Your not alone. I just don't get the mob mentality sometimes that once a player has been labeled as the bad guy it is almost impossible to change that view. I was raised by wolves...I mean lawyers, so it might just be me feeling the need to argue with someone.

He isn't getting consistent pressure up the middle, but I'm not convinced they are asking him to penetrate most downs. Maybe they are and I'm just giving him too much credit for playing more of a two gap role. I think his effort level has been pretty good this year...Of course, I'm sure some of that has to do with Okoye, Okam, and Dlejuan being around too. Whatever, I don't care as long as he got the message.

I'd like to see more from his position, whether it's from him or we find an upgrade. It's just that what I see when I watch the games doesn't match up with what I hear about around town....Which means I'm really smart, or the biggest idiot in town I guess.

TJ has the 2nd best motor on our DL. He is chasing plays down from sideline to sideline. He is doing exactly what the coaches want him to do.

Your problem, which is the problem of most here, is the scheme the coaches have chosen. They have two DT that have the ability to penetrate and they seem to be asking them to hold a position. Hell lets go one gap and penetrate on ever play. it would seem to be playing into the strength of Okoye and TJ.

You ARE very smart, compared with most fans. I think most people on this board are very smart compared to radio callers, other boards, and for that matter, most sports jocks. Some of the sports jocks seem to know so little about what they are talking about that it amazes me they can keep their jobs.

The thing about football is that it is VERY complicated. Even the smartest expert is going to be wrong some of the time. That's one of the things that makes it so interesting.

I'm disappointed in Okoye because I had such high expectations of him. I watched him chasing the Bengals QB last week and was shocked at how slow he seemed. I keep hearing that he is being used incorrectly and actually hope that it's true. Because if it is it can be corrected. If the D doesn't improve, I imagine Smith will be gone whether it's his fault or not. It would be interesting to see whether his replacement would do anything different with Okoye.

Okoye's a DT. It's going to take him a couple of few years to grow into the position, and I'm not just talking about his age. It's very rare for a DT to come into the league and be a consistent force right away. RB's, WR, CB's, LB's, DE's all can contribute very noticeably early on. DT's, unless they're one of the few that can dominate, Hanynesworth, are rarely noticed. Even Haynesworth took a few years to get it. I'm not so sure that it was only because he was lazy, or that he only started trying when he needed a new contract.

When we took TJ it everyone spoke about how it would take time for him to develop, and to be patient. If you ask me we finally started to see the real TJ this year. Now, he's not what we hoped for, but again I think he's a solid player being asked to play to his weaknesses and not his strengths.

Okoye's got even more growing up to do than the average DT coming into the league. He's shown signs. I think he'll be fine. I don't know if he will ever be great, but I think there's still a chance. If all people worry about is sacks then you will probably always be disappointed. Hell he was about eigth in the league in sacks last year among DT's.

I can get on board with that too PK. It is part of my constant gripe that Richard Smith is not the answer, while realizing full well, that Kubiak is probably not very secure with the LBs behind the DL (or the secondary). So saying it gives me even more hope that we are really putting the college kids under the microscope, the LB ones I mean. But so saying, we need to see how good we can be this year, so i say let the dogs out, and let them see what they can really do the rest of the season.