LinvilleGorge

Seeing the difference in the offense with Dalton out there was a big wake up call. All those receivers everyone has been shitting on actually started making plays when they had a QB with the ability and willingness to throw the ball down the field on occasion.

Yeah, washed up Andy Dalton looked way worse.

The big thing for me is after the first game we knew we had a guy with legit MVP potential. And it built from there. We were losing but we were all excited because we knew we had that dude. Now contrast that to now. Now we're trying to convince ourselves why it's too early to call Bryce a bust yet. Yikes.

You can say that again.

What kind of cope is this? We had to trade up to get in front of them in the draft because they were worse than us.

We also had a horrific D and Cam was looking like a stud.

That's the sad reality. Teddy is starting to look like Bryce's ceiling.

I bet some of these same folks shredded Teddy for playing just like this. This honestly feels just like the Teddy days.

No.

Extremely different players. There was a solid pass protector who was subpar as a run blocker. Ekwonu is a good run blocker who is average at best as a pass protector. If you could combine the best of both you'd have an All-Pro.

He's not a LT in this offensive scheme. He's a LG in this offensive scheme. We very much have a mismatch of talent and scheme.

Big difference in 4 to go and 17 to go. The D is defending those situations entirely differently. I'm talking specifically about the latter scenario.

Did you miss last week's game when Zavala gave up 14 QB pressures himself?

Big difference between 4 yards to go and 17 yards to go. The situation we were in today Bryce just isn't equipped to deal with. The entire D is guarding the endzone in today's scenario and you're going to have to fit a ball into a tight spot.

Effectively into redzone defense? Honestly, no he doesn't. Our chances in that situation almost entirely hinged on a defensive gaffe. A blown coverage, a missed tackle, a penalty.

Run D is very much a team effort. One guy blows it and you get gashed.

It's really hard to have success with no vertical threat to your offense.

Feel free to point our the part that I was wrong

I respect the ones still hanging around and admitting that this is not looking good. We've all been wrong about poo before. Ain't nothing to be ashamed about and this book hasn't been completely written just yet anyway.

He said he'd post it when he got home. We'll see. I honestly doubted it until I saw his post game presser. But after that? Yeah...

He was crying because rookies picked up the Cowboys' cocaine tab of the team lost.

Did you ever play? Honest question, not trying to taunt you or anything. Because trust and believe crying about losing a regular season game is not getting respect in a football locker room. Losing a championship game or something like that in crushing fashion putting an end to your season? That can be a different story. But we're talking about a bad team losing another regular season game. That's not what you want to see out of your QB. Not when you're still in the fight with a long way to go. You want to see a guy with some dog in him and the confidence to know he can make the necessary improvements. Bryce looked broken in that post game presser. After throwing 4 INTs and getting constantly hit and pressured last week Howell didn't cry. He sat there and said he played bad but the sun will come up tomorrow and he'll be better for it. Then he bounced back today and proved it. That's what you want to see out of your QB, even if you do end up losing. I guarantee you that locker room has full confidence in their QB to give them a fighting chance. I sincerely doubt ours feels the same.

I got roundly mocked pre-draft for questioning his physical ability to make the throws at the NFL level and to escape NFL defenders. Watching him on college it was very obvious that his arm was NFL average at very best and was likely below average.

I don't think questioning Bryce's character is at all warranted. Mental toughness? Resilience? Yeah, that might be fair. But that's not character.

I don't disagree that the scheme and personnel are a bad fit for the QB. But ultimately you have to be able to have some sort of legit vertical threat. If the D can keep everything in front of them and doesn't have to worry about the deep third at all that's just going to be a really tough role to hoe. You have to be able to at least make the D respect a vertical threat to create the space you need to get YAC off of underneath throws.