Shula

[Udogg]

3 minutes ago, tiger7_88 said:

So... tell me if I'm wrong... what you are saying is that it takes a catastrophic injury to a key player to move Shula out of his preferred comfort-zone?

Nope he is saying that basically there is nothing wrong with the offense.  It's player execution that usually the problem.  

There was no change in the offense in 2015/2016.  The change was in the way we were played by other teams. The fact is that Funchess and KB scared nobody,  meaning teams could live with press man single high safety with them.  Thus  8 man boxes with heavy focus on Olsen occurred.  In 2015 people got burnt for running that defense because Ted Ginn was basically pulling your single high safety to whatever side o the field he was on.  Deeper routes opened for Greg Olsen or he pulled the underneath coverage so that the Crotchery's, Philly Browns of the world got easier catches.  Couple that with the discipline needed to defend the read option, everything was very effective.  Thus the only teams that gave us trouble were the teams that were willing to leave their CB's on the island with Ted Ginn, and had the pass rush speed to get to Cam (see Atlanta and Denver).  Also our Oline was probably 30% better. 

Fast forward to today,  same running plays with McCaffrey look entirely different than the ones ran with Stewart.  Same kick out blocks that used to Tolberts look entirely different with Armah.   Same pass plays from 2016, but with more talent on Oline QB's have more time to throw.  Not saying Shula is completely innocent, but it's a total team effort.   From Shula, to Ron Rivera, to Gettleman, to even Cam.    It's just easier to blame Shula for some.  

[Hoenheim]

The offense will look way different once we get Cam playing again. Rivera's going to eventually realize that McCaffrey is consistently outperforming Stewart and make CMC the lead back at some point this season or the next and he'll gradually get more and more reps. 

Defense will also look alot better with Luke in there. 

This game was not a great measuring stick for evluating the team on the whole with our two main superstars not playing the entire game and with bench players getting the majority of the reps b/c its pre-season. Yeah Funchess and the secondary, and Anderson looked pretty bad, however its one game against one team in the preseason when we aren't playing at full strength and the Titans were. 

Its too easy for us to think the sky is falling after one pre season game when its really not. Remember how high everyone was after game 1? Even in the regular season were not just going to dominate and steamroll everyone . That's one thing the Titans showed, there are simply teams that exist out there that also have very good players that are tough matchups .