outlaw4

Ew, Ewers. Ew.

Kinda reminded me of Tolbert. A quick read says fumbles are a concern as is the workload he's been getting.

Big guy with the football may be the best play ASU will have today.

At this rate, ASU will be changing the last letter of their acronym with the second letter.

This felt more like JT ripping our defense a new one than actually talking about Baker.

Another blowout? Well, this blows.

I'll believe it if Evero is still here come draft day.

I think it might've been Smitty that said this recently but one of the things about getting old (for the league anyways) as a receiver is that you really have to work on our craft in order to continue being effective. This is where Thielen is at this juncture, not having that same athleticism he once had. What I see is him doing the little things to effectively dangle a carrot to get defenders thinking he'll do one thing and then catch them by surprise doing something else, effectively making himself open. For example, on that first TD to Thielen, definitely looked like he was starting an in route. Young climbs the pocket. Safety bites on the route to cut it off or even get an interception. But right at the same time, Thielen switches from the in and goes right for the end zone. This could've been by design, but could've also been him being ultra savvy and hoping his QB sees him. Either way, the timing of everything was excellent and the result was borderline filthy. Quality tape material that XL/Coker should be watching.

Not much I saw today that shows he's worth a draft pick at all.

Something that wasn't really mentioned with Chuba going to IR is his pass blocking. Noticed it on a few key plays earlier in the year. When you're also down Moton, it was a double whammy. I'm just kinda sad how this team once always had good to great linebackers at our disposal. Morgan can't be happy watching such putrid play.

I'd say Moore is the next most versatile already being familiar with this system but he's just a guy. Maybe Thompkins for similar reasons but everything I've seen tells me he's really more of a decoy to get other guys open. After that, you have Tremble followed by a massive drop-off with the three rookies in XL/Coker/JT, all who get a fair amount of snaps together. Hopefully, getting a lot of experience now will speed things up for year two but it's certainly hampering things on the short term. Part of me thinks that need to give the the rookies the reps on the field sneaks into the playcalling. Like how Canales really wanted XL out there for the Bucs game and he ends up getting a lot of targets. A little surprised JT isn't getting that type of focus but it's possible they are working him more with blocking since he had issues with holding calls earlier in the year.

Some weeks, I wonder how PFF isn't grading our defense even lower. Who in the NFL is playing worse than us?

Frank's O was more like a nightmare than no QB at this level should've been asked to run. Not sure what changes Brown brought on board but the thing was that - in theory - he was the right type of guy because he worked under McVay, a guy who is probably the best scheming guys open and producing YAC. Problem was that we didn't have the pieces then - or now - to run a McVay type of offense. XL definitely still confuses me for a draft pick. The guards were absolutely necessary regardless of QB because allowing so much interior pressure in 2023 was fatal to running any offense. Chuba is a nice piece, although we really should run more for effective play action. I have at least seen guys getting open at times under Canales but our short to intermediate game needs a lot of work. Can't run effective screens. Can't get guys to break tackles and break ankles to get some extra yardage.

I'd be more optimistic if our run stat line yesterday wasn't utterly putrid.

Eh, I'm mostly here for the few that are worth engaging with and to be amused by the same hot takes I've seen so many times already.

Nice guy. Not as nice coach. Also, I don’t believe Canales has any real connection with him and if we are moving on from Evero, a guy like Saleh makes far more sense.

We made a lot of terrible moves in 2023, but Thielen may have just saved us from having an absolute catastrophe in our hands right now.

Penix will look like a guy handing the ball off to Barry Sanders.

Maybe it's just me but kickers nowadays seem to be more interchangeable. I did read an article recently that said there's been almost 50 kickers that have made a kick this season so far because so many have been injured. Wonder if we're sticking with Eddy because of the difficulties trying to find another live leg out there.

Full disclosure but I was never big on Mayfield myself. He looked like a broken QB with nothing to play for. Could we had tried fixing him back then? Given what was going on with the dysfunction behind the scenes? Unlikely. Darnold did have moments but I never got the sense the organization (ie Tepper) was truly behind him. Still have that feeling Mayfield was basically handed the starting job over Darnold.

When I think about going all in with offense, I think about this year's Bengals. Burrow putting up MVP numbers with MVP caliber receivers. And yet, they are a long shot from making the playoffs partly because their defense is nearly as bad as ours. Offensive help will have to be incremental. Defense help is mandatory.

There's a part of me that wished we traded Bryce just to see this place's reaction to him playing like he is now with someone else.

Based on what I've seen from his as a playcaller, I'm leaning towards wanting a dedicated OC. I'm only a fan of pulling double duty if you're Andy Reid levels of good and Canales isn't in that neighborhood.

I just find it utterly hilarious just how badly this place trashed Darnold and Mayfield while they were here and now we keep finding excuses to blame their success somewhere else on everything else except us.

Sounds more knowledgeable than the average football fan. Take that as a compliment.