tukafan21

Not really sure I’d say we had “constant success” on the ground either. Take away Dalton’s kneel down and Bryce’s scrambles and we had 103 yards on 27 carries. Not garbage, but not constant success to where it wouldn’t have been reasonable to let your QB try and gain some confidence by throwing it a bit more, or even just further down the field. I’m happy we won, but just frustrated in that we somehow didn’t even look that great in a 30-0 win because it was largely due to the Falcons ineptitude and bad mistakes. We only had 2 drives all game of over 30 yards, the 61 yard opening TD drive and a 48 yard drive for a FG. So it’s not like our offense was some well oiled machine that couldn’t have been trying to throw and push it downfield more.

I agree that we already know what we have in Bryce, but the team doesn't, if they did, he wouldn't still be our starting QB right now. Also, for as bad as he is, I do think the players believe in him, so the more we have games like this, the harder it will be for the players if/when we move on from Bryce after the year, which is a good recipe to destroy a locker room. But your point about the team and the fans needing a win is kinda my point. The fact that this franchise and it's fans just "needed a win" is why it's so hard for me to enjoy a win where we could have both won the game and used it as an opportunity to let Bryce loose in the 2nd half to see what he can do when he plays loose.

Do you honestly believe this is a team that will even be in contention for a playoff spot this year? To me, if you're not at minimum a genuine contender to make the playoffs, every win you get is a meaningless win in the end. This is the NFL, it's not peewee league where you just want to win a few games and have fun, you want to get into the playoffs and have a shot at making a SB run. We haven't had a winning season in how many years? Does "enjoying" a small handful of wins every year really make for an enjoyable season for you? I said it months ago and I'll say it forever, I don't care about winning or losing this year, as we don't have a playoff caliber roster yet and I'm a realist about where we are as a franchise. I'd enjoy watching the games so much more if the team and Bryce in particular were just showing marked improvement, even if it came in losses. Because THAT would give me hope for the future of the franchise and the direction we're going. Bryce was complete garbage in Week 1, in Week 2 he was terrible until the Cardinals went into super soft prevent defense and then collapsed gain when the game was in reach, and he was a serviceable game manager today, but didn't make any throws that any college QB couldn't make. This game was a perfect chance to let Bryce go out there and play loose because of the lead, just let him be himself and see if it sparks his college self. But instead, we went unbelievably conservative with the play calling to help ensure the win, when actual wins and losses are the least of our worries this year, it's figuring out what Bryce can be (fans may be decided, but the team obviously has not yet). I don't want to make the playoffs every few years, I want to contend for SBs. I just don't get anything out of 6-11 type of seasons anymore, they're way more frustrating on the whole to be able to actually enjoy the few wins just because our shitty team got a win for a change.

Sure, let's not throw end zone jump balls to a guy who can do THIS................

The point is that we were always going to win this game in the 2nd half, and we just went more and more conservative as the game went on, when we should have been going the other way to let Bryce see what he can do. Hell, I'd have thought it would have been dumb as they need to build their connection, but even if we sat T-Mac but continued to air it out, I'd have been okay with it. Because this season isn't about T-Mac, it's about Bryce and we just wasted a PERFECT opportunity to let him prove himself.

The WR and OL issues have no bearing on how we use Bryce at this point unfortunately. His rookie year, if we were in the same situation, sure, I'll accept this game plan in that case. But this is his make or break it year in the franchise's eyes, if he's going to be our long term solution, he needs to be able to play well as a passer despite those injuries. If we're not even willing to let him attempt to play like that when we do have them, if anything, I think that says a hell of a lot more about Bryce than this win says about anyone involved with this team right now.

Exactly, my frustration today is with the play calling. We had a chance to let Bryce play loose and see what he can do, we didn't even attempt to take advantage of it in the slightest. I'm jealous of the fans who can legitimately get excited about games like today after how everything has gone since the 2015 season. I'm so sick of celebrating a few random wins each year, I'm done with it. I legitimately would be more excited about Bryce looking like a stud in a game we lose than what happened today. Because at least that scenario helps us long term, today literally doesn't help us one bit. And hell, for a fan base that has been calling for our DC to be fired, if anything, a game like this should just piss those people off more if you genuinely think he's a bad coach and needs to go, as this isn't going to help that happen either.

There have been some incompletions on pass attempts to him. But I'm rather sure today's screen pass was his first actual drop this season. Just because he's a great contested catch guy, doesn't mean every contested catch he doesn't make mean it was a drop.

But the point is, given how the game went, we weren't going to lose this game if we let Bryce air it out in the 2nd half. And THAT is what I'm frustrated with. We had an opportunity to let Bryce gain some confidence by playing without fear of losing the game, but we didn't remotely take that chance. I keep going back to the number 9... After the opening drive, we only had 9 targets to WRs the rest of the game. That's an absurd stat for a team that is needing to decide if their QB can be a long term solution or not, regardless of the game situation.

Yea, I want my guy to get more passes, but this has NOTHING to do with that. I get the "you play to win the game" mantra, but at the same time, I'm absolutely sick of winning meaningless games, and we're never going to be in meaningful games until we have our QB situation solved. This year... I'd rather lose a game where we get answers about Bryce (in either direction) than win a game where we get absolutely zero answers on him. Again, we can't go into next year not knowing if he's our long term solution. We had 17 games to decide that, he's looked terrible in the first 2 and we just effectively tossed the 3rd into the trash. Every game we don't gain more answers about Bryce is a loss, whether we win or lose the game, it's just the way this season is going to be and I'll never be convinced otherwise. Sorry, but not sorry, because I want to win over the next 10 years than win a few meaningless games this year.

So? Honestly, this means nothing. Yes, we gifted those teams points and wins, but us doing that to someone else doesn't make me okay with us not taking advantage of the situation and letting Bryce sling the ball all around the field because we weren't afraid of losing due to it.

Us gifting them the opportunity doesn't mean they also didn't give us a bigger gift in return by missing it. The point is just that if THEY didn't make the mistakes they did, it's an entirely different game.

Fair point, but at least for me personally, I'm less upset at Bryce today as much as I am the coaching staff, and I think I've made that clear in my posts so far today. Now, if I were to go back and watch the All 22 view and see Bryce turn down the downfield passing opportunities that were there, that would change things for me and put some blame more on him. But without seeing that film right now, I'm upset with the coaches, not the players. With the one exception being that I still think Bryce NEEDS to call audibles when we're inside the 10 and T-Mac gets 1 on 1 coverage, call a hot route and just throw it up for him to make a play over the DB's head. But again, that still might not even be on Bryce, that might be on the coaches if they're not allowing him the freedom to make those calls at the LOS. But there's also just no way for fans to know the answer to that particular question.

You do realize though that most people don't take notes throughout the game of the issues they had, right? Asking for very specific examples so quickly after a game is tough. Personally, I just found myself, even in a 30-0 blowout win, constantly yelling at the TV for bad play calls and the lack of even trying to pass the ball down the field at all. Just dink and dunk nonstop, just like Bryce's first few years, we learn nothing about who he can be, unless it's the staff's way of flat out telling us that he's just not THAT guy and it's why they do this stuff with him. We played this game like a contending team who was just content to win the game. We needed to play it like a team trying to figure out who their QB can be and use the safety of a blowout victory as a way to let Bryce play loose and throw the ball around the field, instead of him playing tight like usual because he's afraid of losing us the game.

I guess that's my point though, our gameplan sucked and we were just lucky to play a team that poo the bed even more today. 9 pass attempts to WRs after the first drive of the game. If that was our gameplan, then we need to be firing Canales before the day is over. Because, AGAIN, this season isn't about winning or losing games, it's about finding out who Bryce is. And gameplans like that don't accomplish that goal in the slightest, if anything, they just open up more questions than create answers.

And again, if you don't think missed FG's put wind into the sails of the team that didn't give up those points while also demoralizing the team that missed them, then again, purposefully obtuse. Not saying we lose the game if they make those, but it's 100% a different game if they make those two and it's 7-6 into the 2nd Quarter.

Yes. Finding out who Bryce is, is the ONLY thing that matters to me this year, because we need to either extend him or move on from him after this year, we can't go into next year still not knowing if he is our future or not. I don't care about winning games like this, I don't care about winning games at all, just like I don't care about losing games either. I only care about Bryce and the staff proving themselves to be our future or not to be our future, this game didn't move that needle even the slightest. Hate on me for not being able to enjoy wins more, but I want a SB, not meaningless wins in an ugly game in a 6-11 season. The best path to a future SB for this franchise is by learning what Bryce can be (or not be) THIS season and being able to make a long term call this offseason because of it.

If they make those two FGs, it's a 7-6 game into the 2nd Quarter, if you don't think that wouldn't have completely changed this game, then you're purposefully being obtuse.

Oh yea, not giving them credit, but just saying maybe we shouldn't be claiming as much credit as some fans seem to be. Falcons had 2 missed FGs, an INT, and a fumble all in our side of the field. The people celebrating "we blew out a division rival in a shutout" are a classic case of not being able to see the forest through the trees right now. We won, we shut them out, fug the Falcons, all of it, but I'm also always going to call it like I see it, and this wasn't some statement game, we won, but we still didn't *actually* look all that great out there.

I also think people are looking at the shutout and 30 point win and forgetting that it only happened because of two missed FGs and Penix gifting us some turnovers that were his fault and not something our defense caused. So yea, we won, we had a shutout, but I'd still say those things were much more because of the Falcons own mistakes than us forcing them into those.

In a year we are contenders, yea, I'm more willing to enjoy a win no matter how it comes, and save the complaining for Monday morning. But as I've said countless times over the last few months, I don't care one bit about winning or losing games this year. I want to see improvement from the players and staff, as well as determining Bryce's ability to be our future QB. Games like today don't help evaluate Bryce one bit, we only had 17 chances to do that this year, he sucked in the first two and now we threw away the 3rd chance by not letting him throw the ball more than 5 yards down field on more than like 3 pass attempts. So ya, I'm going to question the play calling, this isn't a team in a place to just coast to wins because the other team poo the bed. We need to use these games to our advantage and push the envelope to see what Bryce can do since we had the win in the bag, and if he made a few mistakes, so be it, we were still going to win it.

Egbuka is going to win it Already has 3 TDs, Godwin isn't yet back, and Evans just got hurt today and was immediately ruled out from returning. In that offense and the role he's going to take on, I can't see how he isn't going to put up some real big numbers this year, while T-Mac gets Bryce and a coach who won't throw his way in the red zone.

We had 224 yards of offense, are you really THAT thrilled with our performance today that you're willing to overlook that we blew them out because they missed 2 early FGs and then Penix was god awful the rest of the way? It's always great to blow out the Falcons, but I'm not going to not ask questions about the game planning and play calling just because of that. In fact, I think there's a very real argument to make that in a game like this, we shouldn't be playing it safe, we should be going the other way and open up the playbook because we have the cushion to do so. This game did absolutely nothing to evaluate Bryce's future as we didn't let him do anything other than short check down type of passes again. I like wins, but in reality, I don't care about wins or losses this year, I care about the development/evaluation of Bryce, and to me, we just threw away 1 of the 17 games we have to evaluate him, and that is coming off of 2 terrible performances as is.

Oh absolutely, and he's the type who is more likely to make those plays than not, so it sucks when he doesn't still make the catch. But this is the NFL, no matter how good the WR is (or how much of a fan I am of theirs), I'm not going to blame them when the defender makes a good play to break it up. Just like I'm going to call out T-Mac for not watching the ball all the way into his hands on the screen and dropping it, he has to make that play.

Was just looking at the box score and now realizing it goes even further than the red zone usage. On the first drive of the game, T-Mac was targeted 3 times, Brycen twice, and Renfrow once. Which means for the remainder of the game, Bryce only had 9 targets to his WRs. And yes, I get it, we won by 30 in a shutout, but it's not like the game was a blowout the whole time where we were just running it to preserve the lead. But just like I felt all throughout 2015, we might have been winning games, but it was in spite of the coaching staff that season, not because of them. They made soooooo many play calls and game plans that made no sense and the players seemed to constantly bail them out, and it was frustrating when fans would get upset at asking these questions just because we were winning. It's also not like we have a clear cut long term franchise QB solution, we had 17 games (and now just 14 more) to prove Bryce can either be the guy or not be the guy, so even in games like this, we need to be throwing it more and throwing it downfield more to see what he can be. I said all off-season, we're not contenders this year, winning or losing doesn't matter to me, it's about finding out if Bryce should be our long term guy or if we should move on after this year. Games like this are nice for the win, but they hurt our ability to evaluate him properly.