PBF81

Rodney LOL

mrags there ...

Sadly he's the only one among both players or coaches that does so here. What could have been these past four years had that not been the case.

I added some additional detail. We can make all the excuses we want for our losses, but there's no one impressive win in the list of wins. There are several unimpressive wins though. Miami vs. Thompson and Indy vs. Old Man Rivers. You're all over the map in your argumentation. It's dizzying.

Take a closer look. To start, we had a -57 point-differential, which I believe is the worst of any team in the league ever to have made the playoffs. As it was, it wasn't even above-average for the drought era where it ranked behind 11th out of 17 other seasons. Our strength of schedule was easier than all but four of the drought era seasons. The only two teams with winning records that we beat that season were the 10-6 Chiefs in Mahomes' rookie season, with Alex Smith at QB, and the Falcons with Ryan at QB, and Taylor outplaying both of them in each game. Remember, McD got significantly less from Taylor than Ryan did. Otherwise, we beat the 4-12 Colts, the 5-11 Jets, Broncos, and Bucs, and the 6-10 Raiders and Fins (twice). Then we were beaten by Bortles and Fournette and the Jags in the Wild-Card round in one of McD's worst offensive performances in his 8 seasons here. We got the tiebreaker over two other 9-7 teams, the Ravens and Chargers, which posted point-differentials of 92 and 83, for swings of 149 and 140, averages of 9.3 and 8.8 points-per-game, and because of the unlikeliest of 4th-and-12 Dalton to Boyd TD plays in a meaningless game for Cincy. In fairness, neither the Chargers nor Ravens beat much better teams, but the Chargers, led by Rivers and coached by Anthony Lynn, also in his rookie coaching debut, obliterated us 54-24. That's how. We weren't a good team, we were 21st in the league in PD, had a 22nd ranked Scoring Offense, 29th ranked Yardage Offense, an 18th ranked Scoring D, and a 26th ranked Yardage D. It was largely luck, unprecedented luck.

A whole lot will depend upon the offensive scheming and therefore Brady and what McD expects from Brady. Shakir has the ability with Allen to be among the top-10 WRs. Whether it happens or not is another story.

He holds our offense back. Allen and this offense should be improving since Allen's watch, but we've gone from 31.3 PPG in '20, to 28.4 PPG in '21 & '22, to 26.5 PPG this past season. That's the wrong direction as if that needs to be said. Unfortunately, while his defenses excel during the regular season, they're on the opposite end, among the worst, in the playoffs. Not sure where that places him, particularly in a division of siht apart from Miami whose offense has been good but whose defenses not so good. He's also managed to insulate himself from responsibility for each and every critical [poor] decision that's cost us playoff games along with a few regular season games. In pondering who this season's scapegoat is, it can't be Brady (the OC) again. Thinking Babich possibly here.

"“I’m doing everything that I can as a head coach to make sure that things are the way that I want them and expect them to be across all three phases." - McDermott

The talent has something to do with it as well, of course. As you and I have discussed, and compared to other teams that draft QBs highly, they build around the QB where we haven't done that to similar extents. Our addressing the OL via our drafts has been weak, our addressing WRs until this season has been all but nonexistent, starting in round 4 and mid-late day-3 otherwise. But at least some of that has been due to McD's infatuation with the defense, as something that he actually knows about, thereby with an emphasis there, not the O. We can disagree on that as well, but McD's choice of OCs has also held Allen back as has his current complimentary football MO. Again, we'll learn more this season, but if you listen to his pressers, you'll note that he considers that we play our best offensively when the running game is working.

TSW Best: We win the division again, there's plenty of see I told ya so's for everyone; the typical debates emerge after we are unceremoniously ousted in the divisional round, fun and the usual merriment for all. Worst: We don't win the division, don't make the playoffs; we have to hide all the matches; have a referral forum for suicide prevention counselors; hire numerous Crisis Intervention specialists, and have a good supply of Indicas.

Semantics there. That's what I mean by the the extent to which McD's success hinges upon Allen. Right now McD has been given quite a bit of credit for how good the team is. You and I have argued with you disagreeing when I've said that several of our coaches prior to McD during the drought years would have gotten what our offense has gotten here and more in some cases. That's the extent to which the perception of McD's success hinges upon Allen, not himself. As to holding Allen back, I've never used those words. The offense on McD's watch has never approached being all that it can be. Point being, I wouldn't put it in terms of "holding Allen back," rather not knowing how to get the most out of not only him, but the offensive roster in general as well. Make sense?

Think long term ... or at least medium term.

Mahomes and Allen have two different styles. But the difference between them is Reid vs. McD. Reid is arguably the best offensively oriented coach in the game today and a far better coach than McD is. McD has no handle on offense and must rely on those beneath him, whom he controls, and which are not proven to any notable level with no significant accolades or achievements in the NFL. It's common sense for the objective. Hopefully this will clear up this season for the stragglers and we can shed this entirely irrational fear of being bad with Allen at QB, and move on to someone that actually understands offense and doesn't have to try to build an empire out of loosely knit nonsense like complimentary football to overcome his terminal weaknesses. Them again, Pegula's the one that decides. Not Beane. Pegula doesn't seem to care about winning, only his wealth.

Agree that it wasn't the loss of Pioli. Again, some complexities, we don't always define things as the discussion moves along. LOL

There's some confusion here, possibly on my end. I was referring to generally as time went on. We had an email circle and one guy kept joking that BB's goal was to keep trading down his 1st round picks until he finally had the entire 2nd round in hand one year. Well see, but I think you may be disappointed. I just got done watching the presser from the Pats loss. McD must've mentioned "complimentary football" which he implied was balanced football with all phases, pass/run/defense all being relatively equal, at least a dozen times. (my paraphrase) But it was clear from his statements last season that he wanted or rushing game to be more involved. It's going to be an interesting season to be sure. I wouldn't wager a plug nickel on what they do on offense. I also don't understand why how when our rushing attempts went up significantly, that that's not significant as to pending this season. Well find out in two months.

Perhaps, but these are the more solid types of arguments in favor of him. It doesn't say much.

Yeah, and all that I put forth was average, he did come up big and didn't fold late in games as you implied. Even when they Offense/Brady won the game it's difficult to recall any games in which his D folded late. My avid diehard Pats fan friend would disagree.

Great question!

The core of that second era of Super Bowl wins was Brady and consistently ranked 1st thru 4th Scoring Offenses and Brady in peak form averaging 4,400 Yards, a compl.% of 64.7, 32 TDs to a mere 8 INTs, and a Rating of 100.6 during that 9-year stretch beginning after Pioli. BB's defenses ranked an average 8th in Scoring and 20th in Yardage during that same stretch. That was with 2 games per season each against teams with QB the likes of Tannehill, Cutler, Moore, Henne, Darnold, McCown, Smith, Fitzpatrick, Sanchez, Taylor, Orton, and Manuel. Hardly daunting. I'm well versed in this, one of my best friends was a Pats & Belichick fan, both. He and I used to argue over great lengths of time on it all. LOL As to Brady going to Tampa, it's my understanding that BB drove that, not Brady. BB thought that Brady was on the downside. Bet he's regretting that now. As to Gronk v. McCourty, Gronk & Brady were unstoppable. BB was generally good at drafting defensive players and OL-men. Yeah, difficult to tell all the nits, but one thing's for certain, at some point BB began running the entire show. That was obviously also a part of the rift between him and Kraft, who loved Brady too. At the end of the day BB was a coach that quite frankly, lucked into Brady for the aforementioned reasons above, was fortunate to have been in a division bereft of good QB play for the duration of the Brady era, and thereby artificially inflating his defensive aptitude, not to diminish that he was still great in that regard. Something rarely brought up by anyone is the difference in his playoff Defenses during that Pioli era vs. during the 10-year stretch after it, that second era of Super Bowl wins as you defined it. From '01 thru '08, BB's Ds averaged 18.2 PPG against. From '09 thru '18 it averaged 22.4 PPG against. In that first stretch of 17 playoff games, his Ds held opponents to 27 or fewer all but twice, and to 21 or fewer 13 of 17, and to 17 or fewer in 10 of 17. In that second stretch of 23 playoff games, his Ds held opponents to 27 or fewer in 14 of 23 games; to 21 or fewer in 11 of 23 games; and to 17 or fewer in just 6 of those 23 games. That's significant. During that first stretch, their offense averaged 24.7 PPG in the playoffs. During that second stretch post-Pioli, their offense averaged 30.4 PPG in the playoffs. It was clearly the offense carrying them in that second Super Bowl era.

Most of these topics have been covered many times over. Not to downplay your takes or argument, after a while it's a time thing. LOL And to answer your question briefly and directly, ... no. I don't find it negative. What I do find negative is false info, such as everything about Diggs which we know was a lie. Don't want to answer, fine, just don't lie about it. My original comment was meant to be about lockerroom issues.

I don't want to get into this again. We've done it in the past and you've already chimed in.

Again, we're getting into some complexities here and off on a tangent. I'll address them, but consider, the point was how sans Belichick, one's reasons aside, did zero notable w/o Brady. If that was the case with BB/Brady, and given the greater evidence of similar with McD/Allen, then to consider that it's similar for another defensive sided coach yet one without the pre-head-coach accolades and recognition on defense that BB had, really shouldn't be anything even approaching a reach. In fact, it should be a strong consideration. As well, I'm of the rooted opinion that McD tries to replicate BB. BB was a rock solid DC. But consider too, when he got to New England, he took a defense that ranked top-10 the year prior and dropped it by over 10 places in the rankings. His defensive rankings in NE were very good from 2003 - 2007, but then dipped slightly after that, and more than slightly in the early 'teen years. But consider his divisional opposition for 40% of his games. Us, the Fins, and Jets were pure crap during Brady's entire tenure. All three teams were a revolving door of coaches, QBs, without any team ever fielding an above-average QB during that stretch. That'll do wonders for defensive rankings. LOL But to your recollection of the '95 Browns, the Browns were 4-5 at the time that the move was announced, and even if they'd gone 4-3 in their last seven they've have failed to make the playoffs. Also, BB's only playoff win came against Bledsoe's Pats and of course Bledsoe's playoff horrificness, his other two playoff games were blowout losses. So let's not embellish any of that. Here's the thing, look at Testeverde's performance in Cleveland. It was average at best. In his three seasons there under Belichick he posted an 80.9 rating. The following season(s) in Baltimore he doubled his production from '95, his best season under BB. Over the next three seasons at the ages of 33-35 Testerverde played much better than he did in Cleveland under BB, and on two different teams, Baltimore for two seasons and the Jets. His career faded after that, aging out. BB has never produced a decent QB, ever. Brady was an accident and Brady did it on his own for the most part much like Allen has. That's why none of his OC's ever did anything notable or above-average, usually well below average, anywhere else. If you'll recall, BB was firmly behind Bledsoe much as McD was firmly behind Peterman. It was Mo Lewis, damn him for eternity, LOL, that forced BB's hand. Had Lewis' not put Bledsoe out for the season, Brady likely would have been yet another late-round QB drafted by the Pats that moved on unceremoniously after the 2022 season at the end of his initial 3-year contract. Here's where I want to spend some time, the bolded part above. Brady's early career stats were reasonably good but not great. For his first three years as a starter, he never had more than 6.9 yards per pass attempt. If you want 6.9 yards per attempt, you could get that from a lot of QBs. In the middle of the Brady years, he went down with a season-ending injury. Belichick went 11-5 with Matt Cassell as his starting QB. The reason why BB likely kept Brady on after that point is because Brady was far more efficient than Bledsoe and didn't make the blundering errors that did. His first season, despite what you said above, was better than Bledsoe's prior two in NE. That too vs. a soph QB that had never started vs. a highly regarded QB that had been in the league for nearly 10 years. Brady's 6.9 was better than Bledsoe's career average of 6.6 and considerably greater than his 6.2 2000 mark. Brady's rating was also 10 points higher than Bledsoe's under BB in NE and nearly the same better than Bledsoe's career rating. So it was really a no-brainer, obviously not a planned thing. That's where I look to see the extent to which coaching and management (GM) are better than their peers. Do they recognize the talent and have a replacement plan, or do they keep the higher-paid more highly regarded players in the game w/o recognizing likely better talent in depth. Relatedly, I remember watching Favre playing preseason in Atlanta and then Atlanta trading him to Green Bay. I remember telling everyone at that time that they traded the wrong QB, they should have traded George. So kind of like that. Belichick, like McD this past season, a part of my BB mimicking take, liked to be his own DC. His undoing was his taking over for Pioli and being his own GM, which was all but an abject disaster, AHEM, particularly on the offensive side, which is why he had to go for trades and non-drafted players like Moss, Dillon, and Welker. Sure, he also drafted Gronk, but consider, was that because he thought that Gronk could be anywhere near as good as he was? If that were the case, why did he draft McCourty in round 1 waiting until 15 picks later to grab Gronk as the second TE off the board? Clearly he was not of that opinion. McCourty was good, likely validating his 27th overall draft status, but not "Gronk good," nowhere close as few players are. I mean let's be honest, knowing what we know now, that 2010 Draft done over again, Gronk is easily a top-3, likely the first, player taken. But the point is that by meddling to that extent and wanting full control over the entire enchilada, BB worked against himself. Lastly, yes, BB went 11-5 with Cassel as his QB. That's pretty much BB's capstone argument in this context, to which I say, welcome to the rest of the division and siht QBs. Despite that, his was probably the best of the divisional bunch that season. But let's add some perspective, shall we. Miami also went 11-5, ... with Pennington at QB. Pennington had as his top WR Ted Ginn Jr. After that, Greg Camarillo and Davone Bess, JAGs. BB/Cassel had Moss and Welker. So is that really impressive? Teams win on/about 10 games every season based upon circumstances like easy schedules, as was the case here. We did it in 2017 for which McD gets way too much credit for, and again in 2019. The Pats and Fins split with each other, neither team beating a 10-win team otherwise. Both teams took two from us with us fronting Edwards. BB's not going to shake this stigma nor should he. At the same time, it's certainly reasonable to ask whether if for someone regarded by many as the GOAT coach this could have been the case, why not for other coaches. (rhetorical) Clearly there is no reason as to why not. Given that McD has underachieved in many ways considering that, it's likely the case here.

There are clearly some critical things that he's not been forthright with, re: those, yes.

The implication of the quote of yours that I responded to is that Beane hasn't provided McD with enough to properly get it done. Anyway, just being light. Don't get bent out of shape. You McD apologists are very emotional. At this point I can see McD going but not Beane.

The anti-Beane v. the anti-McD types in a celebrity death match. The obvious difference between that arrangement and Allen/McD is that Reid compliments Mahomes on the offensive side, while McD does nothing significant for Allen and has to rely on people that aren't even remotely in the same class as Reid or even close. As stated, Reid sees the forest for the trees and ensures that Mahomes is in a position to get the most of out both himself, as well as for them together to get the most out of their entire offense and offensive roster. We're far from that. In that regard we keep shooting from the hip hoping to get a bullseye.