LinvilleGorge

I hope everyone who thinks our D is awful is watching the Cowboys make J.J. McCarthy look like an All-Pro. This is what truly awful defense looks like if you've forgotten our defense from last year that fast.

No. I wouldn't say that the defense ranked #2 in the league in yardage allowed but #21 in points allowed was the second best overall defense in the league. That's why it's important to look at both metrics.

#17 in yards and #16 in points allowed this year. #32 in both yards and points allowed last year. That's leaps and bounds.

Honestly, given how historically abysmal our D was last year, I think everyone would've happily taken a league average D going into this season and that's basically what we've been. The D has improved leaps and bounds. It's still not good but it's not that bad either. The problem is that the offense is still pretty abysmal for the same reason - we're handcuffed at the QB position. And when you're handcuffed at QB the margin of error shrinks to near nothing.

Our overall record is just an anomaly. The offense is overall bad. The rushing offense is pretty good but the passing offense is abysmal. The defense is about average. That combination should have you solidly in the top 10 of the draft but we've caught enough breaks here and there that the overall W-L record has a lot of fans thinking that we're better than we are when in reality we've found ways to win several games we probably should've lost. I can't really fairly judge Canales right now. I have my issues with him but overall I think he's doing a pretty decent job of playing the cards he's holding which at the end of the day that's the coach's job. This is the hand, now play the cards as best you can. The whole has been greater than the sum of the parts.

He's actually pretty consistent. He's just consistently subpar and that's precisely the issue. His average is subpar then he'll have a couple disastrous games and a couple of legitimately good games but it all averages out to being pretty bad.

Therein lies the issue. Sadly this mediocre at best game isn't a bad game for Bryce and that's the real problem.

They're probably quietly very happy that Parsons looks likely to have blown his knee today. That'll get some of the heat off of them for that trade when their D has been absolutely bottom of the barrel. Their offense is at or near the top of the league and their D is at or near the bottom of the league. So yeah, I guess roughly .500 sounds about right.

The only argument for Bryce not being to blame is that this is basically the expectation for Bryce. Bryce had a "good for Bryce" game. That's the problem. "Good for Bryce" isn't good enough and puts a TON of pressure on the rest of your football team and the staff. The margin of error shrinks to nearly zero.

Parcells was just acknowledging basic football reality. When you range between below average and bottom of the barrel in all physical traits compared to the level of competition, you have no margin for error. You have to be nearly perfect. Not just that, but everyone around you has to be as well. It's really hard to be nearly perfect against NFL competition.

I wouldn't say it ended. I mean, the Bucs are in freefall and have lost 5 of their last 6. This is a live look at the Bucs and Panthers racing to the finish line in the NFC South...

When the opposing QB has a near statistical sweep over your guy you're usually going to lose and he didn't have a statistical sweep because we made life easy. He was sacked more than Bryce. Pressured more than Bryce. He threw balls downfield into tight windows. We were outplayed at the most important position in the game and that usually = L. You usually need some extenuating circumstances to overcome that.

I was remembering it being a little longer than that but that might be right. Fitz is 2/4 on 50+ for the season. I'm honestly not mad about the call. But we should have someone else practicing QB sneaks since little Bryce and geriatric Dalton can't do it. Let Rico or one of the TEs or XL or somebody do it. Somebody with the power to move the pile.

Watching a guy who has been one of it not the worst QB in the league this season feeling himself as much as JJ McCarthy is pretty damn wild. LOL

This is just the law of averages working out. We're not a very good team that got lucky and caught two playoff bound teams in poor weather conditions winning the turnover battle in those games and ultimately ending up with two unlikely wins. That gets balanced out by taking two bad unlikely losses.

Wasn't it gonna be a near 60 yard attempt? I'm sure the analytics say to go for it on 4th and 1 in that scenario but the analytics probably wouldn't be accounting for the inability to run a QB sneak.

Their health insurance is only seasonal. If the union is so powerful they should be able to use their leverage to negotiate a compensation package that wouldn't have the refs continuing to work their lawyer day jobs.

Pretty much. Making the playoffs for the first time in forever would be fun and with the Bucs in freefall it's still very possible. But I also realize that whoever wins this shitty division is probably just gonna be a doormat for a legit playoff team in the first round of the playoffs. We've only beaten two likely playoff teams and we had the good fortune of facing both of them in poor weather conditions limiting the effectiveness of their more potent offenses. It's been nice to have games in late November and December that are actually relevant and the two best rookie QBs this season being drafted in the late 1st and early 2nd round give me a grain of hope that maybe we could luck into the same.

Say what? They can't even get treated as full time employees. LOL

Yeah, that too. I'm not sure how Dart will pan out in the long run and he's gonna have to start being smarter about taking these unnecessary hits if he's gonna last long-term but yeah, I'd trade Bryce for him with no hesitation.

And Bryce is just blameless for his mediocre at best performance? Plenty of criticism for the coaching staff, Jaycee Horn, etc. But it's lil Bryce that people feel compelled to defend. His numbers vs. Shough's are what they are. Their QB was considerably better than ours and most of the time that happens the team on the plus side of that wins. We've just gotten cocky about being able to win in spite of Bryce this year. This is the way it usually goes.

That's what my Giants fan buddy and I have talked about. Really the only difference between us this year that they've largely lost the close games and we've largely won them.

We were 23rd in yardage and 28th in points going into today's game. We might fall in those after today. We were 17th in yards allowed and 16th in points allowed going into today's game. The D is roughly league average. The offense is well below it.

Probably 25 other NFL QBs.

Our only hope is that the Bucs are in freefall right now. They've completely collapsed. But let's be honest, whoever draws the NFC South champ in the 1st round of the playoffs is gonna be very happy.