SCO96

Disappointed. I expected this to be a 3 year rebuilding project. We are in year 2. I think we can all agree that our defense is pretty good. They’d be even better if they weren’t on the field for so long. The offense is what is holding this team back. Unfortunately, the loss of our 2022 2nd and 3rd round choices hurt. I’m not a big fan of trading down if you have all of your picks and your needs are on the board. But, if we could flip our 1st round pick for a later pick in round 1 and a 3rd…and come away within 2 starters on the oline… I think that scenario would make us immediately better.

Ultimately, the buck stops with the head coach and GM. They’re responsible for the roster and the talent ( or lack of it) on the field. The oline is awful. Trying to bring in a reclamation project behind those guys was bad. We passed on good prospects in the 2nd and 3rd round last year…and now we don’t have any 2nd and 3rd round picks this year. Darold has to take a large part of the blame. The offensive line hasn’t done him any favors. The receivers have dropped a lot of passes. But, Sam makes a lot of bad decisions which results in bad plays. I don’t blame him for the 2nd INT today. Jaime Collins just made a great play by leaping into the passing lane. The first and third picks were just bad plays. On both play he was running to the left and attempted to throw across his body without setting his feet, which is difficult for any QB. To make matters worse neither guy was open. His picks seem to occur when he’s trying to make something out of nothing. He needs to learn when to give up on dead plays. If hadn’t thrown those two picks and simply kept us in fig range the score could have been 17-13 in the 4th quarter…which is still a winnable game. Brady’s play calling seem to always result in nearly no points in the 3rd quarter. In two of the past 3 games we’ve been blanked in the 2nd half. They can still turn things around, but the margin for error is much smaller now. As bad as Darnold has played, I’m still not sure he couldn’t be a viable starter with better coaching. If we could just get the ball to our wideouts more I think we could have a respectable 2nd half of the season.

Normally they would never consider it. But, if I'm not mistaken, the Rams don't have any picks in the 2022 draft until the 5th round. They may want to recoup one of the choices they've given away.

This trade makes a lot of sense. DJ can still run. He could do all kinds of damage down the field if he had A-Rod throwing to him. Just the threat of his deep speed would open up things for everyone else.

No shame in losing to the Cowboys on the road. I can even live with the loss to Minnesota at home (that game went into OT) b/c the Vikings are a talented team ...at least on paper. The losses to the Eagles and Giants are inexcusable. We're more talented than both of those teams. The loss to NY was embarrassing, but we just didn't seem ready to play two weeks ago. Every team seems to have at least one of those games each season. The Philly loss stings the most. We outplayed them the whole game and literally snatched defeat from the hands of victory in the 4th quarter. That loss was the hardest for me to stomach this season. At worst we should be 5-3 right now.

He's actually 1-3 if you count his win in the playoffs against them last year. He'd be 0-4 if Drew Brees had been able to throw the ball more than 10 yards down the field in last year's divisional playoff game. According to Drew's wife the dude played last season with a torn rotator cuff. https://www.sportingnews.com/us/nfl/news/drew-brees-torn-rotator-cuff-2020-brittany/d1cipj6751po1f8xrgiqefmnq Colin Dunlap @colin_dunlap Drew Brees' wife says Drew played this season with: A torn rotator cuff, a torn fascia in his foot, 11 broken ribs and a collapsed lung.

I see your point of view. But, if I knew I played for an owner or coach with that mentality I can assure you I wouldn't give my all week end and week out just to be tossed aside like a used Kleenex after 3-4 seasons.

That's a hard question to answer. I've often heard that RBs need a certain amount of carries to get into the rhythm of the game. I've never played the position, but that does seem to make sense. Look at our own Chubba Hubbard. He didn't look impressive at all spelling CMC. But, he's looks better now. I think that's due to getting a sustained workload. However, the more carries/touches you get, the more hits you absorb; and that eventually catches up with you. QB's getting sacked 40 times a year and we here pundits say "he can't keep getting hit like this or he's going to have a short career". RB's get hit that much after 2 games. The number can even be higher when you factor in receptions. All you can really do is put them on a "pitch count" like they do in MLB. Limit the touches during the regular season. Ideally, keep combined carries/receptions to 25. Even then that would equate to 400 touches over a 16 game season. The extended 17 game schedule only makes things worse. If there is a blowout put him on the bench. Coach them to avoid big hits in games; and if you make a first down go ahead and run out of bounds if you can.

Were we out of timeouts? I saw the same thing you guys did, but I was thinking we’d already used all of our timeouts.

Two bright spots in today’s game. 1) We appear to have found a good kicker in Gonzalez. He’s kicked two 50+ fg’s today. 2) It’s only halftime and the team has already scored 3x as many points as they did last week

I’m not sold on Darnold, but I’m not ready to right him off either. He’s played fine today, but the skill players have let him down with turnovers and drops. We’ve had critical penalties that have stalled drives. He’s still getting pressured on too many throws to step up and push the ball downfield. It’s a wonder we’re only down four points. If the defense wasn’t playing well this game could already be over.

I think the latter part of the highlighted text can be fixed if the dude just made a determined effort to practice the proper throwing mechanics. But in regard to the progressions, is that something that youy guys feel can be overcome by more coaching and film study?

I loved his game at Clemson. I've pulled for him in the pros. But I've got serious doubts about this move. Even before the legal mess, I thought the Texans were asking too much for him...at least for us. We're more than a piece away from contending. Even if he balled out he's gonna come up short if that O-line isnt' fixed, and that'll be hard to do without draft capital. Secondly, the allegations "really" concern me. We can never play the "character matters" card again if we go thru this and the allegations end up being true. I personally don't believe all of these women are lying. Being in SC, I've also heard things from a couple of sources that I don't even feel comfortable repeating on this forum. All I can say is that what I've heard is disturbing.

Actually, you're right. Upon further review (no pun intended), that play does appear to have two TE's in the same area. Who was the guy I saw open on Robbie's side of the field?

It looked like DJ headed toward the end zone. Ian Thomas ran a wheel route in the same direction. Robbie was at the top of the screen. The TE (or WR) next to the left tackle appeared to be open. Run that play again and see if you see what I'm seeing

Only one man is out there on the coaching horizon can turn this sinking ship around and rescue us from a 4-13 season and bring us to the brink of 7-10 ,8-9, 9-8. I present to you...the great Jeff Fisher

We really should have tried to pry Gardner Minshew from the Jags in the offseason to back up Darnold. He's currently the 3rd string QB for the Eagles behind Hurts and Flacco. We don't even have a 3rd string QB on our roster. It's not saying much, but I think Garder is better than either of our guys. I think we'd be above. 500 with him. You guys think it's too late to try to trade for him? https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/M/MinsGa00.htm Check out his stats and pay attention to the INTS (or lack of them) while playing for a terrible franchise the past two seasons.

I'll admit to not watching the games as closely as I did at the start of the season. The four game skid has definitely dampened my interest. But, it still seems like we should be able to add some new wrinkles to make it easier on Darnold. 1) I think screen passes to backs (if they can catch them) could slow down the pass rush. 2) Draw plays could get out rush numbers up and keep the defense honest. 3) I haven't seen a lot of crossing routes, which can be hard to defend against man coverage. 4) A flea flicker or reverse pass might be able to fool the defense long enough to get someone behind the defense for a big play. 5) Half back option pass (Hey it worked for Derrick Henry yesterday) 6) Pass the ball to Darnold like the Giants did with Jones yesterday. Try to scheme the TE open more often. If those guys became passing threats it would open things up on the outside. I think if we could get Sam involved in a couple of explosive plays it could improve his confidence and the teams moral and possibly turn things around for the rest of the way.

Great point. Holding a team to 20 is quite and accomplishment these days. But as you pointed out you've got score more than 20 to even win those games. Right now, I''d like to see Rhule address the 3rd quarter scoring issues that have plagued the team for the past eleven games. If the offense has only scored 17 points in the 3rd over that period it just isn't going to cut it, no matter how well you run the ball, protect the ball, and/or play defense.

The above quote speaks volumes about how much faith Matt Rhule has in his newly acquired QB. How can anyone in today's NFL really believe running the football and playing tough defense is formula for sustained success? John Fox, Rex Ryan, Jeff Fisher all had similiar philosophies and none of the above could ever put winners on the field year in and year out. They could win games...but not championships...which should be the ultimate goal.

It hard to tell for sure, but it looked like the TE on Robbie's side of the field was also open along with Chuba on that play.

The Gilmore trade is good if it works out this season, and he re-signs and has 2-3 more good years. Even if he leaves after the season. we'll could possibly get a 3rd round compensation pick in 2023. The Henderson deal sound good at the time, swapping a 3 for a 1st round pick from just a year ago. But, the Jags didn't think twice about letting him go so early in his contract. And so far, he hasn't made an impact for our team. I'm hoping he can put things together in th 2nd half of the season.

Good points. It takes time to build a good team. I never thought we'd be a playoff team this year. I am shocked at how bad we are offensively. But, this could be a blessing in disguise. We had too many flaws to be a legit contender. Yet, if we had lost a couple of games we should have won, then we'd be 5-2 (maybe even 6-1) and probably over confident. The holes are obvious. We need to seriously address the o line and QB play. I think the latter would be better if the line was just plain average no matter who is behind center. Our current offensive line play is TERRIBLE. Sam and PJ were practically running for the lives yesterday. I'm not sold on Darnold, but I still think he's salvagable. He could at least hold things down until the 2022 season while we groom a successor for 2023-2024. He just doesn't look comfortable at all, and I can see why since 300 pound monsters seem to be breathing down his neck every on every other passing play.

The defense is not great, but it isn't as bad as you're implying either. Yesterday, we had about 8 3 and outs. That's terrible when you consider most teams average 12 offensive possessions per game. Guys get tired if they're own the field too long. Years ago the late Dwight White talked about how bad Terry Bradshaw was in his early years with the Steelers. He said before he could get comfortable on the bench the team would have to go back on the field because of a 3 and out or a turnover. Too many defensive snaps will wear a team out. When Monte Kiffin was DC for those great Buccaneer defenses during the Dungy/Gruden era he practically said the same thing. I remember saying that they were great if they could keep the snaps at 60 or less. After that he said we aren't nearly as effective. Factor that in with the fact that the defense knows how bad the offense currently, I can see why its hard to keep the same level of performance all game long.

None of us saw those moves coming and they may not end up helping us out at all. I wouldn't be surprised if Gilmore walks at seasons end after seeing how bad this team really is...unless he just wants to stay in the Carolinas. And, we really dont know how much he has left in the tank. I don't know what to make of CJ Henderson. He hasn't made an impact on the team at all. It's looking like the the best CB currently on the active roster is Keith Taylor, who appears to be a steal in the 5th round. Donte is still solid but we may end up losing him to FA next year. But, you're right. It's easier to find CB's than top notch LT's.