will respond with anything intellectual when you misspell something like OFFENSE in the title, be a big boy and make your "i"s capital too, it just looks sloppy and like no thought was put into something that took you time to write.

The scoreboard signaled “Make Some Noise!” when the home team was on offense (duh) and spelled out (with no amusing fence pictures) “dee-fence.” And this is reputedly one of the top schools in the state. Ugh. Can I tear down my house and build it somewhere else now, before my kids get to HS?

Back on topic, I sympathize with Karim and can only answer, Peyton can check into or out of those plays and he’s a heck of a lot better than I am at making those calls. It almost seems like a stupid macho thing—okay, I see 7 in the box and we have 3rd and 2, so… do you think I’m so super-smart that I’ll check to a pass? Or should we prove we’re men and punch you in the mouth anyway…? I don’t know the answer, but I often argued in the past that we should make an early and obvious play, like the 3rd and 2 run up the gut in the first quarter. If we get it, great. if not, then next time we give that look and pass (like the HUGE 1st down pass to Marvin late last season when everybody expected 18 to run on a keeper). Like a baseball pitcher, set them up for the NEXT time. Don’t give it away—try to succeed with the vanilla play, but next time…. change up and maybe get a big surprise.

This especially killed me during our 40 years in the desert (also known as the slump against the Pats). When their D showed about 15 pre-snap looks and 18 was doing his audible at the line thing—I wished 18 would just run the base play a few times, or run (in a Seinfeldian way) the OPPOSITE of what he thought was right, (A) to see if it works and (B) to set them up for uncertainty next time. When you’re down by 10 and struggling in a playoff game, doing the same-old is not necessarily the best idea.

“Hey, guys, when we show 8 in the box, 18 audibles to a short pass just before we all jump back into coverage and rush only three. Tee-hee! Anybody know a good way to get the fibers of Marcus Pollard’s jersey out of my teeth?” How many times did Bruschi and Vrabel and Roidney Harrison send that email back and forth in the offseason? It seemed to me (I may well be mistaken and 18 may never have changed his play call) that it happened a LOT in 2003/2004 and 18 often played right into their hands.

I think I am exaggerating this based on the frustration I felt. I don’t usually feel this way against other top D’s, like Pitt or Balt. But Karim, you are not alone in that frustration. I DO trust in Manning and Moore, however. If I had ten minutes with either one, this issue would surley come up, however.

Specifically the run plays.

There were two plays that a safety came in and made a tackle right at the line of scrimmage. I know on one play, Collie was the closest player there not already blocking anyone. The guy was passed him before he even realized what was going on. rookie mistake….it happens

on the Addai run where he fumbled, the backer blew up Dalla’s Clarks block and was all over him right as he met the o-line. If im not mistaken Addai just lost the ball as he ran into either Lilja or CJ.

hopefully this kind of stuff is just early season kinks that need worked out. we need to run the ball better for sure. maybe they should try some more north south runs……..obviously running on the outside isnt looking good, especially on the right side of the line

Instead of trying to run up the gut with Addai, why don’t they use him as a reciever in those situations? He’s pretty good at doing that.

Ever since Addai got hurt almost 2 years ago, he just hasn’t had the speed to run outside anymore and he doesn’t have the power to run inbetween the tackles.