Khyber53

If you don't have a good center, it doesn't matter sh!t if you have a good QB. Bozeman can hold down the position and bring that line together for the next five years easily, perhaps longer. Heck, Jeff van Note played 19 seasons as a center... Bring him into the office, ask how much he wants, how long he wants to be here and write that down as his contract. Pay the man.

That is basically having your way with your opponent when it comes to smash mouth football. Tomlin provided Wilks with a classroom lesson there.

This, 100 percent!

I think Wilks has been coaching a "the cupboard is bare" team and has been exceeding what could be expected of him. He was asked to pilot the wreckage of the Rhule regime AND to absorb the loss of CMC in the process. What has he done? He's given us some good games and we've lost some games pretty badly, too. We were going to lose those games no matter what, this wasn't a very good team -- there are massive holes at QB, TE, LB and DE. There's no depth and a real case can be made that coaching has had to make up for a wasted off season and first quarter of this season from HC to OC to DC. Special teams coaching seems to be pretty decent, but man we are desperately in need of a better strength and conditioning staff, and possibly trainers as well. When evaluating Wilks, overall team win/loss performance might not be as accurate as looking at what has been done with what we have on hand. And there's that empty cupboard. In many ways it is like evaluating QBs for the draft. Everyone wants to take a big name winner from a big name program that is always at the top of the rankings. It's the surest bet, right? Honestly, the best candidate for that QB spot is the QB who came in and turned a middling program into a winner, one where he had to elevate the entire team with his performance. That's a guy who can turn around a bad team. The same can be found for HCs. Wilks may well be one of those guys, but he may not be the only one like that out there. Sean McDermott was one of those guys back when he came to Carolina out of Philadelphia. And when he left after our Super Bowl run because he completely elevated our defense, he showed he could build a team from the ground up. Maybe Wilks is the guy for us, he certainly understands the Keep Pounding mantra. But maybe there's a guy out there who is better (perhaps in Philly). It's hard to say but I think we'd be foolish not to keep Wilks as a solid candidate (barring a complete meltdown by the team in the next few weeks).

Tomlin is an excellent coach and he could see where our real weaknesses were and where we were suddenly thin as well. He then neutralized both of our lines, offense and defense, by scheming to get his more experienced and stronger, guys into the game. His D-line has real stars and they went after our weak tackles. Their o-line used their mass and muscle to keep our D-line guys bunched at the center, opening up the edges for their running game. And yeah, Darnold was about all that kept us in that game. Honestly, our ranks are so thin due to injuries and a lack of depth (really, who has good depth three ranks in?) that Wilks had nothing that he could even adjust. They picked on that one no name DB we had time and again because they knew there was no way to get him off the field. And their o-line just bullied our smaller d-line. We've been trying to play old school smash mouth football and we just got an abject lesson in how that game is played. Hats off to Mike Tomlin, he's a damned good coach and he knew we were easily painted into a corner.

Why not? You got something better to do?

Sunday we ran into an opposing coach who can spot weaknesses and tendencies and can then game plan for them. Our coach, Steve Wilks, had done everything he could to cover those weaknesses, but at this point in the season with all of the injuries and the personnel we've had to work with, he just couldn't stop the Steelers. No adjustments were made because there were none that could be made. The cupboard is just that bare. Is Wilks going to be our next HC? I don't know. On the one hand it looks like he can't get the team ready, on the other it looks like he's made something here out of the scraps he was left with. Maybe with an offseason, his own coaching staff picks and a good draft, he can make something happen here. Or maybe this is it for him. Too early to tell, still. Let the games play out. We're not dead in the water yet, somehow. Maybe he can get this organization to limp its way into the playoffs.

In all honesty, the drop off between the first film and the second film was astounding. The first one was great, probably the best DC film to date. The second one was more interested in being a cutesy '80s nostalgia piece than a good movie.

And see, that's what came to mind for me, too. Like I said, Hollywood and all...

Never thought we'd be at this part of the season and be playing a game that somehow meant something... It's a nice surprise!

15-12

Just wondering... Hollywood and all...

Okay, because I ask stupid questions... what is a coke table?

Lord I spent weeks in that place!

Looks good! I'll definitely watch it!

Back-up center? How about starting Fullback? Now that'll put the fear into a "run-stopping" safety!

I love that dude! I've been saying we need to grab a center for the last two drafts and I'm just happy as can be with us picking up Bozeman and finally playing him. He is exactly what we needed. That guy is a leader and tone setter. Just what you need in a center.

I think this is going to be a helluva game. Both teams are fighting for their coach and a lot of pride. In our case, we're also fighting for a very distinct possibility of a miracle on the season. The two teams are remarkably similar in their weaknesses and strengths. They both want to be better teams than they are. And they'll field a roughly 50/50 assortment in the crowd on Sunday. This could be a classic.

This is so true. The days of Spud Webb coming out and explaining the he received a degree and is functionally illiterate are pretty much over. Almost all of these young men are educated, capable and more rounded individuals than ever before. And so very many of them are excellent role models for more than just their athletic prowess. And dang, Chuba is just a likeable fellow. Good to see him also developing as a player.

Let's hope so. I really want to see a win here.

He's a great story so far, I'm really interested to see how it unfolds. You've got to love seeing an underdog getting a shot and making good with it.

Two years, $6 million with incentives for over 1,000 yards and more than 10 TDs. Hit those numbers and he really deserves to make average veteran starting RB salary. See, here's the deal. He could be that guy for us. He's showing that he can be the punishing running back the team needs if we want to keep this identity. What he hasn't shown, though, is an entire season's work, so we need to pay him with that in mind. Still, let's let the next four games play out and see what we and he can do. The situation might become more clear as we go. If we plan on going into next season with him as our starting RB, then we owe the man the respect and pay that goes along with that. Stingy with the pay often ends up with lackluster play.

How about pick the best DE, DT or TE available at our pick, give Corral a chance to actually play in a game, and if Darnold continues to improve offer him a back-up QB spot/interim position if another vet QB with decent back up capabilities isn't available at a reasonable price. Our need is definitely at TE to help the offense or some extra d-line pressure on defense right now. If we can improve those spots while keeping our O-line strong, then you can actually give a young QB or a journeyman one a shot at winning for the team. This idea that you have to draft a QB in the first round in our situation is short sighted and narrow of focus. There aren't any real deal, set in stone, sure thing QBs available right now, so why potentially waste the pick when we can build a stronger team overall in the process?

Smooth rides are rarely interesting ones, you just end up with the destination to talk about when it is all said and done. Crazy, bumpy, getting lost and found along the way rides are the ones you talk about decades later. Heroes aren't made by glory being handed to them, they're created in skin-of-the-teeth escapes and overcoming impossible odds. Wouldn't it be grand to get one of those seasons out of this?

Nice piece, but we can't crown him yet. There's still four very important games to go and we need to see what he can do against teams he should be able to beat. This is the real, real, real part of his pre-employment test. It really is a make your own destiny situation. And MacAdoo is there, too. He's been given the chance to forge an offense that works with what we've got rather than what Rhule envisioned. And, it's working. As they said, he wanted a "heavy handed" offense and we're doing really well with that. If we can keep winning, he, along with Wilks, may well have worked their way into long term positions here. Same for Al Holcomb who has put some steel into this defense's backbone. Still, we've got four teams ahead of us, all deeply flawed. If we can't at least break even, then I'd be on the phone to some hiring/evaluation experts if I were Tepper. Wilks does, more than anything, need to get more than the five wins Rhule was able to generate in each of the past two seasons. I know he didn't get a full season to do it in, but those are the breaks. If you can't break that high water mark, then we need to maybe move on. Don't get me wrong, though, I really want to see Wilks earn this job and be our head coach next year for a myriad of reasons. He just really has to pass the test first.