The elephant in the room

[Von Cichlid]

(02-06-2022, 04:37 PM)TheFan Wrote: I haven't gone back to look at the stats but I feel like scoring typically goes down in the playoffs. Refs start calling way less so it's harder for offenses to play the same since holding, PI, etc aren't being called anywhere near as much which extends drives. This is in addition to defenders being able to get away with more against receivers.

For us specifically, even being able to slow our receivers down an extra .5 by being more handsy is huge. I think that's where the deficiency of our oline really shows up even if it's not all just sacks.

This is the way I am kind of looking at it too.  The Dallas offense was bad, as was NE, Tennessee, Arizona, Green Bay, and Philadelphia. Even LA was bad the last two weeks except for the 1st half against Tampa and the 2nd half against SF.  

The only Super Bowl teams I can think of that won it with offense were NE against ATL and PHI against NE.  Otherwise, most games have been a slugfest for nearly the entire contest.

I would give anything for our offense to somehow turn it on, but I just don't think it is going to happen.  The key for us will be to not let LA's offense turn it on either.  We are going to have to confuse Stafford like we did Mahomes in the 2nd half, and we will have to make plays on defense like the Tennessee game.

On offense, we will have to weather what will likely be a storm in the 1st half.  If we can keep the game close, then I expect Burrow to adapt and hopefully be able to find and exploit some weaknesses in the LA defense in the 2nd half.