[papabear]

As is usually the case, nothing is as simple as black and white. I think our scheme is basically sound. The NFL is a copycat league and there really hasn't been anything completely new in a long time so most schemes are going to have some level of success if you have the right players running them.

We have actually been pretty good on first and second down. The big problems have come on third and long, which is where defenses should thrive. Most of the breakdowns amount to either blown assignments or just sloppy tackling.

The sloppy tackling is maddening, but it's something you see a lot of these days. I don't know if it's because college stars are being coddled more than they used to be or not, but it seems like fundamental tackling is dying art in some ways. Unfortunately, it seems as if we have an especially bad case of it. Either way if I see one more Texan lunge in the general direction of a players legs with their head down and kind of roll into the tackle I might just lose my mind. That's something coaches shouldn't have to teach at this level, but it's obvious they do.

The coaches are also responsible for getting the team ready to play. That includes making sure guys know where to line up and what their responsibilities are on each play. The coaching staff has to take some of the blame, but there's only so much a coach can do as well. At the end of the day the players have to take it upon themselves to execute.

It's easy to call Frank Bush a disaster at this point, but it's hard to blame him when he has many times put them in a position to make the plays and get off the field. Like I said, it's not black and white, there's a whole lot of gray area. If I had to pick one area that is the biggest problem it would have to be the safety play. If they can get that squared away somehow then some of those big plays will be a little smaller, and hopefully easier to regroup from and get a stop.