PBF81

Yes, I misspoke re: Reader. Per my post to Gunner. Again, our D isn't much different than theirs but ours has I said nothing about a hole in our secondary. Their secondary is a lot worse than ours. My entire point is that the few injuries that we've had aren't enough to send this D to the depths of the rankings or play. Theirs is average.

Be that as it may, the point was that there's no reason why their D should be ranked average while ours founders near DFL. There's been at least somewhat of an overreaction to a few injuries here.

It's also fair to question whether these frenetically paced defenses, often and as in our case referred to as "swarming" Ds, as a result of their pace and style of associated play factor into to it.

That'll be the proof in the pudding. That and whether we even show up for the 1st Half this week. We have a significant advantage with 10 days prep and Cincy playing a late game out west.

Yeah, sorry, I meant Hill.

SNF's game has a lot more meaning that most realize.

Starters: Hubbard: 6'5"/265 Hill: 6'3"/311 Reader: 6'3"/335 Hendrickson: 6'4"/270 To compare: Groot: 6'6"/266 Phillips: 6'5"/341 Oliver: 6'2"/287 Floyd: 6'6''/240 Our OL: Brown: 6'8"/311 Torrence: 6'5"/347 Morse: 6'5"/305 McGovern: 6'5"/318 Dawkins: 6'4"/320 Reader should be across from Torrence. That could be the key M2M matchup there.

Grasping at straws time in Boston.

I'm not sure that DJ Reader is any less of a "hole" than our options. Phillips has had a better career than Reader, and he was better here last season. I don't understand why the drop in performance. He's only 31. I have to think that they can tweak the D to help him contribute more. As to the LBs, we've discussed that ad nauseum and essentially agree. The players on the roster are the ones that they chose. Now they have to live with it. Either way, we could conversly say that we don't have the hole that they have in the entire secondary too. Particularly if Douglas starts, as I suspect he will. ... and FWIW, their rushing D is worse than ours. If we can't generate some serious offense on SN ...

And as Gunner implied, they were FAs that he, Beane, signed, no doubt with much input from McD. Perhaps they should have thought things through and gotten at least one guy that would fit the scheme a little bit better. That's the problem as many view it, they're so overly focused on pass-rush that everything else, the other elements of D, takes a back seat, at least to a large extent.

And the backing up of Peterman by McD was just cataclysmically stupid.

I just went over their entire starting D lineup. Their D doesn't seem to be any better than ours based on the talent that's starting on Sunday. Their front-7 is almost entirely 3rd-round draft picks too. I believe that among the entire starting 11 there was only one Pro-Bowl appearance. Their top guys in their front-7 have 15 total sacks. Henrickson (8), Hubbard (4), and Hill (3). Our top guys in our front-7 have 19.5 total sacks. Floyd (6.5), AJE (5), Oliver (5), and Groot (3). TFLs, Cincy 20. Hendrickson (8), Hubbard, Pratt, and Wilson 4 each. Us, 31. Oliver (10), Groot (6), Bernard (6), AJE (5), Floyd (4). QB Hits, Cincy 39. Hubbard (12), Hendrickson (11), Hill (11), Reader (5). Us, 35. Floyd (12), Oliver (10), Groot (7), AJE (6). They don't seem to have any ringers in their secondary either and seems to be notably worse than ours. Just a little perspective for everyone that's bawling about how the season's over "because our D sucks." Speaking for myself, I have very little faith that we'll win @ Philly, which if we don't, makes this pretty much a must-win game. I agree with your 3-1/2-2/1-3 assessment over the next four games. Zach Taylor has outcoached McD the last three times we've met, which includes the beginning of the Hamlin game. The first time was with Dalton and a bunch of JAGS at WR besides Boyd, whose hardly prolific. Granted, we had Brown, Beasley, Jones, and McKenzie, but that was better than Boyd and three young WRs that aren't even in the league anymore, two not since '21. At this point the heat is appropriately beginning to befall McD. We'll see what he has up his sleeve, if anything, for SNF, Prime Time. It'll be on display for the world. I'm hopeful, but I wouldn't bet on us coming out on top. This team is ridiculously mystifying in its ability to underachieve.

I don't disagree, but it is a message board where opinions and fluid talk rule the day. At the same time I'm not so sure that it's worth getting all defensive about. 🙂 Life's too short, eh.

Let's see what actually happens. That may turn out to have been prescient.

That is undeniable, that the "defensive floor is lower with their current lineup." But what is not undeniable is that this defense still has plenty of talent to put out at least a halfway decent defense, which in this era of NFL football is all that's required, per the last two SB winners, providing that a team has a top offense. Which we should, but right now do not, have. To the extent that that "defensive floor is lower with their current lineup," again, that's a Beane issue. The only player that the D should have major issues working around is Milano, but if you've read what I've written, I've warned about this for at least the past two drafts. Now, if I can envision this, the "expert(s)" should easily be able to as well. It's not complicated, but it is a difference of philosophy. I realize I'm merely adding to what you said, but just sayin'. Everyone throwing the towel in on our D is getting old. Make it work to an average D level. If we cannot do that with Oliver, AJE, Groot, Floyd in the front-7, then find someone that can. Bernard's even playing much much better than anticipated. Williams or Dodson may not be, but hey, again, anyone upset over that needs to check with Beane, first, for even drafting Williams, but secondly, for drafting the same exact type of player that Bernard is more relevantly. Perhaps a bigger LB acquired by free-agency as well would have been better insurance. They obviously didn't want that and believed that smaller "faster" LBs that could cover the pass were better. Well, now their theory is being put to the test. If they don't like it, they need to go stand in front of a mirror. OK, great. Then McD needs to work around that. If we don't have what we need and our D goes from top two or three to bottom five, that's a Beane & coaching issue. And if "speed is the difference," then we should be fine. Williams is fast enough.

Doesn't matter what I would have done. Beane's the one in charge. Put the tantrum on hold and send an e-mail to him asking why he preferred the players he's drafted. As a PS in your e-mail to him/them, feel free to ask why the offense is only playing to a fraction of it's potential, and relatedly, if it weren't, does he think that our overall play would be much better. BTW, of anyone on here, I've been vocal now for the past two days to draft a bigger starting LB. So your question to me isn't even a fair one.

The bawling over our situation on D, besides besides lacking serious context, falls on deaf ears when our offense plays to half of its potential.

A lot of people now see McD's issues, which are multiple. The national media is now involved which means that it's going to be difficult for him to hide or use scapegoats. He also can't possibly have more control over this team, reasonably anyway, than he does now. He's got more game-day control over it than most coaches throughout history. All we do is talk about it, nothing we can do one way or the other. Pegula's ultimately going to have to get involved, and as the concern was for giving both McD & Beane extensions beyond this season without first waiting, wisely, for say at least this half season to have passed before making that decision, that risk side of this high-risk decision-making team has also played out. They haven't even entered year one of that extension. If things don't improve, Pegula's going to have a tough decision that risks him looking incompetent. And on that side of the tracks he probably is, judging by some of his past decisions. But here's the thing, he's got PSLs to sell now on top of roughly twice the cost for Tix. Those prices are going to make the current ticket costs look like Dollar General discounts. If he had to sell those with teams from the drought years, ... LOL. If this team starts sliding and becomes more dysfunctional and disarrayed than it already is, good luck to him. Many long-time STHs have already said adios here, and that was assuming that we didn't have the issues we now have. Let's see how the season plays out. I have stated mo several times that I'd rather see us struggle to get a wild-card, get hot then, and win the SB, than to get the #1 seed and pull a typical playoffs McD, losing because our D didn't show up anyway. This crying in our soup about our injuries on D when our offense is running on 5 of 8 cylinders is ridiculous. We can do it with the D that's on the field right now if the offense is properly run, which is presently far from the case. If w keep playing as we are however, we may not even finish with a winning record. It will be interesting from several vantage points as the season goes on as well as afterwards. All we can do now is hope for the best. All that most of us want is one Lombardi! Just one!

Floyd has backed up Von almost identically. Last season we didn't have him. Last season AJE wasn't playing like this. Oliver's playing better this season. Jones wasn't playing anything close to the way he was playing the first few games this season either, ever, in 9 prior seasons. Doubtful he would have kept up that pace. He didn't in 9 seasons otherwise where he was pretty average. White for all intents and purposes hasn't been around since the 2021 season. Milano's a huge loss. Beane doesn't take nearly enough heat for that obvious potential situation. They have exactly what they wanted, a bunch of diminutive LBs that specialize in pass coverage. If they didn't want that, why did they put it together like that. The fact that they (apparently) gave little if any thought to what happens should Milano get hurt is entirely on them. And McD, were keep being told, is some kind of defensive guru, despite fielding an average 17th ranked scoring D over 6 seasons in Carolina. Yes for some reason poor Clappy will be hard pressed to put it all together. 🙂

And in fairness, if he can at least take us to a Super Bowl and win it, or if he loses it, not losing it as a result of a "13 Seconds" or other type of coaching blunder, then great. If not however, then most people are going to appropriately be asking whether he's reached his ceiling as a HC. If we can't make the playoffs, then the question will have answered itself.

Interesting that you say that. It would be foolish to think that McD didn't have a heavy hand in that D. He was a very average DC in Carolina, making it an odds on proposition that it was going to get worse this season. He's bitten off way more than he can chew. Sometimes egos, ambition, and desire for control work against the person behind it.

Have faith. Mention Gabe Davis in a positive light or how some player won't come here because we don't have a dome and see what happens.

Not a good issue to have given the forthcoming schedule. Other than Miami, the highest ranked rushing team we've played is the Giants, who rank 15th in Rushing YPG. It's part of fundamentals, which we don't seem to be particularly good at.

Nearly 29-year old RB whose averaged 4.0 YPA in his career, ... meh. He's got size, might be a Goal Line asset. I'm not quite sure what McBeane have against true 3-down RBs. Having one would certainly add some options on offense.

The Baltimore game is fair, but we wouldn't have made it there w/o going through Indy first, and Baltimore's O was essentially a one-man show. Tennessee and their 24th ranked D held 'em to 20 points the week prior. The Ravens haven't scored more than 20 PPG in the playoffs in any of their 5 playoff games dating back to 2018. So while good, consider the O there. The NE game was another solid D effort, but consider their offense with Mac Jones as a rookie. The overall argument was that we're focusing too much on our defensive injury woes right now. Groot and AJE have come on, Floyd was signed to backup Miller and has done about what Miller did last year through the same number of games. Our LB issues are because of McBeane and that's the way they wanted it. This team should be focused around it's Allen-led offense first and foremost. We've put so many expensive resources into the D, because that's what McD knows, but nowhere near the same level into the offense. The point was also that it's our offense that has determined how far we advance, or in the case of "13 Seconds," simply revealing a cataclysmic failure in the D preventing it. We have the offensive talent to be doing much much better than we are. We obviously, as many of us see it, don't have the right person at the helm of this rig. Otherwise we'd be realizing that offensive powerhouse aspect. I mean seriously, not even 21 PPG over the past four games, ... and we're talking about against the currently 6th, 10th, 23rd, and 26th defenses, not the Ravens, Cowboys, and Niners.