Maine-iac

Jet's offense was never going to win this game if we didn't give them the ball 4 times.

What was your point again?

Cook the yards and Harris the TD's. Like Thurman and Riddick.

Everyone always tosses SB wins and loses on QB's but I still think by and large defenses win championships. Usually by the time you get to a SB you are playing the best of the best in QB's so even if your defense isn't shutting down a QB it's the two or three big plays that make a difference. When we've made it to the playoffs whether it was injures (last year) or just not making a play when you need to (13 seconds) we haven't been up to the challenge. The Pats (Brady) always had the defense make the plays when they needed to make plays in addition to Brady also making plays that needed to be made.

As Carlin would say, "Don't sweat the petty stuff, and don't pet the sweaty stuff."

A large part of those games being close last year was Josh having his turnover fits which he has from time to time. Josh plays cleaner like he did the year before we might not even break a sweat.

Someone has been watching too much Pro Football Talk. Watched two minutes of those two and had to turn it off. Someone tell Simms to grow some eyebrows.

People talking about scheme and elite players like we had anyone who wasn't injured left to carry any of that out. Our coaches and front office did all they could. Sure the Bengals were playing back ups on the O line but with Jones and Miller out they they ran the ball until we had to scheme run and then they threw the ball against our secondary with no starting safeties. It's not as simple as we have no stars and our coaches suck. If you have half your starters out and particularly your biggest stars (Miller, Hyde, Jones, and essentially Poyer) it's going to be pretty hard to run your defense. Even with just the injuries to Hyde and Miller it's a massive change to the defense. There's a little luck in any championship and that includes having the right people healthy when you need them. IMHO the biggest need this defense has is a DT who plays in the backfield so QB's can't step up and get chased to the DE's. If Oliver actually shows some of that or Phillips finds his old form/stays healthy it would make a huge difference.

For all those that wanted to keep Hughes around, I have to say AJE reminds me a lot of him. I keep waiting for AJE to start hitting the QB's at a more consistent rate. He looks the part of a speed rusher but he's just not as disruptive on a regular bases as it seems like he should be. I still think after Miller, Floyd, and Rousseau that AJE is probably our best pass rusher but he's not much for setting an edge.

Coming in late. Just got back from vacation. Watched the Steelers game from the dvr. Figured this was the thread for my biggest takeaway. I shut the game off in the 3rd. 13 penalties in just a hair over 2 quarters (if I counted right). I don't care what athletes you are putting on the field you are going to have a hard time beating even mediocre teams if you can't get your crap together.

Just watching the game now. Richardson made some nice plays. He had a good run brought back for holding and a nice pass deep that the WR didn't catch. I think he'll go as far as his OC gets him. We were lucky that Daboll turned out to be a great OC and helped Allen begin his career. The coaching will make a big difference in how far Richardson makes it.

I think Davis is great, hope he plays great all year this year. That said he's going to demand way more than we have to pay him. Let him showcase himself and help us win a SB and Shakir or Shorter can take over outside when Davis gets his payday.

Hackett, Schwartz, and Van Pelt ............... this is a trip down memory lane.

That was pretty Browns esque.

What's Roseane up to these days?

Nothing like listening to Collinsworth to make you miss Romo.

What is he doing with his hands?

If you get stuck you can call Matt ...............

Conservative and a good defense will win you games. I would much rather have a great QB and a great defense but for the sake of a Taylor discussion if Cleveland had Bass for a kicker the Browns would have been 2 and 1 with Taylor and possible 3 and 0 if they tied it at the end of the Saints game and had won in overtime. I feel almost ridiculous defending the guy because he wasn't an elite QB and we certainly are much better with Allen but people make him sound a lot worse than he was. The one thing he lacked the most is not on a stat sheet. He just didn't have "it". That 4th quarter game on the line and you pull something out of your butt type stuff. Allen even early on as a rookie showed it. Taylor never had it. When his run was over I wasn't surprised or upset.

Wow. Most peoples opinion very from he was ok to he was trash and the variation is largely based on if they actually know how well he played with help vs with no help. I'm not going to argue opinions (and that's all they are) about how good or bad he was. Allen is clearly much much better but people don't understand how often he had no one to throw to and how his stats almost directly correlate from good to bad based on how bad his receivers were. It also helps if you even know what seasons he played.

We haven't even won a SB with Allen and people complain. Taylor never had a chance. He wasn't a first round pick, he wasn't ever invested in to be a franchise QB, and by his final season (the playoff year) the plan was already in stone to draft a QB. When Watkins and Woods were healthy (which wasn't often especially together) Taylor was good passer. He was always a great runner and for a defensive team he did not turn the ball over. Problem was our defense didn't show up time and time again his first few seasons starting and the final season we were mortgaging everything for our next QB and Taylor was throwing to Deonte Thompson and Zay Jones (and people complain about Davis). Taylor was never as good as Allen would become and I'm happy we moved on but I'll be the first on to say if Watkins hadn't been a bust and we had a defense Taylor would have seen the playoffs several times.

Silver lining ............. Dantzler was (according to this) as good in coverage as any of our CB's listed and now he's a Bill.

Davis had 6 catches 93 yards and a TD in that game. Guess Peterson didn't know everything. We were up 3 scores with 2:00 left in the third quarter. Bad ball management, bad defense, and fumbling in your own end zone caused that. None of those things had to do with Davis. Davis is as much a decoy as Diggs he's just easier to stop but the cost should be underneath throws which Beasley used to make and Josh used to throw. Josh frequently looked off easier throws and threw deep and I'm guessing it had as much to do with not trusting the guys underneath as it did with over estimating what Davis could do. My guess is a healthy dose of a running game (I still don't trust them to commit to it) and some of our off season additions should address those things.

Looking at the big picture the passing game in general dipped the second half of the season (2022) and we employed more of the running game and finished the season strong ................... and then all but abandoned it in January. The Miami game we came out stomping on them and then up two scores we are throwing and let them back in the game. Ultimately what I'm saying is run the ball more and the passing stats will become more efficient. I'm not sure there would be a ton more yardage and touchdowns but the efficiency of the passing game would be a lot better if we tried to run the ball and hit a few check downs instead of throwing 70 something times at Davis at an average of almost 16 yards down the field.