PBF81

BTW, the perspective that I'm looking at that argument from is one of diminished offensive production, down from the last three seasons since Allen's become elite. Through 16-game comps, we're down Yards-per-Play, Total Yards, Scoring, 1st-Down generation, and more. Yet, we have the best OL we've had in years, arguably since the Levy days. We have Allen now in his fourth season as an elite QB. We have Cook playing at a level that matches Shady's performance in his best season here in terms of workload and yardage, and RB production otherwise not seen on McD's watch. As mentioned, we haven't had a single injury to our starting OL, which is beyond remarkable, and therefore incalculable chemistry. Our five OL-men lead the team in snap percentages, individually. We have Shakir in his second season to join Diggs & Davis who contributed to the prior year totals, and we added arguably the most prolific pass-catching TE in the Draft who's posting, albeit an less-could-be, yet exceptional season. Cook is an outstanding receiving RB as well. The schedule certainly hasn't been difficult from an offensive standpoint, averaging 18th with teams that we've played ranking 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 14th, 16th (twice), 17th (twice), 21st, 22nd, 25th, 26th, 27th, 28th, and 32nd. We had no trouble lighting up the 5th and 7th. Miami has the 22nd ranked Scoring D, and given our history of domination against them I'm having difficulty reconciling why our offense can't outperform the offenses from the past three seasons, or at least match them. Our YPP should be at 6.5, not 5.7. Miami's is at 6.5 and we had 6.1 in '20 and '22. Either way, we have more this season, not less on offense, and our offense can't even match our overall performances of the past three seasons. It's bewildering. I'm not sure, given how we pour resources into our D, and given our free-agent departures this coming season, that we'll ever have a more favorable path to 14-3. An injury-free OL is all but a fantasy. Again, having difficulty envisioning any rational and reasonable excuses for the above. And if we had improved as we could have, if not should have, won the 6 games that we lost by 5, 4, 6, and 2 points respectively, with two other games needlessly going to OT. Even splitting those we'd be at 13-3.

LOL, no doubt, but still, Tennessee's not too far off of that baseline either. Again, other than for Miami, the other four teams that they've beaten are unimpressive and a combined 22-44. Also, what are they playing for? Nothing besides spoiler perhaps. On the flip side, it could be the difference between the 5th and 7th overall picks in the Draft.

We'll find out soon. 🙂

Like you said, they're not very good, all they have to do is come in not caring. Beathard played well enough against Carolina as well.

Great, agree to disagree then. But honestly, if McD can't do significantly better than three of our teams with 9-7 records during our drought era, with WBs half, at best,, of what allen is, ... 🙂 Tennessee has no incentive to win. They do have disincentive though. Just sayin'.

Apart from Miami who a lot of people are down on for not beating good teams, the Titans have beaten four other teams wit a combined record of 22-42. If w have to rely on 2017 type luck ...

Who cares what Miami is, we're 10-6 and should be better than that. Miami is not a better team than we are. And this discussion is hardly complete without that comparison of injuries to both teams' offensive players. How many seasons are we going to get through with zero significant injuries on offense? None is a safe wager.

It's ridiculous if we can't beat Miami out for the division given that our offense was essentially injury-free this season given our roster. How many times is that going to happen. Factor in Cook's play, our vastly improved OL, and it's not good that we haven't clinched the division by now.

Call me crazy, but third OC in as many seasons, a defensive-minded head coach with zero practical knowledge on the offensive side of offense, "complimentary football" which for us translates to everything revolves around McD's D, ... all with a generational talent at QB. Gee, I wonder why Allen's not more effective. We'll figure it out when he's in his mid-30s. It'll be a no-brainer spotting it then, everyone will be a genius. No wonder Allen's at least a little ph'd up.

Yeah, presumably if he's not in danger of missing a game.

If he's injured but not on the injury report, then it'll be problems for us. The league friends upon that.

Wouldn't it be FUBAR if we tied.

Well, there were two ties league-wide last season, one in 2021. None this season. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

The odds of a tie are probably about the same as they were for a Dalton-to-Boyd 49-yard TD pass on 4th-and-12 with under a minute to play against the Ravens' D. Should be a great game.

Shades of 2004 when all we had to do was beat the Steelers' JV team to make the playoffs at 9-6. Let's hope this isn't a repeat.

He'll be on our team next season. ... I kid, I kid.

I'm with you here. The past two seasons we've had the #1 and #2 defenses, yet they collapsed in the playoffs in the 13-Seconds game and last year against Cincy, and we were hardly above-average much less #2 in facing Skylar Thompson's Fins with essentially no RB. So I'm in the have-to-see-it-to-believe-it mode re: our defense in the playoffs. Seems to me that if the offense doesn't carry the games as it did in our four playoff games in '21 and '22 except for the Ravens' game, with no offense by the Ravens, and averageing 36 PPG in the other three games, not sure we do much. Having said that I'm hopeful. Also thinking that maybe being a 6th/7th seed might be the kick-in-the-pants that we need to win one. We've also only played three teams ranked in the top-12 in scoring, so it's not as if our D has played the best offenses. Philly took our D to task. We got the best of Dallas, but they're slumping, so how much is related to that. And Miami was early in the season.

😁

Especially when the game is in the winter months.

That right there. Coaching It's not limited to him offensively.

You're also leaning defense, which has failed us in the playoffs. The question should be, and is, can other coaches get more out of Allen and therefore the Offense. That's hardly a stretch. It's difficult to envision anyone getting less out of him and this offense.

You named a lot of teams.

Which skill positions on the Ravens are better than ours? Also, I thought you just said that's they were also underachieving? You seem to be arguing against yourself here.

Sounds like a little hedging there. 🤨🤔😁 The others don't have Allen. We should. Miami's coming in with one receiver, one RB, the receiver they are fielding injured, an injured QB. They're as decimated by injuries as they've been all season. If we can't win it, it'll make a bigger statement going the other way. Winning is expected for this game, we're the better team in better shape.