1of10Charnatives

I'm not saying the odds are great with either option. I'm saying there is 20 years worth of tape that a competent coaching staff would be aware of demonstrating that sitting back and hoping you can get there when it didn't happen in the first half has a mathematical probably of success difficult to distinguish from zero. Most of the time I agree he's going to find the open spot and pick you apart, but to anyone who doesn't believe in magic pixie dust and Santa Clause, it's the only chance you've got.

Pop quiz: When facing Tom Brady on his home turf in a game that is the season for both teams and with a depleted secondary, the competent thing to do is: A) Only rush 3 and drop everyone else into coverage, telling yourself that although this has spelled disaster for every team that's tried it against Brady for 20 years, this time it will work for you, because you might be conservative, but gosh darn it, you've got character. B) Do literally anything else predicated on the understanding that as sure as the sky is blue, water is wet and women have secrets, if you don't get to Brady, he will pick your young secondary of limited physical abilities apart throwing to his Pro Bowl receivers. Blitz or die.

Darnold got sacked twice but if you look at his stats, he has a number of incompletions. His INT was his only bad throw. Almost all of the incompletions were him being forced to throw it away either from pressure or no one getting open. Our Oline wasn't awful, but in key situations it often didn't give Darnold time to throw, while Brady with I think one exception had the time he needed, especially in the second half. Our lines mostly got handled today. Oline was not able to create holes for the run game. That meant Darnold was forced to throw 37 times.

I was at that game. It was glorious. I disagree only that I feel we've NEVER been good at stopping screens, with the possible exception of the 96 team that's arguably the best defense this franchise ever had.

I do agree that there seem to be some appealing aspects to Carr's contract and that right now there seems to be a big opportunity in our division. In both cases, I just think we may be poorly positioned to take advantage. i'm hesitant to cut Shaq as he does bring value as a vet leader on a young defense. I'm also a little hesitant about extending him beyond next season as he'll be pushing the 30 mark. what's the track record on linebackers playing into their 30's and living up to those contracts at that point? My concern is that restructuring Shaq now, when his value to the team seems at about his peak, vs letting his existing contract expire and negotiating with him as an about to be 30 FA would incur a cost of overpaying for him. Regarding the division situation, it's possible this may stay a division ripe for the taking for some time. Nothing stays the same forever in the Not For Long league, but none of the current HC/QB combos within the division make me worry they'll become headaches in a couple years. There is no clear contender poised to make itself the force to be reckoned with in the near future. I think it may be a mistake to scramble to acquire a Carr that will shortly be on the open market most likely in order to take advantage of a window that may be open for some time.

I'd encourage you to go take a look at what spotrac has to say about our projected cap numbers for next year, and then offer suggestions as to how this might be accomplished without making highly questionable moves elsewhere on the roster.

Historically it's always frustrated me that we've been a team that seemed incapable of using screens to slow the pass rush and keep the defense honest, and horrible at defending screens. Even Kuechly led badass defenses with TD roaming the field seemed not great at stopping them. Gratifying to see we're at least using them now without being completely inept at them.

Norman Einstien's buddy. You remember Dan, right?

Well then it makes more sense why I didn't come across it. Never followed boxing, and didn't really get into football until college, growing up I was all about the hoops, college and NBA.

Yeah my family's been rednecks from Waxhaw since before this country was a thing and I've still never heard that phrase. *shrugs* Thanks for the explanation though.

Apparently, the latest version of the Rooney Rule seems to default assume your interim guy isn't a minority, or that even if he is, you need to interview other minorities anyway.

"beat the brakes"? I don't think I'm familiar with this phrase.

Of the QB's on your list, only one won his SB in the past decade in the modern pass whacky NFL. By the time this year's SB is played, Flacco's win with the Ravens will be a decade old, before contemporary rule tweaks and offensive philosophies made the pass all but dominant. Everyone else but Foles won their Lombardi in different eras with rules that let receivers get murdered going over the middle, battered at the LOS and as they got into their routes, and protected the QB's against pass rushers far less. Citing QB's who won their trophies in different eras of football doesn't really make your point, it undermines it.

Yes. For the vast majority of games these days, your third best LB is far less important than your third best corner, because the corner will be on the field far more than the LB.

Forget Darnold. Tepper needs to have them hook me up. I haven't lost a single game this season, or last. Mmmmm cajun chicken filet biscuits.

We're not owned by the guy that owns Bojangles anymore. Maybe Tepper would throw in a free partially built practice facility? Too soon?

There is a Bugs Bunny left turn at Albuquerque joke in here somewhere, but I'm too busy putting pins in my Tom Brady voodoo doll atm to find it.

I am also interested in answers to these questions from some of the x's and o's gurus. I am gonna guess that at least part of the answer is that Lions linebackers are awful, but I'd also like to hear from folks who pore over game tape to analyze this sort of stuff.

Yeah I was suggesting only that the league would not go all out SB style for rigging, but tongue in cheek suggesting a less thorough, more mundane effort.

Sure, control the things you can control, don't waste energy on the things you can't. Makes perfect sense. It also does not mean it's empirically true the deck isn't or can't be stacked against you. You may feel there is no evidence the league is anything but even handed. Others feel differently. Before you dismiss their opinions out of hand, remember that there have been multiple cheating scandals in recent league history, and in at least one case, the league literally ordered the evidence of cheating destroyed. This does not suggest an unbiased organization focused solely on fairness and a level playing field, but a business protecting it's own interests, not the interests of fans or less popular teams.

I'm not. It's not even a playoff game. Just a regular season game between two teams in an awful division. Why would the league bother aside from doing the minimum to get Brady to the playoffs?

Woah woah woah. Slow your role. We're about a decade away from that conversation. The staying healthy thing alone is no small matter at all. Not saying JJ isn't playing amazing ball at the moment, but that's super premature. I once read an article in which the writer declared Rice as the GOAT of GOATs across sports, when compared to other GOATS in other sports and the essence of his argument was this: It's not just how many records Rice has. Jordan has tons of records, other dominant athletes have tons of records, it's the gap between Rice in first place in a lot of his records and whoever is in second place. The difference between Rice and the next guy is just bigger than the difference between any other GOAT and second place behind them. Let the man just ball out for a bit before we start throwing the mountain that is Rice's accomplishments on his shoulders. There will be plenty of time for that if we ever get anywhere near it.

This post seems too reasonable and thoughtful for this forum. The willingness to admit being wrong in the past is just not what we do here, sir. I'm gonna have to ask you to take this to the Scandinavian artwork subreddit as a more appropriate venue of enlightened discussion. Football fans don't do this sort of thing in public.

I think your concerns speak more to the limitations of the roster, specifically the QB position, than to the HC. As others have pointed out, so far he's making do with what he has been handed midseason. You are right that that is not the same as going to toe to toe with playoff caliber teams, but at this point, is that a fair expectation of him given the circumstances? We won't really start to get a better feel for any such limitations until next season at a minimum, when he's had the chance to build a coaching roster of his choosing, have some input on the roster, and at least the possibility of going with a non retread QB. He may prove to be a coach long on motivation and character and short on effective gameplans against quality competition, or not. As of this moment, it's impossible to fairly say.

Noted.