Let me put this out there. THE STAFFORD EFFECT: 3RD AND LONG IS JUST ANOTHER DOWN AS MAKEABLE AS 3RD AND SHORT
Like everyone else, I used to sweat 3rd and longs. But with Stafford's ability to complete passes at all distances, I don't sweat them any more than any other down. The dude is a total gunslinger who can fire bullets at any range. Behind the chains? No problem just run deeper routes.
Okay, let me put this out there too. The freaking OL is playing lights out. They are pass protecting at a high level. The run blocking will improve. Trying to play a power run game without a FB is hard. There are times that Matt has all day to throw. Teams have to blitz to get pressure which potentially makes them vulnerable in the secondary.
Every team has an ugly game. The important thing is to still win those ugly games. The margin of victory would have been larger except for that ST's blunder. Speaking of STs they still suck. It's the only part of this team I think needs to improve. DeCamillis is trying to get too cute by trying to force a return on KOs. Screw that it's not working. Just kick it deep into the endzone and let them either down it or try to run it out. Probably a third of all the short KOs have been returned beyond the 25, i.e. the net result is probably a loss of yards.
