Just watched the all-22 of the defense from yesterday because I wanted to get a look at what we were doing at CB with Brown out and here's a few random thoughts:
-DaRon Bland is the "starting" CB even on the outside when we only have two CB's on the field. He shifts inside to the slot when we go to 3 CB's with Joseph on the outside, but it's Joseph who comes off the field when we go to two CB's, not Bland.
-LVE had probably his best game of the season yesterday, especially in terms of getting out to the sideline on perimeter runs. He isn't the star we expected after his rookie year but he's a solid starting LB, would love to bring him back (assuming Quinn returns) if he'd take like 3/15.
-We really need another big body on the interior if Hankins is out for the year, he's the only guy who can sit in there and hold his ground somewhat consistently. Osa and Gallimore just want to get upfield and too often get pinballed around in a phone booth.
-Parsons was quiet but he was going up against one of the better LT's in the league in Tunsil and the Texans were still chipping and giving help often. The rest of the guys didn't do enough to get home here and there, but the fact that the game went the way it did made it easy for the Texans to pick and choose their spots to pass, and use protective formations and conservative passes accordingly.
-Joseph was fine, not great but not noticeably worse than Brown which at this point would be a win. He got beat on that 50/50 ball early on that probably should've been overturned but aside from that he was solid, even had the nice PD for a 3rd down stop in the 4th. The competition obviously wasn't great so hopefully he can hold up decently in the coming weeks because he's going to see plenty of 50/50 balls his way.
-Our formations just leave way too many gaps and natural running lanes, it's fine right now but the cracks we see in the running game now will turn into craters in the playoffs so hopefully Quinn knows he has to tighten up the alignments a bit against run-heavy teams, especially on squishy passing downs (i.e. 3rd and 3-5 where we've been getting killed on draws up the middle). It wouldn't be a bad idea to get a 3rd traditional LB on the field situationally (LVE, Barr, Clark) since even in our heavy alignments Kearse is often our 3rd LB with only 2 traditional LB's.
-Aside from the hustle play down by the goal line Carlos Watkins is still classically decent against the run but we need more than just him and Bohanna against running games like the Eagles, 49ers and so forth.
At the disparity