And for clarification, I count it as a gimme touchdown when the ball is turned over inside the 10, and a gimme field goal when the ball is turned over inside the 30. I think that's reasonable.
I think that
everything you said is quite reasonable.
To be fair though, I am not taking any side in the "offense vs. defense" debate. I am reasonably impressed with the defense's performance so far, aside from some of the play of the safeties.
I was simply stating that some of the "underperforming" offensive problems/thoughts have been a bit exaggerated in my opinion. I think they ran into a tough defense vs ARZ, lost Hernandez and had to re-adjust.
When they came back vs BAL (another fairly tough defense, especially under the circumstances of SNF + their turf etc) the offense looked much better. That also carried over to the BUF game obviously.
In my opinion, the offense has done its job too. The offensive line has gelled and looked much, much better lately than anyone could have expected. The loss of Hernandez did not slow this offense down too much either. As a whole, the running game has looked much better this season too. The chemistry with Lloyd is taking shape. Welker looks like his old self after a tremendous amount of scrutiny.
I don't think either side of the ball has played up to their potential, but both sides have shown nice flashes and have made improvements on what we imagined coming into the season a month or so ago. At the beginning of Sept. the main offensive questions were:
--How are we going to survive without Brian Waters?
--How is this offensive line possibly going to hold up? There were questions about Solder. There were injury concerns with Vollmer and Mankins. Just about everyone was on Thomas' case, and very few felt that Wendell could actually hold up the point of attack in the middle.
--How will we do with running the ball? What kind of balance will they have? Can the young unproven backs (Ridley, Bolden, Vereen) actually do their jobs effectively?
--Can Edelman ever show progress as an actual receiver?
--Can Llyod and Brady develop the proper chemistry even though they weren't able to do anything at all during pre-season?
These were the main issues/problems on the offensive side of the ball, particularly after the ARZ game. In my opinion, they have done a lot better than some are giving them credit for, especially considering that we lost Waters (I don't think they were totally prepared for his loss until about the 3rd preseason game, if that), Hernandez, Edelman, and Mankins at some point.
If you are looking at a debate over "who" has played better under the circumstances alone, then I would certainly agree with you that I am more impressed with the defense...but that said, I also think the offense has done some very nice things under the circumstances too, and I'm not sure if they are getting their fair share by some using the term "underperformed."
They lead the entire NFL in points scored.
Although I really agree with your breakdowns regarding turnovers, field position, etc, and I think those are excellent points, the fact is that the offense still put up 30+ in 3 of 4 games so far, and they seem to be coming into what we expected from them (understanding those are awfully high expectations).