Ask The Phinsider

that we will at least be in the thick of things up until Week 17. I don’t think we’ll ever control our own destiny, but we still have three more matchups against the AFC East; all three of which could yield wins. Once against Buffalo, and once each against New England/New York (on the road for both). Generally, the AFC East (less the Bills) split the games to the tune of 4-2. I don’t see us going any worse than 3-3, and we still have a lot of football to be played against the AFC to improve our positioning.

I don’t think anything should be taken away from our wins or losses; Minnesota, for the struggling they’ve endured, still has one of the top defenses in the league. Green Bay still has Rodgers, Jennings, Driver, and a semi-competent ground game. Even without Matthews, they’re still not a pushover defense either. Bills, yeah. But still, they almost beat the team from Baltimore who shall remain nameless and were dominating them at one point. We lost while driving on the Jets, and lost a game to Pittsburgh that was more than winnable. We’ve held our own all season, and save for the New England game, had every opportunity to be 5-1 at this point.

We’re going to have to beat the tough teams when we play them (Titans, Ravens, you guys, etc.), but I’m optimistic about our odds considering the rest of our schedule (Raiders, Browns, Lions, etc.)

If Jonathon Joseph is out, I think we may attempt to attack your secondary. If he plays and looks healthy, I still think Henne’s got a good chance to reach 200+.

Thing is, Palmer’s playing well, as are TO and Chad. Benson is underwhelming (unfortunate, I have him in a keeper league), but that seems to be partly attributable to your line’s struggles as well as the situations you’ve been put in from a scoring perspective.

Honestly, after Henne put up somewhere in the range of 240 against Pittsburgh while behind by no less than a score or two all game, I can’t see Henne missing out on the 200 mark (no disrespect intended). That is, unless, somehow we can open up the game with our special teams (doubt it) or running game (possible, but also doubt it).

We like to think of ourselves as a power running football team, but our ability to run block has greatly diminished, and our quality of running backs has also declined with it. I truly believe we’re transitioning (whether Sparano likes it or not) into a team that sets up the run via the pass. We’ve got the weapons to do so, and our line is pass-protecting like each game was our last.

my point was that if your offense can hang with our defense (which I don’t see why they couldn’t; TO seems to terrorize us), and even out-perform us, then yes, Henne will definitely exceed 200 yards passing and may even dabble with the 300-range depending on how many points we need to make up.

was looking for breakdown of your O-line and D-line, not breakdown of all your personnel on both sides….thanks

We keep a back or TE in a lot. Often see max protect on pass plays.

Give or take, like, a million or two.

Wanna know who played in Miami, OH though? Ben.

TO has terrorized us in the past, and I’m not fond of how hot he is right now.

The thing with our pass defense is, we’re very young and mostly inexperienced. Jason Allen was a former first round pick who we deemed a bust until the Mike Nolan signing allowed him to just be aggressive and not think (which was his problem; he’s just not a thinker). We also switched him back and forth between S and CB too many times, stunted his development. He now seems to be in a nice fit, having intercepted enough passes to be in the top five or so in the league. He’s not the fastest player, and he is pretty athletic. I’d say we cover TO with him, and I’m hot and cold on that matchup. I think he’ll allow TO to have a pretty decent day, but may pick Palmer off in the process.

Vontae Davis is our version of a Brandon Flowers-type. Young cover corner who can nearly eliminate a wideout but isn’t very well-known yet and has plenty of room for development to become a true shutdown. He’s very physical, and whoever he’s stuck on will become the least of my worries. I’m going to assume he takes Ochocinco, because Chad’s the faster deep threat, no? VD’s specialty with his physical play.

I’ll venture to guess Benny Sapp will be on Shipley, which, I am going to call neutral. Sapp is a vet, and his best position is the nickel CB covering the slot. Given that Shipley is a rookie, I can’t give him the edge. Once he gets some experience, I might. I like JS a lot as a future slot machine.

Our safeties are hit-or-miss. Chris Clemons is a second year FS in his first year as a starter. He makes mistakes every now and again, but overall, he’s actually playing pretty well. Forced a fumble or two last weekend, tackled nine guys (tackling was one of his biggest question marks). I think he had some tackles for a loss.. the guy was a steal in the fifth round, it looks like. He can still be taken advantage of, though. I do like him going forward.

Yeremiah Bell, I don’t understand. Took years to develop, for whatever reason. He’s 31, 32 at this point, but he’s finally tapped into his potential and was a Pro Bowl selection as of last season. This year, he’s not playing the same way. He’s not as physical, he’s missing tackles, making mental mistakes. He’s got the talent, but for some reason, he’s not all there. I’m willing to guess that it is due to his age and diminishing athleticism, but given how deceptively fast he can be, I don’t know that that’s fair.

Sean Smith was our starter last year, starting all 16 games as a rookie CB. This year, he seems to have lost his confidence, and has been relegated to covering the TE for the most part. He’s 6’3" or so, safety size. He’ll most likely be on Gresham, but Gresham appears to be a strong, athletic guy. He could abuse Smith if Palmer looks for him and has time.

I like our chances defending Cedric to be honest. However, we’re not exactly being torched in the secondary, and have a strong pass rush. I’ve seen a lot more times where opposing QBs might have minutes in the pocket but just can’t find an open man than I did last season. It’s definitely not cake to pass on us. 217 yards per game passing, just 5 less than you guys. So your OC has his work cut out. I would suggest you guys set up the run via the pass, but your OC sounds like ours; we’ll complete five straight passes, driving down the field, and we hit the red zone when Henning decides to call two straight runs against the top run defense, followed by a failed short pass.

Just doesn’t make sense.

I am so used to the Green and white variety and our site. how cute to see one black and purple?!

(whistle) here troll! here troll!. Awwww… its wagging its tail! how cute. Take a picture!! ok now. hurry on back home now.

Your “Wait a day” period is almost up for me.

Jake Long is their son.