stratocatter

I was thinking yesterday about the las5 5 years. Every year it seems like we pay 20 million for a QB that isn’t playing. Cam, Teddy Darnold for various reasons That is pretty tough. And we were basically a 7-9 type team most of the time but never 5 years without even a sniff.

Yes. One man negates him in the run game. He needs to get bigger and stronger.

IOW his way he doesn’t gaf about the gig I’f he can’t do it how he thinks it should be done. I feel surely that he will tell anyone what he has to tell them whether they will like it or not. Behind closed doors, between them. Involving the media outside the locker room is what I am looking at.

I like Wilkes. Wonder if he has reached dgaf with a couple of players and the HC audition or if he has a plan with this.

That’s what it looked like to me. Mr Lucky. I have never seen anyone get away with doing that like he did.

I thought I saw a lot of whiffing and bad angles. Linebackers as usual were not much of a force. LDE play was very disappointing at times too. Undisciplined. Put Roy at LB though maybe lol.

I don’t want either of the top two, for a Top Two pick.

Yep. Like soft serve vanilla soft. Flag football. Do they do Oklahoma and nutcrackers and run the play in practice until guys are falling out? Doubt it. I believe Luke might have pulled a Ronnie Lott and probably some other guys too but the league works against those players with these coed intramural style rules and officiating.

3rd best run d someone said. They may have moved up a notch. It was a good test for the younger players to take.

I am going with Mayfield because I remember Jeff Lewis being a sow’s ear bu5 no5 too many specifics. Weinke, Clausen were rookies. Clausen especially, was thrown into the fire just to shove him up JR’s butt I think. Lost some respect for Fox that year. Mayfield was a starter for multiple seasons and he is still this damned bad,

I was irritated as hell because I kept seeing the ball go to our new bell cow Shi Smith. Mayfield looked good on a his throws for a stretch, that same stretch that the WRs couldn’t catch enough of them. DJ. A couple that were not caught were really good throws. And he hit the receiver in stride a couple of times on completions. I am not a Mayfield fan though, at all, and was waiting for it when that 4th quarter got rolling good. We’d have seen it sooner if Shi Smith hadn’t stolen his thunder.

It is an away game in the AFC North. Cleveland kicked our ass in Carolina. What happened at Cincinnati? Yeah.

The thing about it though, if Mahomes didn’t go to Reid, how do we know things would have worked out this great for him? Maybe Trubisky goes to KC and gets off on the right foot. Swap their destinations, you can’t say for sure Just saying there are lots of factors. As for the Panthers I think they do have a very good situation for a QB to be in.

I don’t like the way we did a QB like it was a disposable position under Rhule. I don’t like that Reich used that approach as well. The difference is, I would trust Reich to know what he is talking about. So maybe would feel a little better in the same situation with him in charge. I mean, if it is a keep your powder dry hold the fort situation sometimes you have no choice but to make do.

I wasn’t measuring wins this year, I simply wanted or hoped to see tangible progress in performance level, competitiveness etc. I expected it to come from the OL, the passing game, and our secondary. Or I was looking at them. Take Wilkes out of that secondary room I say bets are off there but the OL is rounding into good form. And the WRs, well at least we aren’t watching Anderson clang balls off his hands and chest. So that is better by a thin hair. A team that has been so far down is going to still lose games when they are ready to win, which we are seeing a little of. They aren’t quite ready but you really can’t overstate how big turning a weakness into a strength can turn out. Which is that OL. That is why I say pointing up. edit: I am gonna paraphrase John Fox: if you aren’t getting worse you’re getting better. I think we have stopped digging the hole at least.

At the same time the arrow is still trending up. Granted that isn’t saying much. Even the best teams pull stinkers. Look at the Eagles last night. That WAS about the worst I have seen, though, from our offense. Right up there with the first quarter of opening game this year.

Me too. I mean, you Have to be able to run the ball and play defense in the late season and playoffs especially if you do not get home field advantage. History is littered with the (high flying pass happy) teams that looked great on turf only to go NE or GB or somewhere in January and it is all over. You Have to be able to do that especially against the best teams which is who you will be facing. Knowing that, believing that, doesn’t preclude a coach from being creative in the offensive game using all of the levers available to him. It doesn’t preclude a defensive minded coach from recognizing he needs a modern NFL offense. If Wilkes is too close minded to understand that then sure, pass him by. The biggest thing is getting the buy in from the players, coaching them smart and tough, and identifying the talent in the first place. I feel like if Wilkes was in charge and they gave him a modern stud QB he would be able to figure it out as far as who to get to coach him and design an offense around him. Too early to call this.

Like anyone was gonna turn down all that crazy Tepper money just because he wasn’t ready for the NFL. He was 100% certain he was ready for that NFL money. End of story.

Point is, they gave the Broncos a lot of motivation. Extra. They shouldn’t need it, but you know these guys use it. Play on the field, win or lose, that is where the truth is but I did not like hearing what I was hearing during the week. We did have the better team.

That last sentence is very true and why I cautioned, caution when replacing him. He does bring a little higher floor than most, you know you are gonna get base level competency. His ceiling is what it is. He let his players talk like the SB was already won all week prior to being whipped by the team they were talking about, the one time he went as a head coach. Anyone remember that? Maybe if he ever goes again, he won’t let them get overconfident.

Ron pissed some people off, for good reason. If they want to call him out for being a company cuck or dullard then let them. He parlayed playing for the Ditka Bears into a DC job eventually, that he was very good at. He parlayed that into two HC jobs, hired by dysfunctional franchises, mostly because he is a hell of a babysitter for spoiled immature man children. And that he looks like a badass, rather than a cuck. Good for him. Very sorry about his mother, of course.

Not that simple but I sort of think both. Feel like the offense that people complained about so much was tailored for Cam’s abilities. Just a suspicion because I never saw how he did with other systems. edit: I don’t have a ton of respect for Ron since he showed his cuckedness by letting Tepper bully him into changing to a 34 to save his job. Give it up, Ron.

So, agreed on the worst stretch in team history. The people who derided claiming the three straight divisions because one was 7-8-1, miss those days don’t let them snow you. They would take them back right now. We, before this streak, had a single 3 year run of losing records. Fox’s last year and Cam/Rivera’s first two. Except for Fox’s last season they were still exciting to watch. Kind of like what we have seen lately but with more hope due to being on the ascent and watching Cam tease us with his abilities, we were looking ahead. Now, it is just being so thirsty for decent football that a taste gets people going. I disagree that people are rationalizing that the top QBs in the draft suck just to justify tanking though. It is possible that no one can see the short one as Brees and just aren’t impressed by what’s left, value wise. I don’t disagree with them, philosophically. I believe I’d tank like hell though if that next Manning kid looks good in school.

I have a feeling Wilkes may do that but not this week. Mayfield has played more he gets the nod. I want to watch Darnold if only to convince myself there is no way he with him. With the line, with the running game, all that stuff.

He is better than what we have had here for years including broke Cam. That’s like 5 years. The OL is a strength now or turning into one, when you have that and decent WRs which seems to be that we do, you don’t need a pro bowl RB. What we have is fine. Yeah I would do it.