D. L. Hot-Flamethrower

I believe that it would be a mistake to not start EJ this week. He has been out since week 5, I know it's a challenge, but we need to see if he looks any better against NE. Lots and lots of decisions to be made this offseason. Don't want to miss out on an a opportunity for new information.

All I have to say about this is 2 words. PAT MORRIS!

I noticed that too. throw in the 2 over the Jets and we are at 2!

Absolutely!! I like Sumlin as well.

LOL Bad Boys

I should have mentioned that Beckham missed the first 4 games of the year. The Giants have attempted to target him nearly as much in four less games as the Bills have Watkins. They also have been highly successful getting it too him when they attempt to. This tells me that the OC has fallen down and lacks the creativity to get his most explosive player the ball.

What's telling to me is the Bills targeted Watkins 123 times and completed 62, barely 50%. Beckham has been targeted 111x with 79 completions-well over 70%!

I think Malzahn will be a head coach in the NFL one day. Doubt he comes to be an OC.

Good call, only quibble I have is, change even as sports fans, to especially as sports fans!

I was thinking about this myself and did a little research. I am not a huge PFF guy, but for OL I don't know what else to check. Per 1000 plays to balance out the fact we ran about 70 plays per game in 2013 as opposed to 2014s 65/game. Cordy Glenn has gone from +17plays above average to +7. Wood has gone from -1 to -8. Pretty big drop off for the 2 who returned to their spots this year. The line shift of postions was clearly a failure. Urbik/Pears were a solid +1 last year and combined are a MINUS 45 this year. The only real change would be Henderson(-27), who in reality is replacing the combo of Legurksy/Brown(-41). This can be described as going from worst to bad. Overall, the line was about 50 plays worse per 1000 than last year. And, last years line was not great! Furthermore, our overall stats on offense are remarkably close for each year. I'll save space, and tell you if you didn't already know, that yard per play, pts /drive, yards/drives etc. are all close. The only difference is this years offense had huge dropoff running the ball, about a half yard/carry and about 50 yards/game! It could reasonably be argued the line got worse, and the offense stayed the same. This is where PFF breaksdown for me. Knowing the above you would figure the skill guys were better than last year. PFF has our offense as quite a bit worse overall, and that the skill guys are not . In conclusion, I have been a recent critic of Pat Morris OL coach, I see nothing to dissuade me from that thought. Given the fact our passing game is a bit more efficient and our running game has fallen off a cliff. I see no reason to conclude that Orton/Watkins/Woods/Chander/Hogan are any worse, perhaps better than last year's crew. We should try to improve our QB position this offseason. However, the people who clamor that Big Ben, Rogers, Brady et al could win big with this line and staff. Maybe they could, maybe they couldn't....we don't have one of those guys and aren't likely to have one in the immediate future. So good luck putting all your eggs in the replace Orton, he sucks basket, and all is good. My bottom line is the OL performance is atrocious and the coaching staff and front office supporting it failed miserably with an experiment there.

Good point on the first round pick.

I agree about always wanting to replace him. There are probably at least 20 teams in the league who would like to replace their current guy. Other than Brady, Ben, Luck, Rivers, ManningX2, Romo, Rogers, Stafford, Ryan, Wilson... did I miss anyone? The point is, if you don't have a franchise guy in this league, you will always want a better one.

Agree with cut list (unless a trade can bring draft picks). Trading for a QB seems like it could be a possibility this off-season. Have to wait and see who's available. I like bringing Hughes back at a reasonable price. Free Agency is used to bring on some guys on the OL like the ones you mentioned.

LOL

Thank You. I was beginning to wonder if there was anyone else who could rationally look at things and realize that Orton is not the only problem. Your analysis is right on! Awesome! some one else is rational. Oh and BTW, as a global moderator-I was warned by BEERBALL for crossing the line and telling that snotty, arrogant, condescending ,patronizing STOP THE PAIN to kiss my ass. Double standard as I have seen a particular person on here tell someone to "bite me", and no warning was issued. Oh and check that snotty,arrogant,condescending,patronizing STOP THE PAIN posts. I would tell him to kiss my ass again in a heartbeat.

The OL coach has not developed anyone and the line has regressed from the start of last year.

There's the answer right there.

I was thinking the same thing watching the game today. Obviously if we don't fix the OL nothing is going to work.

Agree. At the most important time all season the D couldn't get a stop on 3rd and 22!

No! When I hear he's gone I might, depending on who the replacement is.

Good call by the OP. I think a lot of people noticed after about the 3rd or 4th series that Mack was killing our tackles and they needed help!

How come the OL COACH is never mentioned as a problem? 4 returning lineman, 3 draft picks and a free agent signee, and that was all he could produce in 2 seasons. He should be gone faster than Hackett.

I haven't given up either. It was good to hear Fred Jacksons' comments about EJ!

Thanks for posting. Interesting take from a respected player.

Relax Yolo , don't fall for the doom and gloom narrative on this board. I think you're just getting beat down. All that matters now is we win out and make the playoffs. Whaley will figure out the QB situation in the offseason, mark it down.