My Random Thoughts on the Game

[MGH1989]

1. Its been stated a thousand times already, but the NFL did Cam wrong. By my count 4 egregious helmet to helmet hits and no flags? Bullshit. It's not the reason we lost, but the shots that Cam took no doubt in my mind had an impact on the regression of the offense in the second half.

2. Terrible timeout and clock management by Cam, Rivera, and Co. Probably the worst I can remember  It would have been nice to have had more timeouts at the end of the game so that we could have completed some balls in the middle of the field and Gano in a better position to make a kick.

3. I'm not as mad as Shula as some are about the offense last night. I liked how he called the game the first half, the second half there didn't seem to be any urgency, and I also think part of the offensive performance was a culmination of the head shots Cam took.

4. I'm not saying this because it didn't benefit us last night, but If the NFL is serious about player safety, it seems silly to have offset penalties when there is a personal foul. I'm not saying allow the whole 15 yards, but instead of offsetting the penalties maybe negate 10 yards from the foul and make it a 5 yard penalty on the defense.

5. I have little faith in a Gano. I think he is a good kicker, but I don't have the confidence in him like I did with John Kasay. I've been a fan of this team since 2002 when my family moved to Charlotte and I never remember a time where I didn't think Kasay wouldn't make a 50 + yard FG (even though he did). Maybe it dates back to last year where he seemingly had every FG over 50+ yards blocked, but the confidence just isn't there.

6. I'm hopeful about the defense despite the poor performance. Have to see more pressure up front and the secondary really needs to cleanup the missed tackles.