[PokerFink]

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well, I don't claim to be making any novel observations here, but it just seems like the 4-man rush and even the blitzes haven't been getting to the quarterback nearly enough this year.

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No doubt. It's bad - I'm worried every time we blitz now.

The problem is that some of our players - and I'm talking blitzers, mainly defensive backs, not the lineman - just have no clue how to rush the quarterback. Their timing and angles are awful. I've seen a lot of delayed blitzes from defensive backs that are so late it's useless. You can't blitz from ten yards behind the LOS - you'll never get there.

The loss of Dawkins really hurts in this regard. Not only is he an outstanding pass rusher, but he's so good in deep coverage that he can help clean up the mess when other people fail their blitzes. I like Mikell a lot, but he can't rush the passer and he isn't as good as Dawk in deep coverage. Considine is useless as a pass rusher. I'd like to see Considine benched when Dawk comes back in favor of Mikell.

The other problem is wrapping up the quarterback when the blitzes succeed. I don't know if it's coaching or personnel or what, but it's a problem we've always had.

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everybody I'm sure will disagree with most of this and just call for Reid's job.

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I really hope not. Reid has built a helluva team. We've been competitive pretty much every year for seven years running. Almost any replacement coach will be a significant downgrade from Reid.

As for Donovan, he's still going to be better than Kolb this year and next. Hopefully he will continue to get healthier this year and for 2008, but I think by 2009 the reins will be turned over to Kolb.