HappyDays

16-1. It's been written in stone since they beat the Panthers. They don't need to really win any games, just put all the psychological pressure on their opponent and watch them lose.

The Chiefs break all the rules.

Depends on if we re-sign Cooper which I hope we do. I honestly would be fine taking the same exact WR group into the season next year with one addition drafted between rounds 2-4 to keep the pipeline strong. If we don't re-sign Cooper then yes we once again enter the offseason with WR as the #1 priority.

My guess is Beane will do his patented "convince an underperforming player to accept a paycut" with DQ. According to Spotrac only $2.25M of his $7.75M salary in 2025 is guaranteed. You get him to accept a new salary of $5M fully guaranteed or something like that. In that scenario we actually save more on the cap than if we cut him and DQ earns more money than he would on the open market. Win/win. I would bet Beane very specifically structured the contract with this possibility in mind.

Excited to see how Coleman fits into this offense which has gotten better and better as Cooper's usage has increased. The injury was frustrating because he had two great games against Tennessee and Seattle, then a bad game against Miami that he never had a chance to bounce back from. If everyone stays healthy the offense has four games to fully ramp up in time for the playoffs.

This is a good week to get that gameplan right because I think conceptually you have to defend the Lions in the same way you want to defend the Rams. I just listened to Joe Marino's breakdown of the Lions and they are apparently dead last in deep throw % at just over 6%. I'm sure part of that is because they are playing with a lead so often but still it is not something you really have to worry about with them even though Jameson Williams certainly has that ability. This is a game where we should be willing to bring a safety down, focus on shutting down the run, and flood the intermediate zones. If we get beat deep once or twice so be it, all that means is Allen is back on the field right away. We cannot have another week where the opposing QB looks comfortable all day and finds easy reads on every single dropback. Joe Marino made another good point that the Lions are so aggressive on 4th down that you can't play the "rally and tackle" style of defense on 3rd down, like we did against the Rams on 3rd and 17. I want to see McDermott/Babich step out of their comfort zone. Don't come into the game playing conservative waiting to see what the Lions do before panic adjusting to telegraphed blitzes. At least make it a challenge on them and live with the result.

I think the opposite. People would be harder on him because games like last week would look like some of those 2017 blowout losses we suffered under him. I doubt we would have even made it past the wildcard round by now with anything short of elite QB play. And so McDermott would have nothing to stand on other than being the coach that ended the drought which by NFL reckoning happened practically an eternity ago.

San Fran honored Allen's performance by putting up 1 point for every TD he scored

They gave it everything they had against a non-conference opponent but come out flat in a game that could decide the division? That doesn't ring true to me.

Right they aren't blitzing a lot or getting a ton of pressure. They just have the right gameplan to make it difficult for Stafford to find an open man.

Against a great QB mistakes are forced, not given freely. San Fran has the right defensive gameplan. Stafford doesn't look comfortable and doesn't immediately know where to go with the ball on every dropback.

A defensive struggle. Just like everyone expected.

Watching the first two drives of 49ers/Rams and this is exactly what San Fran's defense did. That strategy got them two 3 and outs to start the game. Stafford can't find passing windows and already has two almost INTs. I'm no expert on what the exact right strategy should have been but clearly we had the wrong strategy. I don't think the commonly used excuse of "the Rams offense when healthy is unstoppable" is correct. They certainly don't look it tonight. EDIT: Now three 3 and outs to start the game... 2nd edit: FOUR 3 and outs to start the game. Stafford is holding the ball unable to find anyone open. My god our defensive coaching really blew that game.

Imagine being a multimillionaire pro athlete and you get a call saying you got a snow day.

Lions 41 Bills 35 This is a bad opponent for a get right game.

Matt Parrino talked to Oliver after practice. Here were Oliver's comments: Gotta say I'm not a big fan of this response. Sounds very much like he's not taking any responsibility for his poor play this year, instead choosing to blame the players and the scheme around him.

Sure that is possible. But you're talking multiple good to great players like Taron, Benford, Bernard, Rousseau all getting completely abused throughout the day. One player can have a bad day and it is just that, but multiple players having a bad day speaks to a more systemic problem IMO.

DL was disappointing on Sunday but I don't recall many instances where Stafford was holding the ball for that long. Felt like he immediately knew where to go with it on every drop back. I'm pretty sure I also remember Belichick saying that our defense isn't that creative, that our one and only gimmick is showing one coverage then switching to another post-snap which is just not enough to get it done against smart QBs. The failed delayed blitzes on Sunday were another symptom of the same problem. They were all telegraphed and Stafford easily read them and threw to the vacated area. I accept that our defensive players were not up to snuff and that the Rams offensive players made some outstanding individual plays, but I don't accept that our defensive coaching had no part in the Rams putting up 40+ points. The talent discrepancy is not THAT stark, I mean really.

Yeah I have said that for years. When we face smart QBs with talent around them, they always appear to have easy answers with where to throw the ball. We don't disrupt the reads or make them hesitate at all.

I don't know. The only offenses we've played this year that were fully healthy and capable of elite production were Baltimore, Miami, and LA. We saw how those games went for our defense. I don't think it's a matter of the players just digging deep and finding a way. I think there are fundamental issues with the talent and the scheme that get exposed by talented offenses.

Kincaid and Coleman both should be back. I can't even imagine what this offense looks like at full strength. Hopefully they're ready to put up 50.

Meh. No defense in the league can stop this offense from putting up 30+ when it's performing as well as it has since adding Cooper. I would love to face nothing but defense-heavy teams the entire way to the Super Bowl. Denver, Pittsburgh, KC is the dream scenario. Or switch one of those teams out with LAC, same thing. I get worried when you start talking about teams like Baltimore or Cincy or even Miami where you know they can drag you into a shootout and I have zero faith in our defense and in our coaching staff to win those types of games.

Same with the 9 man punt return in this game, or going back to the kickoff in the 13 seconds game. How is everybody on the sideline not in lockstep with what the plan is ahead of time? As soon as the Rams are punting there should be 11 players ready to step onto the field either going all out to block the punt or trying to execute some kind of punt return. It just blows my mind that there are multiple situations like this over the years where there is confusion leading to a 0% chance of success. For a rookie head coach okay you accept some rough patches, but we're 8 years in and it hasn't gotten any better.

You don't notice him because he does a lot of dirty work that goes unheralded. You're just plain wrong on this one. Nacua is a physical mismatch against any slot CB in the league. Wasn't just Taron either. All of our CBs took turns getting abused by him. Sometimes good coverage got beaten by better throws and catches, and sometimes he was just sitting wide open for one reason or another.

That's a little harsh, yeah? Even great players have bad games. The scheme really hangs Taron out to dry a lot of times too, he is just so good we don't usually notice.