Maine-iac

So many groups had injuries but the OL even healthy is suspect. Saffold was a miss and we could use upgrades at several spots and certainly upgrades to the back ups. Coaching I'm not going to call out Dorsey and Frazier and say they can't coach their respective units. Dorsey in his first year and Frazier dealing with a massive number of injuries at every position except LB but that said the down and distance management and time management has been at times atrocious.

Stop making sense.

The defense was just injured at every position except LB. Everyone back healthy I'd say get younger at safety. On offense we have enough pieces to score but the OL needs better starters and better backups. Saffold was a miss. They need to establish an identity as a running team and I'm not talking about Allen running the ball. I don't think we need new backs for this we just need to call more run plays.

There were way more than two but I still say give me any two of our starters back on defense and run it again and the score would be a lot different. People have been talking ever since the loss like the team that played the Bengals is the same team from the first couple of weeks of the season.

All the people who are sold on how fast a back has to be are the same ones who would have taken Spiller over Freddie back in the day, Singletary has plenty of speed to carry the ball and he makes people miss and picks up extra yards. He just never gets a chance and that's not his fault. I like Cook a lot also but if it's 3rd and 1 and we need a yard if it's not Allen the next I'd want to see carrying the ball would be Motor.

Why? Not enough time left? There were still 3 quarters. We never tried to run the ball all year long and on the few occasions we did we did very well. You get predictable and you get got. If you only run the ball 10 times a game why would anyone not just play every down trying to get the QB.

Then maybe we should have tried running the ball more. I've been saying that all year long. Probably would have been harder to rush 3 lineman and blitz a db if we were running the ball. That said Bengals scored 24 on Baltimore with a healthy defense. Put any two of our injured starters on the field and I bet the score is much different.

How about we take away Hubbard, Hill, and Bates then Bell and Hilton and see if we don't score a few more points.

People talk like this defense can just lose Jones, Miller, Hyde, Hamlin and in game White and Poyer and still play the same defense we see with everyone healthy.

Maybe week one we had all the talent and optimism but come playoffs we were decimated with injuries and playing the absolute best of the best. Not trying to be a total apologist and I think there were mistakes made coaching. It's possible we had our worst game at the worst time but these coaches have us in a SB hunt and this game ins't representative of our usual showing. 31 teams end their season this way and several of them are usually pretty damn good. I know I'll get flamed for this and everyone is head hunting but I like what we've got. They need to expand and add wrinkles and get it right at the right times but I still think they are capable more times than not.

3rd and 7 vs the Dolphins. They know we are running the ball. What did we do? Tell me we can't run the ball. Just a couple weeks earlier they actually commit to running and we have two running backs with 100 yards. The RB's didn't do more because we just don't hand the ball off not because our OL can't block.

I couldn't quote you the statistic for the season but just from memory and what I've watched we seem to go for the block it all up and throw it deep approach. Today they kept blitzing DB's off the edge and since we don't run and don't pass short we catch everything in front of them and then get tackled. Since it's a DB they're blitzing they are much faster than our tackles and we don't get to throw deep. Occasionally we get them but until we run the ball and play a more efficient mix with short passing we will live and die by the long ball.

Outside of your opinion there is not one bit of evidence to say our OL couldn't commit to running the ball. You can't say we are bad at stuff that we've done well every time we have done it. If you just pass all the time you make your OL look worse because they know to just chase the QB. It happened to us in the middle of last year and it happened to us this year. They are not blitzing DB's ever other play to stop the run. Allen is getting the Tyrod Taylor treatment to keep him in the pocket the just Blitz him.

By the end of the season they were playing Josh the way they played Tyrod. Blitz him to keep him in the pocket and since he isn't throwing hot or beating you with short throws you beat the hell out of him and sooner or later cause turnovers.

This just isn't true. The go big all the time and hit it more often than other teams but still miss frequently. Meanwhile there are tons of easier shorter throws Josh doesn't take and I'm guessing half a million runs called that he audibles out of. Sometimes you have to commit to the grind so teams can't commit to meeting in the backfield at your QB on every play. The Bengals didn't blitz the secondary as much as they did because they thought we were running or throwing screens. They did that because they know we throw all the damn time and Josh loves to hold the ball.

Every team that has played well this weekend has given it to a rb 15 to 20 times not 5 or 6 times.

Seems like every DC in the league is willing to send a DB after the QB except for us.

The did get Urlacher and the Bears in the SB. Unfortunately we aren't facing any Rex Grpssmans in the playoffs these days.

At least the Colts had Freeney.

Give me Miller, the Tre White we drafted, and Hyde back and I'd love to see this game run back. The teams that were on the field today I'd give it to the Bengals 9 out of 10 times.

The Bengals DB's had half a dozen QB hits. Our DB's had none because we never send them. Other teams know who's coming and how to block them.

We have become the Colts from the Manning era and even they had Freeney.

Situationally well. Spags is a great blitzer. He's the guy who stopped the undefeated Pats in the SB.

So many people implying we can't run the ball. We can and did run the ball in any or every game we TRIED to run. You can't run the ball 3 or 4 times and call that a failed running game. It's not the OL or the RB's. I'm not calling the OL or RB's all stars but we don't have rushing numbers because we don't run the ball. We are predictable and Allen gets hit a lot because we pass a lot and everyone knows where to find him. The only reason we score as much as we do is because teams can't stop him altogether but we only do two things, throw deep or throw for 8 to 10. In any given half you could count the runs or short throws on one hand.

Schwartz was good but even he had a CB driven defense. When we had injuries at CB Schwartz had problems. He would have had problems keeping this defense together this year. We needed White to be White and Poyer to be Poyer and some others to step up.