since79

Just curious, since he is coming from a OC Dorsey led offense, how much of the verbiage has changed here with Brady. If Brady kept a lot of the Dorsey verbiage and Dorsey exported his to Cleveland, the acclimation of Copper to our offense may be easier than others. Teams must always change verbiage, I assume but concepts may be consistent. We will see.

What I find interesting is not the hail Mary but what happened on our possession as we scored. An interim head coach with no experience managed the clock like a pro. Knowing we were getting points he stopped the clock after every attempt preserving time for a shot at the end of the half. Knowing he has Rodgers why not take a chance with a quick drive. In our experience if the situation was reversed, McD would have let the clock run hopping the opponent would run out of time ( we had time outs) letting them score points on the last play. Or if lucky enough to get the ball with time take a knee to regroup at halftime. Plays afraid in all circumstances. End of half afraid of a field goal, so rush two on two straight plays and give time for a Hail Mary with linemen out in coverage. His fear of making a bad decision leads to bad decisions. Let the players play aggressive, that is more instinctive and how they are built. IF they miss, the other team was better. Playing afraid leads to our poor execution.

While I agree in part. During the end of the season we were forcing balls to Diggs. Behind the line screens with him simply dropping the ball. Stats are tough passing when the weather gets cold and bad. Historically our receivers with Allen tear it up earlier in the year. The extrapolation of their potential year totals may not translate. We do expect better production and yes if it is those numbers it may not cut it.

We were in a must win situation. Anytime that is the case including playoffs, expect Allen to run more. It’s our cheat code

This system is very subjective. Just because they use a cute color key does not make it accurate. The system is no better than the talking heads saying, here is by ranking based solely on my opinion. If you put some kind of scoring system for each metric( quality of player, age, prone to injury etc.) and weighted it to justify decisions in ranking then you may have something. Rating the quality of player against their peers is tough. We all know the pro-bowl is unusable as an achievement indicator as an example. Even PFF grades cannot be trusted. Going by what was presented and that opinion, it would appear the Miami and Jets have a better foundation. The center of any foundation is the quarterback, he should have most of the weight on offense. When you have that you have a good foundation.

Kelce kills everyone. You cannot keep him down for the whole game. Yesterday 1 catch in first half, 8 in the second. On the last drive in overtime I watched Fred Warner throw him to the ground on second down, not letting him off the line. I thought why don't more teams do that. On the next play Warner does not get a hand on him, Kelce fakes inside, outside then back inside. Mahomes completes a crosser to him for the first down inside the 10 to set up the TD. One of the best linebackers in the league was embarrassed on the play. No one else picked him up as he crossed the middle. It's like basketball you better man him and zone him like box and 1. Where the 49er's went wrong, they got away from their goto guy McCaffery until the drive to take the 3 point lead and also in overtime. One the 4th quarter drive they exhaust him, he takes himself out and his replacement gets a run called back for a hold on the edge. Forced a field goal there instead of a TD chance.

We take them out of the game because we fear fatigue and a rotation of inferior linemen will do better. You watch KC play wit 4-5 guys the whole game. Do any of the Watts or Bosa's come out for a substantial part of the game on the teams they are on. We don't have one of them but how do you know when players are not given the same number of opportunities. Determine who is your best, leave them to gain endurance during the season and roll with them in the playoffs. The best d linemen in the league save a gear for when it is needed. Part of it is the guy they are going against is lulled to sleep and then boom they make a play when needed.

This is a good analysis of where we lack. Reid and Spags know the recipe for playoff success. Physical line play, tight coverage and putting your best players on the field on D. Unpredictability on offense and key players showing up when needed. Throughout the season they play playoff brand defense. Maybe at a less elevated level but the style is the basis of their approach. When the playoffs come around they don't have to change, they just elevate their intensity. Playing a smaller volume of D line, during the year, you may see fatigue at times but by they end of the year, they can play with no drop off when fatigued. The mental aspect of the game is part of how your have been conditioned all year. I think our large rotation on d line can hurt us. You learn to dig deeper and find energy reserves you never knew existed. Your mental preparation will compose you when needed. For the best players the game is in slow motion, they refuse to lose and have played the game mentally over and over. John Wooden's success as a coach was to practice at a speed faster than the game. Be quick but don't hurry. Mental preparation allows for quickness, hurrying creates mistakes and sloppiness. Some coaches just prepare their players better. In the playoffs in a tight game you might hurry limiting your success. If you watch Mahomes, the game is not fast enough for him. When a successful play is needed he fidgets with his fingers asking for the next one quicker. Once he has the call he becomes focused on execution. Is that an example of the player demanding a certain execution from the coach. Don't make me wait for your call, be prepared and get it in. Reid's experience gives him the ability to quickly process the situation and the call. This experience and Mahomes' demeanor blend to their success. Too often McD will say "I thought we had a good week of practice and the mental preparation was there" only to fail. It's in the systematic foundation that exist where the failure lies. To get over the hump we need to reconsider our approach to the regular season as it prepares you for the playoffs. The Bills have been in the most one score games win or lose over the last several years. Stop playing to keep it close, let your players play outside their comfort zone, coach outside your comfort zone or adapt as needed to gain success. We are close but something needs to change.

Spags D is the type you need to play to be successful in the playoffs. KC does not have to change their identity in the playoffs. Tight man, physical secondary and strong in the trenches. Plays with 5 D-line. Puts best players on the field for the whole game. They don't tire because they have been asked to play that way the whole season. Our soft zones, bend but don't break and D line rotation require too many people to execute well. Our team has to go out of character to be successful in the playoffs on D. They can't do it because they are conditioned all season to play a certain way. I would rather lose a regular season game because of D line fatigue or a man getting beat tryin to play tight coverage than continue to lose in the playoffs because that drive where you rested your best D line in the rotation is the one you gave up the score on.

Would not have to be a complete offense overhaul. McDaniel is a EP offense coach. He certainly has more experience running it compared to the last 3 including Dabol. Would be a good fit possibly. What I always liked about NE is they were adaptable not trying to put square pegs in round holes. I am sure that he is accustomed to making half time adjustments. Something I don’t think we stress as a team unless it is to protect the D with a lead.

Thanks T I appreciate the feedback. Although it may not seem so, I agree our coach and GM should stay and continue to work to improve. I am not ready to throw them under the bus and forget where we came from. It is tough for you to ask teammates to be accountable when you want to be their buddy and a likeable guy. That is Josh and I love him, he tries to do it by being a gladiator and leading by example. Our team may need more accountability, I think Brady was demonstrating that early on by teaching basic route running on his first day as coordinator. That is a good thing and I want to keep him. I hope McD shows self accountability to his own mistakes more in the future. He fails to demonstrate that in public as much as Josh and absorb blame for others. If he did not want to expose someone after the 13 second debacle, he should of said it was me. It is tough to ask others for perfection and accountability when blame is deflected. Personal growth is best achieved through self reflection, accepting failure and attempting in the future to avoid it again. We will have a better future.

This is what kills us. We squander opportunity. The entire season we coach to make the playoffs and our systems are good enough. In the playoffs our systems need to be better or change. You watch KC's D get better as they also win. They find ways to get Jones and McDuffy and defenders who are physical and make them a tough team to play. They play tight coverage where you have to earn every yard. Playoff football. Meanwhile we draft in similar spots and find pretenders who don't match their draft status. We draft non physical finesse type players who fit a system instead of changing style and adapting to what is needed. Meanwhile you go years ignoring the side of the ball you should have focused on in the first place. My question is who dictates the type of players we go after. I suspect the coach mostly and the GM tries to satisfy his request for what type of player. Together they have to look in the mirror and do and honest appraisal of how they constructed this team. I don't think this happens for Beane because he sees the team through McD's rose colored glasses. To him we are almost there.

As stated "What our offense lacks is route technique and discipline." Every route ran effects the routes around them. Those mentioning that it tough for Brady to change the whole offense midseason is true, but to expect and teach better route technique and discipline can be done. I remember when he first got named interim, they showed a video of him running routes with the receivers on the first day. Maybe he gets it. Route discipline and technique forces defenders to make decisions, at times it is a sacrifice to do it for the benefit of others. It creates time and space and in fact maybe separation we are looking for. When you want to be lazy and cheat it takes everyone's opportunity away. If the players don't want to listen or get it, you better find ones who do. Like I said before Tom Brady demanded it in his receivers, Josh will never do that. Other sport, but I coached Hockey. One year I had trouble with our best player always toe dragging to the middle on the rush taking others time and space. I would hound him on it. One day he drives the puck wide draws the defender and he hits the trailer for an easy goal. He comes to the bench and says "Man I can't believe how open he was". I said you know how I have been harping on you, that is the reason. From that point forward he got it." If you are willing to sacrifice for your teammate they will for you. Don't expect them to do it if you don't, so it starts with you. If all guys are running to the same open area for their glory nothing comes of it.

Ronnie Harmon…..To go to SuperBowl

Watched both, good insight. Warner played under a different offense(Air Coryell). Although there were option routes they did not vary as much as the EP offense. From wiki. ”The Coryell offense is a combination of deep and mid range passing and power running. The offense relies on getting all five receivers out into patterns that combined stretched the field, setting up defensive backs with route technique, and the quarterback throwing to a spot on time where the receiver can catch and turn upfield. Pass protection is critical to success because at least two of the five receivers will run a deep in, skinny post, comeback, speed out, or shallow cross.” What our offense lacks is route technique and discipline. This is why you get guys so close they could be covered with a blanket. What was quite obvious in the videos is this. What you also see is the absence of guys making themself available. How many times do you see Allen with the ball and EVERY receiver with their back to him. I think part of our lack of YAC can be due to Allen having to see the break, having to see how the receiver read the leverage. The miscues to Davis were anticipation misread throws. This is why he holds the ball so long and has to create out of the pocket. Maybe we need to reduce the read leverage concepts. Have some routes that are defined and have at least one guy always available. In the EP offense the route options are supposed to create unpredictability and variability. In another post I talked about defenders, if they know how our receivers will read leverage can force the decision to the route they want that is easier to defend. In Warner’s analysis you could see KC may have been doing it. He talks about how our receivers don’t force the leverage to their advantage. Again I said elsewhere it looks like we take the path of least resistance and are lazy with rounding of routes. We can benefit from some simplification and dedication to precision in our routes. Allen cannot demand it out of his guys like Brady did ( he had a benefit of winning and a coach who demanded perfection). Allen is too nice a guy and wants to be one of the boys. We need someone on the O side to take that role.