Jones has missed most of their games, MacMath was starting and doing very well before Howard came in, and Pappa is not a 100% starter. Missing Gashi was the real drop in quality IMO, from Gashi to Le Toux.
What you said was: "I find it interesting to think that the three biggest/best players over the last three years (Lee, JoGo and Jones), all had contract negotiation issues here, and all affected their play on the field in some way. Wonder how that continues to look around the league. Maybe more players saying they'd never play here would wake people up? Maybe?". I thought you were implying that players would be discouraged from signing with the Revs because of negotiation issues with Jones, JoGo, Nguyen. Did I misinterpret that? ------------------- I thought the Revs played very well, but I think the competition was extraordinarily weak. Colo was missing players and haven't been a good road team overall - and this was an east coast trip for them. Yes, we were missing Watson and Kamara, but Watson is replaceable w/o too much dropoff and it might have been a good time to play w/o Kamara, with Agudelo coming into form. Somehow I expected us to win this one. Lets see how we do vs. NYC.
I think the main reason the Revs played so much better was because Bunberry was injured. They did much better without his constant turnover and laziness on defense. Heaps should keep him on the bench.
In general I think Bunberry's best feature is his competitiveness and lack of laziness on both sides of the ball. Ball control and decision making are his worst.
That was probably a factor (and I agree about keeping him out), but also Kamara was out. I sort of feel that the Revs players played like they were relying on things that had worked for them in the past, rather than work so hard to make Kamara a part of the attack.
Maybe Kamara just isn't a good fit here? Sometimes guys just don't work out, even if they are good elsewhere. The revs are 4-10-2 in games he starts. While poor defending and losing the midfield battle obviously can't be exclusively pinned on him, it is interesting to see. We will have to step back and see whether this win is an anomaly or something that could kick start a final playoff push, as unrealistic as it may be. After all, in 2014 the horrible summer swoon ended with a comprehensove victory over Colorado and the rest is history. NYC will be a good test this weekend.
Congrats, Brad! New England's Brad Knighton wins Save of the Week for Week 26 September 9, 2016, 2:56PM EDT Sam Stejskal