colin

And no designed an runs. When a front runs up the field and the DBS are in man, Allen can go for a quick hitter run and do damage. The fundamental strategy was poor all night, mainly because Houston very often knew what we were running because we refuse to disguise and break tendencies

I really hope you are right!! To the oppie: I did a lil effort post. Our team by the deep numbers is basically in line with what we have been since 2023, with the exception that we play down to bad opponents on the road, turning the ball over multiple times and losing games we were heavy favorites in. If they actually eliminate that (I think Brady pulling his head out and not being so predictable gets us 75% of the way there) we can beat anyone

I dunno if it palmer or Allen's error there, it wouldn't have mattered a the gave Davis collision either way (well, we'd get a other shot at least). It felt like we had the game about to won when Gabe cought the dime to the right side, but then he could get his other foot down because he was reaching with his arm to brace his fall, I think that's from being out of football for the better part of a year and being called on to catch a ball in a high leverage situation vs the best d in the NFL. If waddle really was available for a 2026 1st making that trade may well have saved us our last two losses. He hurt us in Miami, and I'm sure he woulda helped us. Also, I think we get another 7 vs Houston if waddle was playing over shavers or Elijah.

These contracts really don't make our front office look competent. The rams and eagles and KC tend to pay a lot for very good or great players, we pay average to good guys. We gotta land one elite and one top tier guy to get us over IMO.

i'm convinced we walk over pittz, and if NE drops the next one to cincy the division is fully in play.

if we are judging with a constant standard, benford was a worse signing than groot. he's hurt more, a rookie (max) and a second year guy (bishop) have had more big plays than he has, and most importantly he's being paid like 65-70% of what a top guy at his position gets, while groot is getting under 50%. now, the reality is benford has not been himself and has been hurt, if benford stays healthy it will be a decent to good signing, same w groot. cook was a slam dunk, shakir is a good bill but i think you can get guys like him so he's not that super important to us imo, but im not the qb or coach so i could be wrong. from a production pov shakir is worth it even w his injuries and mistakes so far. bernard just isn't good enough imo. he had that one year where he filled out the stat sheet after edmunds left, which made me think it was a good non signing of edmunds, but i think we signed the wrong 2 of the 3 lbs we drafted. i love hoyt but his suspension and injuries make him zero, obiewan has been decent but the suspension hurts. bosa has been an outstanding signing for us, even tho he's hurt now. samuel, knox, milano, taron, palmer (i like him, but he's simply not produced), coderington, rapp, possibly ed due to injures, and before that von white, and diggs (and the safties when they got old)are the reason why we have holes in the roster. the value we've gotten from them (in many cases zero as they left the team or were hurt) would easily be replaced with draft picks, allowing us to sign some actual studs.

it's that it is true for every team, i mean it is true, but the point here is that we only lose when we turn the ball over. we only lose to lesser teams when we are on the road and turn the ball over. there is a thin margin between good and bad teams in the nfl, and we have 17 and the oline and 4 and so on. maybe we lose a game here or there, it's inevitable, but even with the terrible run d, and the injuries and the sacks and all of that, if we ran the ball more and more smartly and were less predictable based on formation and passed more to tes and rbs (lower risk, less turnovers) we have 10 ways to beat all the teams who beat us. basically, even with the holes we have, if we just correct the process on the road and do a few things to turn the ball over less (which we did last season, when our roster was objectively worse than this year imo) then we are in like flynn

i do a sit down w mcd and ask him what he and beane did wrong, and how to fix it. brady is gone. I make him DC and HC, i get a top flight wr in (waddle will likely be available, but there are others too) and also draft one. I draft DE and LB and corner with speed and athletic ability. i clean out the dead wood (many who will go anyhow). i bring in a shanahan tree OC, maybe hc in miami is fired, i'd take him in a second. maybe firing mcd would be better, but i don't know who would be better off the bat, and my goal is a year 1 chip.

the hopeful harry in my says we win out, but that guy doesn't get listened to very much. so, 3 on the road and 3 at home. off the bat that puts my expectations at 3-3, so 10 wins and with tie breakers vs balti/kc might sneak us in. we have a mini bye for the first game at pittz. mcd never loses games after the bye, so i take the win there. bengals always seem to have our number, but that's a home game and they kinda suck, philly is a bit of a monster, but at least is at home, clevland is on the road but they suck badly, and at new england is legit the biggest game of our reg season. so considering all that, i expect 4-2 because of the mini bye going into pittz at about a 60% likelihood, 10% we win out, 10% we go 2-4 or worse and miss the post season, 10% 3-3, 10% 5-1 (which i figure is equally likely us not caring about the last game, us dropping to cinci or philly at home, or us winning all the games but NE which would create the most insane playoff scenario possible). if i weight out these probabilities (and floor the wins in the 2-4 scenario at 2) that adds back up to 4 expected wins. so 11-6 and having to win 3 (4 if you count the superbowl) road games in a row to a championship. 12-5 with i guess a home wild card game to start and then at new england after a bye to try to beat the team in our division who swept us is the most insane and thus certain outcome. i'd expect us to have an electric game vs them and somehow lose at the end on a desperation play that is almost made but falls short.

that's a fair point. he seems a bit casual, but also it's a rare athlete who can channel his hatred all the time into productive results (like romanowski, the hater goat) i think dawkins and much of the team simply likes to play with their food. they play down on the road to lesser teams (maybe at home too, but the team is good enough to still win those). they don't get as nasty and fired up and focused and the record shows it. i get part of it is that it's a 17 game season followed by a tourney, so you need to manage yourself, but i think our team has gone a little to far into being accepting of fate. to me the issue is dawkins is a big, skilled, talented lazy fat body of a man. if he had a bit more personal pride in his condition and appearance and thought about living to see 60 he might take better care and be in better shape.

one disagreement -- the d was also good in the second half vs atl, and the exact same ish happened then. 7 and 8 are outmatched (i think they have health issues, in their defense) and the guys behind them are better players right now.

i made an effortpoast thread about my view, but this is pretty close to all of it. i'd say its cuz we play bad vs bad teams on the road, and that's done by us turning the ball over. if we had the exact game we just did vs hou and before that miami, but instead we didn't turn the ball over, we win bad looking games vs bad opponents but are sitting at 9-2. it's a very thin line.

i like to say we because i'm a fan and without the fans there is no anything for the team. i get they don't care about me, but i don't care about them outside of playing football for my entertainment, so it's even! anyhow, i think i covered most of this -- we aren't fun to watch because modern nfl football is more exciting but more frustrating, and our team might be the most like that in the nfl. to be clear, i don't think we do it and win the chip this season, or even win the division, but if this silly azz team just figures out to not play bad on the road (honestly, i wonder if the travel arrangements are an issue, remember our guys flew to london late? stuff like that matters), and honestly if the corches and allen get in their tiny heads that turning over the ball still matters, they can beat anyone we (see what i did there?) will play. i don't expect it to happen, but i find it interesting that the deeper we delve and the more science we have to understand this, john madden was always right and football is a simple thing at the end of the day.

big time. to me edmunds and groot are premium talents, more so edmunds but at a lower value position. neither are perfect and both are somewhat limited, but size strength health and length can't get coached. if you didn't know football and just went to some function and saw the guys in shorts and ts doing athletic stuff, edmunds and groot and allen (and spencer and some other guys) would stand out as big tall long giant athletic guys. you can build on plus athletes if you throw in a game changer or two, and they don't get blown off the ball or crushed like say our lbs or 7 do on every 3rd play.

if you have to ask it's more than you can afford, pal.