strato

Not sure who you are talking to. Everybody maybe? Anyhow the family cat woke me up so…. Saturday, I will be in the playoff frame of mind for that game don’t worry about that. Will be living and dying on each play. Pretty sure everyone will be. That is still a few days away though. Right now it is yes we made the playoffs. Backed into it with some convoluted 3 way tie breaking magic. It took a heroic finish - not by us, but by Atlanta. I don’t hardly know how to feel about it. I don’t feel like we won it. It is just sort of, well okay here we are, somehow. Our number came up. We were lucky. And that is what we were. Not good, lucky. As far as here, this discussion, I think people rightly feel like, look at the offense. And it is kind of, what offense? They shut our run down and we become totally stagnant. Some people have faith that the QB can beat people with his arm but we aren’t doing it. We went into our bye off a big high. In or tied for, first place. We control our destiny. 4 games to do it. And we freaking finished 1-3. That control our destiny thing? We didn’t control poo when it comes down to it. Lost in the mix is basically a huge collapse. No one really called it out, it got lost in the excitement of the chase. But, 1-3 with the playoffs on the line - every week. Not inspiring. I mean, you don’t call that trending up, and if we hadn’t lucked into the tournament that would be our finish headed into the offseason. Not what you want. And if we don’t win Saturday? 1-4 to finish the year. Limping out. Okay that said I do hate going into playoffs on a winning streak because you are almost due to end the streak and that loss ends your season, so dropping One before the elimination games start is almost a comfort. But 1-3 with a 54 yard passing total in one of them? Followed by 14 points in a must win. Hmmm. I am supposed to be optimistic? Sorry I don’t think I can be. I can hope, that’s different. It has just been a rough 8 years, and the excitement of having a winning record is in the rear view this week. About the only way we can have one is make the NFCCG I think. Anyhow, on offense, where are the signs that we can beat people who stymie our run game? I suppose it could happen out of the blue but we haven’t really been able to pull that off. Beating Tampa Bay was good. That was it though. Our other last little bit of glory is two plays on 4th down where they didn’t really pay attention in the back end, somehow, and we got two really nice results. Not once, but twice back to back. Honestly it was so out of character it felt a little fluky. And here we are, depending on that to happen Saturday. At least I guess is what we are hoping for. Good luck to us.

These are really good. I have t gotten a single one yet. Haven’t done any searching or anything. I am gonna guess Walter Young in case his pic comes up.

I did a for instance quick look at the Green Bay game, stats and PFF. 102 yards passing, he graded 42 decimal point something I just glanced at it. Probably not overrating him, it was one of the lowest scores for the team. So I wasn’t being real accurate relative to that particular game with the over grading comment. But I don’t know, I still think there are probably other examples like what you cited where he did get some generous grades.

The kid is about to win the MVP. Ask cuz for some of what he is smoking.

NO is pretty obvious to me. Hell we couldn’t match up with them when they had like one win. The rookie’s 2nd start, we lose to them. I don’t know what to think about Atlanta with all the change that is coming for them. TB, they won’t be pushovers for us either. As far as repeatable, that would be standing still which you know… if you aren’t getting better you’re getting worse. We’ll have to be better.

The criteria for BTT is so subjective and not very nuanced. 1/2 point increments are clunky, if they shaded the grading variances a little finer, it would still be subjective. It’s fun to look at their graphs and get a general picture of the league, for fans, myself included, but I don’t really see the utility for pro evaluations. Do we envision Tillis and the super stat guy we hired (forget his name and can’t find him on the team site), do we see them relying on PFF? Lord I hope not.

It wasn’t played up at the time because there was so much Bryce vs Green Bay and Atlanta hopium, and also because Tepper was raging the whole year and grabbed a lot of the attention. We had so many people who blamed the excuses and were willing to give him (Bryce) a pass on the entire abomination of a season. I wasn’t one of those but I was raging at Tepper too.

And maybe pounded the drum too.

There isn’t an easy sure thing game on there outside of the division. 7 playoff teams if I counted right. Plus the division where if we played today we might have a tough time - two teams we were 1-3 against this year. Plus Baltimore.

Several factors there with an assortment of possible candidates Those two, way too stubborn and strong willed to control. And I think they had enough demand that they could ignore some possibilities that didn’t look great to them. Maybe, just maybe, no one wanted to try and run an offense with Bryce in the QB spot. I know there are a few that think Bryce is the man, stan, but that being a condition of employment would be a strong deterrent for a lot of people. edit: especially coming off of the insanity and failure that was 2023.

Just responding to this last part. Yep 100% and why it took them as long as it did is points off for the slow ones. It was so obvious. I guess the run game had to show they had to pay attention to it.

Surprised a little at the ultra high end names. I have the impression that PFF over grades Young based on watching some games and seeing the grades after. And am pretty sure they are the parents of the Big Time Throw stat. Which takes points off for me.

Geno doesn’t really excite me. At all. I am thinking young vet. Not someone who is hanging on, which he will be soon if he isn’t already. I guess if Canales is tight with him that might be something g we see, but not my choice.

It seems to me that Evero would have grown out of needing a mentor. 3 years as DC. Nothing against Dom, OG Panther, and I don’t begrudge him a gig and a chance to contribute, just sayin. The guy that needs a mentor is in the big office.

Going into this year, while I was opposed to it, I understood that Bryce would get the year to demonstrate his potential, talent, value. Myself, I don’t see how what he has put on record justifies an entire organization and fan base putting all their eggs in his basket. QBs around the league have proven themselves in half the time he has been given while he is still an enigma more or less. Some were taken high, Williams for example, others were drafted well below his position and for a much cheaper investment, and several have outshined him. He languishes in his meager progress zone, making incremental improvement that lags behind these others. Shough has lapped him in half a season. Williams has lapped him. Maye has lapped him. Others. Look at Stroud. That was a legit horrible team in 2022, with a defensive HC, that has made the playoffs each year he has played for them. And has also transitioned to a new OC, with little disruption. What is different with Young? I think we know. If we can know, they should also know. Astute people Have to see this. If they can’t look around and say hmmm ‘’why is this this way?” they are just not qualified to be making these kinds of decisions.

And start the whole thing over. Why wait?

Kind of like a credit card. Instant gratification now, pay later. And you Will pay.

Honestly, he has balls for being so radically conservative. No one wants to watch us run into a wall 2 times, dump off short of the sticks on 3rd, punt and play defense, but… he is minimizing the damage Bryce can do and keeping us in games longer than we reasonably would hang with a more opened up offense. He seems to understand the bottom line of Bryce. He only leans on him when there is no other option, or we are in an advantageous position to where something can possibly be exploited. It has worked a couple of times and we came away with a win no one expected. Even that flea flicker people went nuts over because it was in the red zone… I started thinking. We are pretty much in a red zone offense anywhere on the field 20 yards is a deep ball, etc. That is like most plays, if they execute it it can be a good play and if they don’t it is a shitty play. Okay it failed. But I would like to have seen what it looked like with decent execution.

As little faith as I have that the general idea of what you suggest as a plan, will be implemented… it is malfeasance not to try and upgrade from Young. I just won’t believe it will happen until see it.

Just remembering what people thought of our schedule the second half of the season, and I believe ‘brutal’ was the consensus. I am sick of a lot of his schtick too, but when I zoom out and look at all the variables, he isn’t as bad as the bigger critics claim. Sort of like, you are what your record says you are. Listening to some of you it’s like he took all this great poo and got two wins or something. He may be a shitty OC, but Bryce is a fuging millstone, a coach killer. A playbook diluter. I can stop there and justify a season with a new QB.

Off the top of my head you have 5 or 6 weeks to cherry pick things that make Bryce look good. And that is what you will keep doing and you will think you are winning. He is a booby prize, congratulations you win and you can have him.

Well, imagine that… If you took away Caleb’s throws that were great catches, and add all the missed catches and touchdowns called back or missed…. Anyhow we are seeing the difference, Williams in year two is panning out as much as could be hoped for. Year three, we have to play alternate reality games with stats to deflect criticism.

Nothing against Pete here, just would not have hired a dude of his age for that job.

What are rails for if not to run off now and then? I don’t begrudge Vick living his life afterwards. But he will always be tainted by that. Vick was HC at Norfolk State this year btw.

Stan on. I would wonder who took over your account if you didn’t. A dropped or missed catch is usually on the receiver but not always and it is subjective as hell. You are venturing into territory where when a WR bails him out on a bad throw or prevents an interception, we should take that away and award the incompletion and the pick. Same line of thinking.