woahfraze

Here's what it comes down to for me: Last season, there was reason to believe Rhule really was implementing an effective turnover. The roster was not good. But it appeared to be well coached. Despite the relative lack of talent and poor record, that team competed well. It was in most of the games it lost toward the very end of the game. If Teddy Bridgewater had the it factor, instead of going 0-8 on potential game-winning or -tying drives at the end of the 4th quarter, we may have eked out a couple more wins. Fast forward to this year. I understand the decision to move on from Teddy. He's not the guy. Even if he is serviceable and can keep you in games, he can't get you where you want to go (the Superb Owl). I didn't agree with the Darnold trade, but I can maybe understand the idea that they could salvage him. The decision to pick up his 5th year option though was absolutely terrible at the time and still is terrible. And the personnel they chose to man the offensive line obviously were terrible. So Rhule constructed his roster in such a way that we basically came into Year 2 with more than half our offense being at best a huge question mark and at worst a dumpster fire (and of course it has played out like the latter). So from the above, it's clear that Rhule isn't the best at personnel decisions, especially at the most important position QB, and that's a huge problem. But then you also have to look at how the team has performed on the field. Where was the fight a limited roster showed last year? It's gone. We're getting dominated and blown out, even by other bad teams. Clearly he lost the locker room, whether that be from his personnel decisions, his day-to-day interactions with the team, or a combination of both. Had Year 2 been worse than Year 1, but not to this degree, and the team had shown a semblance of competitiveness, I think I'd still fire him. But I could maybe understand keeping him for Year 3 and giving him a chance to right the ship. Maybe you take personnel input/decisions away from him and tell him to focus on coaching up the players the front office brings in. But given how bad this season is, I don't see how you can bring him back.

PJ should start because he's undefeated as a starter in the NFL..... All joking aside, I only think this rotating of QBs is a problem if it extends beyond a week or two. Cam may not have full familiarity with the entire playbook, and certain play calls are needed based on game scenario where they don't want to risk miscommunication so PJ will come in. As long as the trend is heading toward Cam playing a larger percentage of the snaps and it's not a long drawn out process, I don't view it as Rhule getting cute.

These effing refs. Ball was overthrown and uncatchable....

Not excusing Darnold's play--he's absolutely dreadful and shouldn't even be a backup in the league--but that was an unreal play by Collins. Typically a ball like that is just getting batted down, not intercepted.

There's no way these are connected. The staff couldn't possibly evaluate Henderson so poorly in the one week that he's been in the building to have buyer's remorse yet. This is about being in on every deal and pulling the trigger on a great (albeit older and currently injured) player when we learned he could be had for only a future 6th round pick. There's very little downside here. Either gilmore plays well and we consider paying him (would depend on his contract demands and how we feel about his age as well as the same for DJ Jackson, since we may not be able to retain both--although it'd be nice to do so) or he doesn't and we move on. If it's the latter, then we still have Horn and Henderson on their rookie deals and hopefully a resigned DJ Jackson.

As bad as the interior of our offensive line has been, you can't just assume that Christensen and Brown are better or more capable. They have potential and we all hope they can be. But for all we know, they are guys that shouldn't be in the league. The coaches--who yes, could be wrong in their evaluation--don't think they give us a better chance to win than the current group they are trotting out. And they both see how all the players in question perform in practice and know a hell of a lot more about football than all of us.

Part of the reason our run defense was so good in weeks 1 through 3 was due to excellent execution out of odd man fronts. Check out Brett Kollman's recent video on the subject. It can work. But Dallas has a much better offense than the three teams we've played thus far, so our true talent level isn't what we've shown thus far--the numbers weren't sustainable. But more importantly we didn't execute today across the board.

The clock doesn't stop when a player runs out of bounds until under 4 minutes at the end of each half. This is not a new rule....

I don't feel good about the game. Bad matchup for us. Their strength on defense, particularly the defensive line, is not a great recipe for our weak offensive line and a Darnold that we're still trying to build up from the "seeing ghosts" portion of his career. On offense, yes they downgraded at QB and lost a lot of WR talent, but they still have a great offensive line that may be able to neutralize our strength (defensive line), and Sean Payton knows how to call an offensive game to get his guys open. We have to hope Jameis reverts to bad decisions Jameis and that turnovers weigh heavily in how close the game is.

"We haven't seen that yet though here." I disagree. It may not have been a high percentage of throws, but he still took those shots and proved he could hit them. That in of itself is important. We shall see if Joe Brady gives him more leash as he continues to prove himself and/or improved defenses don't prevent that.

Aside from the deep bomb to Robby Anderson, Darnold also hit DJ Moore twice on intermediate to deepish throws along the sidelines with nice throws. He also had another nice intermediate one to Marshall Jr. that was dropped (or maybe had tight coverage that broke the play up, but Sam placed the ball in a place where only Marshall could catch it and the defender couldn't). He's much more willing and much more able to attack down field than Teddy. That will open up the offense for all of that CMC stuff underneath.

My post at halftime in the gameday thread last night (right as half was ending, prior to the really nice throw to Marshall down the middle and the back shoulder TD to Robby): Halftime thoughts on Darnold: Looked quite good throwing the ball to the outside on short, out-breaking routes. Mixed bag in the intermediate part of the field--had a really good multi-progression read throw on 3rd down to DJ Moore. But also missed Terrace Marshall Jr. and Robby badly over the middle. The latter should have been picked. We didn't attempt anything deep, although that's probably by design, as I'm not sure the O-line could've provided enough time for the WRs to get downfield. With the O-line, he may have less success moving forward in the short part of the field because teams will be able to tailor their game plan to that, sort of like they could against Teddy last year when they realized he just wasn't willing to throw down the field. All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic about Darnold. Certainly somethings he needs to work on, and all of this was against second stringers, but the O-line hasn't done him any favors. I'll reserve judgment until I've seen him in a couple real games. But I'm decidedly worried about the O-line, and think they may prevent proper analysis of whether Darnold is/can be good or not.

Lulz refs.

Really nice back shoulder throw there for the TD

Halftime thoughts on Darnold: Looked quite good throwing the ball to the outside on short, out-breaking routes. Mixed bag in the intermediate part of the field--had a really good multi-progression read throw on 3rd down to DJ Moore. But also missed Terrace Marshall Jr. and Robby badly over the middle. The latter should have been picked. We didn't attempt anything deep, although that's probably by design, as I'm not sure the O-line could've provided enough time for the WRs to get downfield. With the O-line, he may have less success moving forward in the short part of the field because teams will be able to tailor their game plan to that, sort of like they could against Teddy last year when they realized he just wasn't willing to throw down the field. All in all, I'm cautiously optimistic about Darnold. Certainly somethings he needs to work on, and all of this was against second stringers, but the O-line hasn't done him any favors. I'll reserve judgment until I've seen him in a couple real games. But I'm decidedly worried about the O-line, and think they may prevent proper analysis of whether Darnold is/can be good or not.

When his competition at safety is Juston Burris, he may be starting....

C'mon refs. That's a massive hold on Derrick Brown right there.

Where was this Donte Jackson in years 1 and 2. Nice tackling.

Nice playcall. Nice execution.

I don't think it's a bad play call if you're trying to see what your first team offensive line has in short yard situations during a game that doesn't have stakes. And the fact that they can't get any push against a 2nd string defense is very concerning. This is valuable information to have for the regular season. The coaches may be more inclined to pass the ball when they need to go for it on 3rd or 4th and short because of this, granted the 4th and short failure on the last drive shows that pass blocking may be an issue too...

12. Three sets of 4 chuggas with a slight pause between each set. This is objective fact; don't pretend like you don't know the exact cadence chugga-ing I'm talking about.

Don't know why I'm getting pooed when I agreed that shouldn't be interference...

Preds fan here (and Canes fan 2nd...used to live across the street from PNC). Letter of the law, that's interference because he's in the crease. But spirit of the law, Josi was in Saros' way too. Tough break.

Absolutely not. Like him as a player, but that's not good value at all. We already have a lot of money invested at the RB position and need more talent/depth at other positions much more than we need it a RB.

The value is certainly there. And JOK could slot into the MLB spot next to Shaq nicely. And he's got the positional flexibility that Rhule and company love; he can play a hybrid safety/nickel position similar to Chinn. So I could see it. But man, I really hate to ignore the offensive line. If they do, it better be for a safety-ish defender or a high upside WR to replace Samuel/hedge against losing Anderson or Moore to free agency next year.