Dear lord, the **** some of you criticize the coaching staff for is ridiculous.
Some points on various things I've heard in this thread:
Listen to Gailey with competent interviewers - like Tim Ryan and Pat Kirwan - and he'll talk about Xs and Os as long as you want.
The percentages for an offense to convert is much, much lower at 3rd and 7 or more than it is for 3rd and less than 7.
The most successful teams build accountability to each other as teammates. Everyone wants to be a valued member of a winning team. That doesn't come from some sense of accountability to your boss.
These guys are professionals. They aren't going to suddenly get passionate for the game from having their coach berate them on national television. If they don't already have a passion for the game of football, then we're quite frankly choosing the wrong people to be on the team in the first place.
That being said, the biggest problem that I've seen is we're not able to get effective pressure with our front 4. It's actually been better with Kelsay in the lineup. Pat Kirwan talked a little bit about that today. Essentially, he indicated that with Kelsay in the lineup, he's our best DLineman at understanding where the linemen are, where the gaps are, and pushing the OL into position to allow our other pass rushing linemen to get good matchups and rushing lanes.
It feels like the biggest thing we're missing is a clear path to making the defense work. The upgraded DL hasn't figured out how to work with each other yet, and given all the injuries, I'm not sure that's going to happen anytime soon. The linebackers are out of position quite often, and the DBs have issues in coverage. All of these combined are making for a defense that doesn't have any real strengths.