secondary
 

I hate to sound like a downer after a win, but #28 is not looking very much like the player he was last year. #32 is missing way too many tackles and dumb penalties. #31 doesn't look at all like the impact player he was on his old team. #24 and #25 are probably playing the best out of all the DB's at the moment.

I wonder if we haven't messed up the secondary by signing #31. I'm not saying he sucks or anything, but with #27 back there last year we had some man-to-man coverage ability in a safety. #31, it seems, can only play back in zone. I would obviously love to be proven wrong on this.

The main thing right now is #28. He really needs to get it together, because today he was reminded me of #21 and that's definitely not a good thing.

Re: secondary
 

Spot on, Jack.
I'm concerned with the secondary playing the receiver and not playing the ball.

On the bright side, we kept the Vikings out of the end zone, however, they were operating without TWO key starters on offense today.

A good win, but i'm still wanting for aggression.

Re: secondary
 

The secondary has looked better every game... And it'll take some time before the safeties get used to each others tendencies, so I'm not worried about either Vaccaro or Byrd.

Hell, today without Robinson they were actually playing some man press coverage... It's a step in the right direction and everything else will fall into place

Re: secondary
 

After watching again, it's not quite as bad as it felt during the game, but still not even close to last year's standards. Corey White (I will use his name here, he earned it) had a very good game. But #28 looked even worse than I had thought the first time around, and #32 has some real problems staying with his man and not getting PI.

We also got very lucky several times. Bridgewater rushed a couple throws and missed wide open guys in some pretty critical spots. Romo will not be so easily intimidated by our one-man pass rush. :lol:

Re: secondary
 

It appeared that there was way too much cushion at times.... WTF!

Re: secondary
 

I like our secondary a lot more when Corey white is the #2 CB, for one thing he is a sure tackler

A lot of the yards against p-rob was because he can't tackle or gives a half hearted effort

Corey knows the proper tackling technique, he wraps up well

Re: secondary
 

Secondary will look a lot better once the pass rush issue is resolved.

Re: secondary
 

Issue number 1: Pass rush needs to addressed.

Having a pass rush that hurries the QB makes a huge difference for the DBs. They can feel more comfortable playing press man coverage knowing the deep ball will be less likely due to a good pass rush. This also helps turn-overs with strip-sacks and hurried throws that shouldn't have been made. I think most of our issues actually start up front (now that PRob is done) with guys like Cam Jordan being a non-factor.

I would like to see Powell get his shot in passing situations. They like #91 and have had him in on passing downs but I have yet to see the hype. Powell was amazing in college when healthy and looked good in the pre-season.

Issue number 2: Cohesion

It takes time for a secondary to gel. They also need to find a leader. Vaccaro said they all take on the leadership role, but that is a problem. If you have too many leaders then you have none. One of them needs to stand up and take charge of the DBs. The QB of the defensive backs is needed and right now that's what we are missing. Jenkins was a great leader for the team, as he is for philly, but someone (Byrd) needs to fill that void.

Re: secondary
 

Agreed, it would be nice to see Powell play
I like Humber but he isn't an outside linebacker, which is where we played him yesterday, he is a run stopping thumper in the middle

Our defense as a whole is still not communicating well, there were a couple blown assignments that could have cost us, namely greg jennings wide open 60 yards down field with not a defender in site, luckily our D forced the QB to scramble on that play.
The communication needs to get better though, one play I watched a couple of times was the 30 yard pass to patterson, which is a perfect example.

Vikings are in I formation, with 2 receivers to the left, play action fake
The full back comes through the line and heads to the sideline
NOW, Ramon Humber backs up but does not go for the full back, Keenan lewis and Humber end up covering the same zone where the full back has leaked out to.
Which Vacates a huge space on the deep left off the field where I believe Keenan Lewis should have dropped back into, Patterson runs a corner route and Byrd is covering jennings running a deep route.

Patterson was left completely unmarked and byrd has to come back to make the tackle, from the way Keenan lewis acted I believe he was at fault, he jumped the full back when he came through the line when humber already had that zone covered

Re: secondary
 

I think it's hard to judge our secondary when the two first sets of guys in front of them are non existent. No pass rush and our LBers are a joke. Plenty of blame to go around