust to what we were doing on defense.
Am I remembering incorrectly? I recall being behind early almost every game whether by 3 or 7. Then, we absolutely crapped the bed multiple games in the middle 8. Hope we can reverse those trends.
I'd really like to see our defense, right from the opening kickoff, being aggressive and attacking without taking ridiculous risks. Laying back in soft zones and giving up 3-5 yards on easy plays early seemed like a strategy we employed way too often for my tastes. Only after we got down a score did it seem like we switched things up to combat the opponent. Seems like we were always adjusting to what the offense was doing and not making THEM adjust to what we were doing on defense.
