Mango

The same guy who dropped three well placed balls in the first half? That guy who the QB can't get the ball to? We were out coached in the second half. Pure and simple. EJ wasn't great today by any stretch, but he didn't crumble like he did last week against the pass rush. The guy took a beating today. What was it in the first quarter? 7 passes, 2 Sacks, and 4 QB hits?

Not the first time we've blown up in the third quarter. Also a large part of the job of a coachin staff is to get a team to execute on game day. It's an upsetting loss because we seemed to be totally outplaying the Texans in the first half and got out coached in the second.

What about coming out at the half and staying on the field for something like 8 minutes

Passing distance diesnt necessarily imply offensive system. I agree with the original poster.this offense is begging to spread the field. Hacketts version of spreading the field are bunch sets and go route. We need to spread pre snap as well via formations. My bet is this thread doesn't get much action. They never do.

Good teams rarely if ever lose 2 games in a row

This is rarely brought up so far this season. I really want to see 4 or 5 WR spread out wide at points. Even if you put 8 in the box is spreads the D personnel. Look at Fitz, at quick passing game with the field spread can work and take some of of the pressure of the line. Max protect doesn't always lead to maximum protection of the QB. And for Christs sake, can we run some plays pass or rushing with the kid taking the snap from under center. Get ready for me to blow your mind Hackett, but you can actually do both of these things on the same play. Getting CJ in space doesn't have to be about play design post snap, we can do it pre snap. Either Hackett doesn't like these sorts of plays, or Marrone won't allow them. Either way it falls on the HC to manage that sort of situation properly. At the end of the day Marrone is the general.

This deserves a bump. Most posts won the million go routes with little or no other option always get ignored, especially when you point them out on the all-22. People would rather just spout what they think rather than discuss what is happening. These calls were all over the all 22 last year. Seems like they improved this year until the SD game. You can't rely on the lowest percentage offensive play in football to be your bread and butter for going over the top. It's these plays that get me to pull my hair out with Hackett, it is also what gets out young QB in trouble. This year so far, at least from what I've seen has been better in terms of getting multiple routes from the route tree at different depths and directions in the same play. In SD Hackett called a scared game and reverted back to last year at points. In order to run a successful offense you need to have diversity every play. Not to mention when your OL isn't holding up, you can't call incessant long developing routes from every receiver. Yes you need to air it out to keep the defense out, but there are other ways. Slants, real screens (not ours) posts, and mid level crossing patterns. That said, there are points when EJ needs to see the open guy. It's not a pass, just a young QB learning, frustrating yes, good no, but these mistakes will happen. Hopefully he is learning.

I don't get the Luck disrespect. He's a young QB, and is the only thing keeping Indy in the conversation for anything. On any given day Luck can beat you. Plain and simple. Sure he makes some mistakes, but the dude is a gamer. I'd but Luck probably just outside of the top 5. We will be losing some of the best QBs of all time in the next few years. There are at least 4 first ballot HoF'rs playing to date. Luck is the heir apparent to those roles. He may not turn into a forst ballot guy, but he is the only one with the moxy and actual QB skills to carry teams. It won't be Newton, Foles, Ryan, or Stafford by a long shot. Kaep is way over rated and over paid. Not even in the conversation. He will be good, never great. I'm also high on Rivers, and have been for a while.

I might get flamed for this, but I am not passing judgement on Brady until the seasons ends. Didn't he do something similar to this last year? Safe money is the guy comes into form through the backend of the season. God I hope he doesn't, but I think there is something left in the tank.

Wasn't Wade the HC the last time Matt Schaub was a good QB

Sub in Boobie then, not Spiller. Not getting the right personnel on the field, then running plays without that personnel out there, for the sake of running it is precisely the issue with Hackett. Yes players need to execute their assignments/roles, this isn't a get out jail free card for pairs, but Hackett backed himself into a corner statistically before the ball was even snapped. Same with getting Spiller the ball in space, we are not putting our players into positions of strength, or success. That said, yesterday was a team loss.

I agree with you, and this is where I tend to actually blame Hackett. When we should lengthen the field it seems as though his only solution is to run go routes. Where are the intermediate post, out, or in routes? Why can't we get a slant at 13 yards? From the looks of the Miami game, he seemed like he made the change, but this week against SD, we are just running these incessant go routes all over the field. This isn't a get out of jail free card, but it seems like we are putting our young QB in a statistically difficult position. One thing I noticed with the Miami game is multiple routes on a given play, multiple depths, and multiple directions movement in the route tree. I'll be curious of this weeks all-22 and see if he reverted back to the same old for in routes all the same direction on a single play. These sorts of plays are my biggest frustration.

This can be really good or bad. You could take it to mean that EJ isn't nearly as bad as he showed yesterday, and SD did a good job of getting him off his game. Or we have founded the most glaring weakness in our QB play and it will damn him for the rest of the season. The decision will have to be conscious to overcome it. We saw with confidence, EJ stand in the pocket, take the hit, and deliver the ball against both Chicago and Miami, he needed to that this week but refused. He has 6 days to get over this because Houston is going to be in his face for 60 minutes. He cannot allow himself to get frazzled, it would be best for him to have actually stood up and taken a few sacks and slowed things down for himself rather than hurry.

Not to sound snide, but I am not sure I have seen Hackett line up in a spread formation in 19 regular season games. He is in over his head

There were some play calls reminiscent of last year. The line is having difficulty, and anytime we want to get the ball down field, we are just running go routes, and sometimes 3 at once. I noticed sometime in the 3rd or 4th, it's 3rd and mid distance, nobody underneath, and there wasn't a receiver out of their break by the time the pressure go there. EJ did not play well yesterday when given time, but Hackett and the OL magnified it. It seems like against Miami, when this staff is confident they call real NFL plays, when they get behind the 8 ball, they revert back to vanilla. Also at the end of the first half, 24 seconds and 2 timeouts. I know unlikely to score, but Christ, can we line up maybe 4 or 5 wide and make a go rather than a TE 2WR set. The offense needs to spread the field in a hurry pre-snap or the OL, EJ, and teh RB's are going to have a miserable season.

Harassing is probably a good word, the pocket wasn't great. The worst result in all of it wasn't the sacks, hurries, or hits, but the way EJ handled it when he had the protection and time. Totally rattled yesterday. Hopefully he can fix that part of his game quickly, or else we are screwed.

I think the opposite, kind of, of Spiller. I would like him off the field more. He kills drives, he just does. Unless we are running plays where the goal is to get him in space to do what he does, he doesn't belong out there. If the play is running between the tackles, or leaving a back in for pass protection, he has no business. He would thrive in a system that gets him more screens and outside plays. If the goal is to get Spiller the ball more, we need more of these plays, not just keep him on the field for the sake of it. I am not sure why we didn't get Fred involved more yesterday. He was the better grinding back yesterday.

I think the OL struggled at points, rattled EJ early, and played with footsteps in his head the rest of the game. I thought that even though we won in Chicago, EJ left me with some question marks. I was really optimistic after the Dolphins game. He made some great reads and throws. This week not so much, and I think he played rattled after the first series or two.

Out success in the running game is largely over rated by a break or two in the run game. The fact is that we don't run the ball well enough to sustain drives regularly. Because of this out offensive identity is flaud.

These are finely tuned elite athletes. The average person may not find any success. It can take time to get your feet back underneath you. As a former national teamer I don't particularly travel well. At the last national championships I went to, it took me a race in the heats to back in the groove, and got embarrassed. That wasn't uncommon for me at high level races because the margin for error is small. Long story short, I won the event handidly, and every bit of my first race was due to my bodies response to travel. Some athletes will travel better than others, but to deny that such a thing exists is inherently false and ignorant. It exists, and different athletes see different effects, but traveling can be rough on elite athletes. You see athletes for Olympic and World Championships head just outside the competition site sometimes weeks in advance. It's not just taking time on a plane, there is lactate build up, scheduling, and metabolic rate that all get thrown off, even if by a small amount, it can be detrimental to performance.

I am sure Brady will hit his stride at his first game about the Bills

I've been thinking about this recently. Russ Brandon might be a great choice. He's done a great job marketing and representing the Bills even though we've been a Shite Hole. He may not have been good at football operations, but maintaining a positive image and marketing the organization has been a job well done.

If Tampa will give us Lovie, McCown, and a 2nd, just to get them off their roster/staff I think I'd hesitate to pull the trigger

I hope Atlanta keeps their starters and tries to push the 100 marker. They've left points on the field.

Christ, at least the Schiano team played hard, fast and aggressive. Somehow, someway Tampa has regressed, and in no way am I jealous of Tampa bringing in Lovie. Marrone may lose his job and fail, but he isn't this.