Put this one on Rivera and staff

[jramsey4]

my main question is would Newton be on our team and would he have been starting at this point with Fox at the helm? would Olsen and Shockey be here to help Smitty?

None of those can be seriously answered with a Yes if Fox was here..

IF Newton was drafted, he wouldn't be starting. I doubt he'd be drafted anyhow. Shockey wouldn't have been grabbed before the lockout and Olsen wouldn't have been grabbed after the lockout.

The QB position would still be a huge unknown and our TE position would still live in the stone age going underutilized.. forcing us YET AGAIN to go with Smitty as our only real threat on offense as a receiver.

those little tidbits there have energized our team, and are huge differences between 9 years of Foxball and 5 games of Rivera..

as far as our defense goes, the guy has put two #1 defenses together in the NFL with 2 different schemes.. I feel pretty good about our chances of tightening that up in the future.

is it lame people still complain about Fox? IMO, not really.. he gave a lot of people many resentments and 1 year later, they SURELY won't vanish.

we've met, I respect your opinion a lot.. but as far as Fox goes, good riddance and we'll see if Denver ever gets over that QB issue.. I think coaches have their weaknesses and Fox's will always be doing what it takes to get him over the hump.. in 2-3 years it'll become evident what Rivera's weaknesses are..

I wish people would stop using the "He's better then Fox" argument. Thats like saying he's the tallest man in a room full of midgets. There is hope with RR but lets start judging the man by his success instead of against Fox's failures. And unfortunately aside from the purely superficial argument that we look better we have the exact same record we had the same time last year.

[bleys]

well I deleted that as I wanted to produce a more well thought out post.. but whatever..

I wish people would stop using the "He's better then Fox" argument. Thats like saying he's the tallest man in a room full of midgets. There is hope with RR but lets start judging the man by his success instead of against Fox's failures. And unfortunately aside from the purely superficial argument that we look better we have the exact same record we had the same time last year.

you are right.. Fox is a midget in the football world and comparing Rivera to him would be a travesty..

[goodoleboy]

I only had issue with a few calls in the game:

1. The timeout at the end of the half....there was no way the Saints were going to get that kick off, so 12 men on the field would not have mattered.

2. Twice he went for the big play on 3rd and short in the 4th. There is a difference in being agressive and being dumb. We were on the wrong side of that one both times. We were driving....we were working to run the clock...our RB's and TE's were killing them. No need to take a majorly risky chance.

Agree 100%. Had we hit that bomb to Smith on 4th and 2 Brees probably would have gotten it right back as soft as our defense was playing.

Game should have been tied at that point with us driving for a field goal to win with no time on the clock had Rivera not called that timeout before halftime.

[goodoleboy]

I wish people would stop using the "He's better then Fox" argument. Thats like saying he's the tallest man in a room full of midgets. There is hope with RR but lets start judging the man by his success instead of against Fox's failures. And unfortunately aside from the purely superficial argument that we look better we have the exact same record we had the same time last year.

Yep Rivera is 1-4 as a head coach. Batting .200.

[bleys]

Yep Rivera is 1-4 as a head coach. Batting .200.

wonderful point you just made.. unfortunately, you forgot a lot of valid ones along the way..

[carpanfan96]

I wish people would stop using the "He's better then Fox" argument. Thats like saying he's the tallest man in a room full of midgets. There is hope with RR but lets start judging the man by his success instead of against Fox's failures. And unfortunately aside from the purely superficial argument that we look better we have the exact same record we had the same time last year.

Last years team was 0-5 going into a week 6 bye, as well this was expected to be another down year with growing pains. New offense, new defense and no OTA.....

Yes the team could be 5-0 or 4-1, they aren't though. They weren't expected to be, the team had way too many holes to fill in just one shortened off season.

Side notes, good thing about the INT at the beginning of the game.

Cam threw to a spot (like he's supposed to do) not to where the WR was at, yes the play was mixed up, but he's learning to trust his receivers to make plays now.

3-2 play call > loved it, reminded me of the Patriots going for the kill on a controversial call. It was an incomplete pass because of another mix up between Cam and Smith, it happens from time to time in the NFL.

Time out at the end of the first half > WTF moment, but we forget that he's a rookie HC with no prior experience dealing with time management. Let's move on and get over it.

Last Saint's drive, not calling the timeouts. Depends on which you'd rather have. 1:45 with 0-1 timeout's left or 50 seconds with all 3 time outs.

With a rookie QB and a new offense, I understand going with the time out approach. Too many variables there to say it was a good call or a bad call.

Love the way the team is playing and I'm super excited about the season and this team's future.

[rodeo]

it wasn't special with Beason and Davis either.

a couple of playmakers on defense and this team could be special.

Beason and Davis are a couple of playmakers. You argued against yourself in a single post.

[ProBowler]

I agree that Rivera has not proven he's any better than Fox yet, but I don't think it's just Rivera. This whole coaching staff has not been that great so far this year, imo. Everyone knows our defense woes, and special teams woes but we also have a few issues on offense(other than Naanee). It's looking like Cam does have a kink in his armor, mainly his accuracy when out of shotgun, as he's barely reached 50% against the Saints but Cam may not be the only culprit here.

Through the first 5 games more than 50% of our offensive plays have come out of shotgun which has affected our run game. We also rank 4th in passing attempts(this is only good when you have a very accurate quarterback: very). There are only 3 QBs in this league that throw the ball more than Cam: Drew Brees, Tom Brady and Matt Ryan. Drew Brees leads the league with 219 passing attempts while Cam's got 194. Other than yards and attempts, Cam has more in common with Matt Ryan both sporting a completion ratio of around or under 60% and they both have losing records. Cam's at 58% and ranked 22nd, lower than even Andy Dalton whose ranked 19th(and winning with the Bengals, btw) while Brady and Brees, both at 69%, are closer to Aaaron Rodger's 71.7% who is ranked first and he's ranked 7th in passing attempts.

Moral of the story? An offensive coordinator with a QB sporting under ~65% completion ratio or lower shouldn't try to be in the top 4 for passing attempts. Cam's only gotten close to that number once, and it was against Arizona because shotgun works good against the blitz, posting a respectable 64.9% and 110 QB rating.

Maybe Chud was thinking running shotgun may improve Cam's accuracy in the short term because when taking snaps under center he looks to throw off of his back foot but it hasn't helped Cam any in the 3 games we cranked it up: GB, Jaguars and Bears and he's thrown an equal number of picks out of shotgun as well as under center formations. Against the Saints we had an increase in rushing yards but we didn't have an increase in rushing attempts, just a decrease in the usage of shotgun. I really think overall the Saints game was the first game we used a complete NFL style offense, and it did take a hit on Cam's accuracy posting his worst to day: 51.2%. But had we done that from game 2, I think we'd be in a different place right now. Letting him continue to take snaps from under center, and running the ball so he can sit back and watch defenses more might. Might win us more games too.

[bleys]

I agree that Rivera has not proven he's any better than Fox yet, but I don't think it's just Rivera. This whole coaching staff has not been that great so far this year, imo. Everyone knows our defense woes, and special teams woes but we also have a few issues on offense(other than Naanee). It's looking like Cam does have a kink in his armor, mainly his accuracy when out of shotgun, as he's barely reached 50% against the Saints but Cam may not be the only culprit here.

Through the first 5 games more than 50% of our offensive plays have come out of shotgun which has affected our run game. We also rank 4th in passing attempts(this is only good when you have a very accurate quarterback: very). There are only 3 QBs in this league that throw the ball more than Cam: Drew Brees, Tom Brady and Matt Ryan. Drew Brees leads the league with 219 passing attempts while Cam's got 194. Other than yards and attempts, Cam has more in common with Matt Ryan both sporting a completion ratio of around or under 60% and they both have losing records. Cam's at 58% and ranked 22nd, lower than even Andy Dalton whose ranked 19th(and winning with the Bengals, btw) while Brady and Brees, both at 69%, are closer to Aaaron Rodger's 71.7% who is ranked first and he's ranked 7th in passing attempts.

Moral of the story? An offensive coordinator with a QB sporting under ~65% completion ratio or lower shouldn't try to be in the top 4 for passing attempts. Cam's only gotten close to that number once, and it was against Arizona because shotgun works good against the blitz, posting a respectable 64.9% and 110 QB rating.

Maybe Chud was thinking running shotgun may improve Cam's accuracy in the short term because when taking snaps under center he looks to throw off of his back foot but it hasn't helped Cam any in the 3 games we cranked it up: GB, Jaguars and Bears and he's thrown an equal number of picks out of shotgun as well as under center formations. Against the Saints we had an increase in rushing yards but we didn't have an increase in rushing attempts, just a decrease in the usage of shotgun. I really think overall the Saints game was the first game we used a complete NFL style offense, and it did take a hit on Cam's accuracy posting his worst to day: 51.2%. But had we done that from game 2, I think we'd be in a different place right now. Letting him continue to take snaps from under center, and running the ball so he can sit back and watch defenses more might. Might win us more games too.

I guess a coach is only considered "good" when he wins a Superbowl with a 2-14 team in his 1st year... and flawless with every decision.. Somehow I'm confused on how Fox relates to that though lol.. remember those 2pt conversions in the SB? right.. Fox never fuged up. . ever.. except all the time.

"might wins us more games too".. it's good to know all these monday morning QBs know exactly how to win.. lol

[sharkkiller]

What is a could of play makers?

[jtnc]

The defensive playcalling has been VERY suspect.

[jramsey4]

Last years team was 0-5 going into a week 6 bye, as well this was expected to be another down year with growing pains. New offense, new defense and no OTA.....

Yes the team could be 5-0 or 4-1, they aren't though. They weren't expected to be, the team had way too many holes to fill in just one shortened off season.

Side notes, good thing about the INT at the beginning of the game.

Cam threw to a spot (like he's supposed to do) not to where the WR was at, yes the play was mixed up, but he's learning to trust his receivers to make plays now.

3-2 play call > loved it, reminded me of the Patriots going for the kill on a controversial call. It was an incomplete pass because of another mix up between Cam and Smith, it happens from time to time in the NFL.

Time out at the end of the first half > WTF moment, but we forget that he's a rookie HC with no prior experience dealing with time management. Let's move on and get over it.

Last Saint's drive, not calling the timeouts. Depends on which you'd rather have. 1:45 with 0-1 timeout's left or 50 seconds with all 3 time outs.

With a rookie QB and a new offense, I understand going with the time out approach. Too many variables there to say it was a good call or a bad call.

Love the way the team is playing and I'm super excited about the season and this team's future.

You are correct. For some reason I thought the 49ers game was before the bye. The point is still valid. RR has looked better then Fox but as I said thats not saying much. Until he starts actually winning games and getting us to the playoffs then its to early to be crowning him a good coach. Improvement is nice but wins are all that matters.

[ProBowler]

I guess a coach is only considered "good" when he wins a Superbowl with a 2-14 team in his 1st year... and flawless with every decision.. Somehow I'm confused on how Fox relates to that though lol.. remember those 2pt conversions in the SB? right.. Fox never fuged up. . ever.. except all the time.

"might wins us more games too".. it's good to know all these monday morning QBs know exactly how to win.. lol

I'm not sure I mentioned anything at all about Fox in that post other than to say I don't think Rivera's shown he's better yet. I was talking about Chud and Cam.