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In Flores We Trust - How Good Can This Defense Be?


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Just now, vike daddy said:

because the offense left anywhere from 6 to 21 points on the field.

overtime would have been unnecessary.

The first stat that stands out again this week is the number of give aways. You can’t keep giving an offense as talented as the Bengals chances. And then to blame the defense for giving up 24 to them, help me understand. I get the inability to stop them at the end of the game, that is a real concern but it shouldn’t have been close if Mullens doesn’t make so many moronic decisions.

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25 minutes ago, Captain Relax said:

Flores going conservative, playing prevent soft zone coverage with only a 3 or 4 man pass rush at the end of games drives me nuts!  With a match up issue with Higgins, giving Browning time to get the ball to him is just maddening. I love Flores and his aggression...why move off of it when the opponent has shown they don't have the ability to handle it?

True but fact still remains that Evans is suspect at corner and hard to be super aggressive and not play zone when guys cannot cover or handle their own outside.  Murphy can, Blackmon is coming on but still that third CB spot or 2nd boundary spot has been suspect all season.

Not to mention the DL is not great at pass rushing which puts more pressure on the edges to get pressure or Metellus/Smith off the edge to get pressure on blitzes.  Really wish Davenport could have stayed healthy, he was a force as a pass rushing DL or interior DT in pass rush situations.  

 

Phillips has done well this year and Bullard had that big sack in this game but game in and game out they are really lacking in terms of DT pass rushers which makes any blitz or pressure less effective.  

 

The Bengals do have one of the best WR cores in the NFL, and even when Chase goes out Higgins and Boyd are totally solid receivers and Hudson was impressive at TE I thought, they also have Trenton Irwin when healthy is decent in the slot, Irv Smith as a 2nd TE can make plays obviously, Iosivas is talented no question and Charlie Jones almost had that huge deep catch but the throw was off.  So they are a deep group and a very talented roster no doubt about it.  Have to play zone because straight man not sure they could hang.  They were hoping Browning would get confused and make mistakes when Mullens was the one that got confused at times and made the mistakes more often in big moments.  

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I don't think we'd have an issue with the soft zone looks if we were winning by a larger margin.

Had we not turned the ball over twice on our side of the field, and got 3 or maybe even 6 points, we'd have more leeway to play a conservative defense.

But it came back to bite us in the butt like it did against Chicago.

I still believe in Flores. I wish he was given more talent to work with, but he's doing great with what he has.

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1 hour ago, vikingsrule said:

The first stat that stands out again this week is the number of give aways. You can’t keep giving an offense as talented as the Bengals chances. And then to blame the defense for giving up 24 to them, help me understand. I get the inability to stop them at the end of the game, that is a real concern but it shouldn’t have been close if Mullens doesn’t make so many moronic decisions.

I had to give this some space and think about it.

First, I'm somehow more mad about this game now lol. The 2 failed short yardage plays are still infuriating, but before that...

Giving up 3 straight TD drives in the 4th quarter, even after your offense responds and gets you back up by 7, is bad. It really really bad, especially when you adjust for the expectations they themselves have set and the fact that Jake Browning is not a good QB. His play his commendable in light of the situation, but this game shouldn't have been this close.

They gave up 3, length of the field drives in one quarter. There's nothing else to say about that then that it's bad. 24 points from Mullens and Co on the road is honestly a good effort.

What's frustrating is that the defensive failures largely came down to poor play and gameplanning. Tackling was really poor and containment of Browning was embarrassingly bad, which led to a lot of the bigger plays.

Really disappointing game from this team

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8 minutes ago, SteelKing728 said:

That could be a mark against hiring him as a HC this year. Just a thought. I'm still very much a supporter of Flores.

I doubt it has any impact...ultimately though I just think it will still come down to his pending lawsuit.  The fact that it will still be pending will have a larger impact than any other factor.  I still have utmost confidence that he'll be here in 2024.  2025 will be another story.  If the defense has another great season, then he'll be as good as gone. 

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13 hours ago, vikesfan89 said:

Is Sean Desai doing that bad of a job that he was demoted? I know he was a popular name of Flores want going to be the guy

I was never that impressed with him, but others were.  From what I heard, he had basically lost the room. 

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imo this is something to keep in mind when evaluating Flores work this season...our DLine is a bottom3 DLine which struggles to generate pressure unless they are rushing more than 4. Our Defensive Tackle duo is probably the worst in NFL...need to upgrade here

 

 

Edited by SotanKing
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