HomeskillitMoorman

I'm sure this will be the last we'll ever see of Dane Jackson

What we do with our D is kind of like when championship teams bring back guys who know how to get it done on their side of the ball when it matters most...except for the whole winning championships thing or our defense ever not being horrible when it matters most

Sure, I wouldn't put it past the NFL to attempt something like that. But I don't think teams would go along with it if they really thought Sanders was going to be really good. I could be wrong but it's hard to see GMs and coaches with jobs on the line pass up what they think is a good QB in round 3 or 4. Kaepernick had a couple years where he struggled which I think helped that collusion. But it's a fair point, they're not above doing it.

I agree, I can't see how when most of the teams who don't have a franchise QB have coaches on thin ice that may never get a head coaching job ever again would pass up him up if they thought he was a possible franchise QB or even just a good one because the NFL wanted to make an example out of him. Especially in like the 3rd or 4th round.

I hope so...but it's frustrating to know there's zero accountability if it's horrible in January once again

And if we lose 34-38 with Josh not being able to give us like a 3rd lead in the 4th quarter, it'll be "well, they got the ball in Josh's hands at the end of the game, what more can you ask for? The defense being terrible for 7 straight postseasons is irrelevant". It's just hard to understand how all this has become normalized here.

I'm glad this is such a big question mark with a couple weeks left before the season starts

I think your point about Shanahan is actually the one a lot of us are making: You don't have to have a great coach to win with a SB with an elite QB...you just have to have one that's not a total liability. Unfortunately we do have a HC who has been a total liability as evidenced by how awful his side of the ball and management has been in these big postseason games and how we consistently lose playoff games that our elite QB plays very well in, which is historically just not normal.

Except it's not the norm to consistently lose playoff games in which your elite QB plays very well or great in. It's just not. You can look through the history of top QB's and their performances in the playoffs. In fact, there are big postseason games where Brady and Mahomes did not play that well in and were picked up by their defense and supporting cast. Mahomes in the last SB they won vs the 49ers had an absolute disaster of a 1st half and his D kept him in the game. Could you imagine if Josh had a half like that in the SB or vs the Chiefs? We'd get our doors blown off. And Peyton wasn't playing lights out and putting up 27-30+ points on a top D and still losing those games to Brady's Pats, he was throwing 4 INT's or putting up 3 points and just flat out underperforming. It's not the same thing at all. We have a consistent pattern for 6 postseasons on why we are losing these games, something that a change can be made on. McDermott and his defense have let us down in these games over and over again, that's the overwhelmingly consistent pattern. We aren't losing these games because Josh hasn't been good enough in them.

But you can think and see both things at the same time. The existence of one doesn't negate the existence of the other. Yes there has been some bad luck...but there is a consistent pattern here too, that our D has been overall horrendous in the playoffs and especially against the Chiefs even in years where their offense has been mediocre. Those factors you are talking about can co-exist with our defense consistently over 6 postseasons now, to put it lightly, coming up short in these big games. It's not just one or the other. You can say there are more reasons...but this is definitely one of them and out of the ones you mentioned it's actually a controllable one that they could make a change with.

But again, the coaches on that list weren't consistently losing games that their elite QB's played very well in. Peyton had clunkers that were the reason for quite a few of his postseason losses. Those guys weren't scoring 27-30+ in those games almost every year and losing. Our defensive coach has gotten so much production from the offensive side of the ball in the playoffs and for 6 straight postseasons has not figured out how to be even half-decent in January. That's a big problem. What is McDermott far, far better than competent at? He's a defensive coach whose defense has been HISTORICALLY bad in the postseason and has been the primary culprit for us getting bounced every single postseason. His game management also cost us huge in the 13 seconds game. What exactly is he so competent at?

It's probably because Spags had a disaster run as a HC...but you're right that there have been other coaches with bad first runs who have gotten a second shot. I think Allen's actually done really well against his defenses in the playoffs overall though, the last 2 years against top defenses. We just can't have even a half-decent defensive game against what's been their mediocre offense the last 2 years. But it's harder, anyone who watches those games knows how much more of a grind it was to move the ball against their defenses than the Swiss cheese we're presenting to Mahomes.

Is there a pattern of the Ravens losing playoff games that Lamar has played great in?

Who chooses the OC's and DC's? McD has had 8 years to get that right. Other teams have also won and beat the Chiefs without having Reid/Spags. Also, the Chiefs have not been an offensive juggernaut for the last couple years - only against us in January. If McD had put up one game where his side of the ball wasn't flat out horrific against the Chiefs in the playoffs...we'd have a win against them. Just one. While other teams in the league have been able to do that. The Bills offense has actually done a pretty good job of putting up points against what's been a top defense in the NFL the last couple years while the D can't contain what's been a mediocre offense. The problem of not being able to do this ever with this many shots is a unique one that we have. I'm not sure how much more evidence people like yourself need of this.

There was a very key difference there though. Peyton to that point wasn't playing great in the playoffs as a whole. The games they were losing were his clunkers, like two the Patriots, one to the Jets, and one to the Steelers. They weren't losing games that he played great in. They weren't losing games that he was putting up 27+ points in. There is no elite player in any sport that I can think of that could not get to the big game in this big of a stretch despite playing great overall in the playoffs. What we've seen happen here with Josh is an unfortunate unique situation.

I don't think that'll be enough. It's going to be up to Josh walking into Terry's office and asking for it. I don't think that's impossible as I do think everyone has their breaking point. But I also don't think that's something that comes naturally to him. I have previously thought and said that would absolutely never happen...I now think if we go 0-5 vs them in the playoffs and they torch our defense once again...it's happening.

It's tough. The annoying part is most of these people don't go in-depth into why this has happened when it's all incredibly clear. But yeah, best player we've ever had and his entire 20's are blown if we don't get there this year.

It's a classic deflection, they do that kind of thing in politics. It's a "you just don't like him so this is slander" defense even when there is so much that is being presented specifically about the failures on his side of the ball, obviously most notably in January and that it's happened EVERY single season.

I don't even think its about having elite coaching...I think simply having a Head Coach that's not a liability would have been enough for Josh to have gotten to a SB by now

It would explain a lot if McD is at 0-1 with game planning in the postseason as well

This is the the really unfortunate reality

There's a solid chance Rodgers makes the Steelers dysfunctional though

It'll be fun. I don't buy that somehow training camp filming will somehow affect the end result of the pursuit of a championship.

Love it! I've wanted this for so long!

Yup, the players put in way more effort on D in the playoffs and the refs swallow the whistle quite a bit Right. But more than that I just didn't understand the comparison when we are more reliant on Josh to win it all than any other team is on any other one player. The Chiefs, Eagles, whoever don't have a defense that consistently gets destroyed in the biggest games and can never get a late game stop. They also don't have these late game generational meltdowns like 13 seconds after their QB gives them 2 leads inside 2 minutes.