Khyber53

I agree. Better but thin... We hit a freight train with Buffalo and it shows.

This is a rebuilding year (one of many in a row) but the only way to track if we are making progress is: are we beating the teams that we should beat. So far, yes. Have we beaten a team or two that no one expected us to, so far, yes, twice. We trounced the Falcons and the Cowboys, both teams that while middling were supposed to be better than us. Have we beaten a team that we have no right to think we'd beat? Nope. And yesterday was one of those. We got beaten by a completely better put together, coached and rostered team. Beat in all three phases. And it showed us a lot of what we need to work on. It also was the first one where we walked away broken badly. So many injuries, no idea how that line is going to hold up and I'm wondering whether Brown is going to an issue on the injury report for next week's game. Still, we're at .500 at the rough midpoint of the season. Here of lates, that's rarified air. And we have winnable games down the road. There are going to be some people already whining that we shouldn't win any more games because we need high draft picks. And that's a steaming pile of bullshit. Winning teams don't pick at the top of the draft. We've done it a lot and it got us nowhere. I want us to win games. And someday, I want us to pick 32nd without having to trade back in for it. Top 10 draft picks are for losers.

We desperately need to pick the best MLB in the draft this time around. We will never find another Luke, but we have to get someone back there that can run the defense on the field, cover weaknesses and correct mistakes in real-time, along with diagnose the opposing offense based on personnel, alignment and pre-snap movement. And they need to be able to hit like a freight train, cover like flypaper and tackle like a rotweiller. Not too much to ask.

Something illegal and unethical happens in the world of gambling. Color me shocked and amazed. Gambling is always on the up and up, right? People who either get put in a bad position or in a lucrative position would never ever ever violate the sanctity of the game, right?

We catch 'em when we can. Glad we could be there for them on that particular day. Would love to see it happen again on next meeting. I think the Falcons are way overpriced right now.

Honestly, they've been playing at the level of their opponents. That can be maddening at times, but it's working for us now. We were better against Dallas than the score shows. Let's hope we can do the same with Buffalo, just do enough to stay one scoring opportunity ahead of them. Our best shot there is that the game becomes an ugly slugfest dictated by the running backs and that we somehow keep Josh Allen bottled up. This is probably our toughest test of the entire season. If we squeak out a win somehow, then Canales and (I can't believe I'm saying this) Evero deserve some serious kudos. Still, on that defensive ranking, we're buoyed greatly by playing the Jets last week.

Sorry, my memory may be getting wonky with age. I thought he had been. Or had it been a "mutual agreement to resign/retire?"

While he was here, Burns was more of a fan favorite than an actual force on the field. Glad he was able to find a home elsewhere, but it wasn't like we traded away prime Peppers. Still, would have been nicer to have gotten that package deal from the Rams, but we were stupid.

And it still got Cowher fired.

My prediction is that Buffalo and Carolina will become trade partners after the game. Both have needs and both have resources the other side could use. They won't do it, though, until, the game has been decided. Both may trot out a few guys that seem out of place for a play or two just to show off the goods, so to say.

I agree. All of these guys, and let's face it our coaches before Canales, too, were selected to be head coaches not because they had developed weak or underperforming teams during their previous stops. As a matter of fact, the only way to really move up in coaching is to start with a bad program, correct it, win and then move up when a vacancy arrives at yet another bad program, then do it again. Sometimes they are the HC, sometimes an assistant, whatever. But you've got to have some patience. And yeah, there's the Peter principal at work, too, sometimes. That states that people will eventually be promoted to their level of incompetence. It kind of waves its hand at the idea that sometimes people learn a lot from mistakes and grow. It's really hard to win at this level of competition, this is the HC final boss level for football, from Peewee Leagues and Pop Warner, through junior high, high school, college and pro levels. It's tough and there are only 32 spots per year for the gigs (give or take a couple of mid-season replacement jobs). We have to remember that Tomlin, Cowher and Knoll all inherited collapsed teams. And each rebuilt them and had them eventually wear out and fall down, too (okay, Tomlin is still holding strong, but entropy eventually catches everyone), but each took a time commitment and good management to rebuild. I wish we could snag onto the winning formula. But you're very right that we can't just change every two years and expect anything but the same restart difficulties each time.

Right now, I think any QB situation is a crap-shoot at this stage in the season. How fast can a guy get on the same page after no exposure to even a playbook here much less relationship building with teammates? Not saying it can't happen, but I don't think we're looking at a San Fran-type situation where the starter goes down and an off-the-street backup (because Mac Jones was really pretty much assigned washup status before the season) takes over and excels. I hope we hit on something. You never know. Baker was terrible here and went at midseason to LA and just blossomed. Then he went to Tampa Bay and Canales and grew into what he could have been. Maybe Canales can do that with Hooker or White. Sure would be something to see.

You said it! But really, it comes down to fixing your organization and the team before diving in for that new QB. Even then, you've really only got about two seasons to do it before the GM and HC seats get too hot. It's a remarkably tough job and it keeps things interesting. Quality organizations keep the ball rolling, sometimes for as much as 10 years of competitiveness. And bad organizations can have an even longer shelf life of hell for their fans.

We seem to play to the abilities of our opponent. Hopefully we can keep pace and eat the clock with a punishing run game and hope that our defense gets a couple of turnovers to give us a chance. Here's hoping Andy Dalton finds the fountain of youth this week.

Imagine being the valedictorian for your Ivy League university. Perfect grades, massively well done final projects, research grants and countless mentions in the newspapers and on TV for the strides you made. And there are only 32 employers out there that can hire you and make use of you. Now imagine that the worst businesses, the ones with the least resources and most chaotic workplaces get first dibs on you. Trumpian dystopia? Nope. The NFL draft. Killing young QBs since day 1.

You know, a lot is going to be made of it, but let's also be honest, the Jets defense is a helluva lot better than their offense. That's actually a modestly okay defense we faced. The rest of the Jets, phew.

You're right but not sure where we can find a QB for trade at the moment. Just looking at bottom dwellers that might be looking for draft capital... Dolphins have Tua, Raiders have Geno, Giants have Wilson and Winston (sounds like a really bad radio Zoo Crew team), is Arizona ready to give up on the Murray experiment? There are some second stringers floating around out there...

Don't get me wrong, I love Chuba, but Rico has been earning the starting job. Now they just need to properly game plan for using a double trouble set up.

Okay, still in honor of the old school great that started doing this back in the day. (Can't remember the name, sorry.) In my tradition of feasting on the foes, we'll be ordering Jet's Pizzas. And of course, Bugles, the best crunchy snack ever. How about y'all?

Really looking forward to this game. It's going to let us know if the recent resurgence is for real or just happenstance.

Pass blocking is a really hard stat to correlate into real world. There are some parts of it that are incredibly dependent on things well beyond the linemen. Play calling can affect it, receivers route running, chipping from backs, QB awareness and mobility, strength of play action, adjustment calls at the line. And those are all things we're still working on here. I also think we are getting closer to the right recipe for our O-line. I think Cade Mays at Center is the right move. BC at guard seems to be working out. And I really need to see Moton back in this line up to see if we are showing overall improvement. We aren't there yet, obviously, but something is beginning to gel.

It's not just growing Bryce's game, it's also the coach growing the entire team's game. We need to be a smash-mouth running team. We're built in the trenches for it, we have the TEs for it and we damn sure have the running backs for it now. If you can make that your bread and butter, then developing a point guard QB that can distribute short passes as an extension of the run game and once in a while burn the other team downfield when they creep up to eight in the box, then you've got one of the classic recipes for a winning organization. Our defense... getting better. But holding the opponents under 30 isn't going to cut it. Hold them under 24 and we're showing progress. Under 20 and you become dangerous. Special teams... started out rough with those bad tackle games, but it has swung about mightily. I think we're onto something here, but we still haven't arrived.

They've said forever that you don't know what kind of receiver you have until their third year. Kelvin Benjamin looked like the GOAT his rookie year to some people. And then injury and happenstance just ended that. Steve Smith was lucky to see the field as a rookie outside of special teams. XL may come along and get with the program. Tet may struggle as DBs have more tape on him to learn his tendencies. Who knows? With both, though, we have four years on a cheap contract and a fifth year option to sound it out. Guys like Coker and Tremayne... those guys you hope they develop quick enough to get them into a good contract for us before someone else poaches them away.

Tua, Jalen Hurts was there for a while, Ken Stabler... those are the ones with success. Mac Jones is looking pretty good in San Fran right now but that's what good coaching and good team building will do for you. Still, I think Bryce is growing, just not in height. His growth as a player is on a collision course with the end of this season. Will he come out on top or not? I'm not sure yet, but if he does win out, then I'm going to be happy for him and us. If not, well, he got a shot and a lot of folks never do... And we're back to the drawing boards.

I think part of the difficulty might be that QBs have a lot of trouble once they come off the Alabama assembly line. That's a tight program focused on competing in the SEC and that school always has a succession line of QBs rolling. They can shred at the college level and then really have difficulty finding their footing in the pros. They can and do, however, eventually find it if they can last long enough. Will our guy? We're just going to have to wait and see. I think he's got this season to prove himself before the team gets antsy and the coach decides to move along to his own handpicked QB.