Chill Out, The Offense Will Be Fine

[fieryprophet]

I was at the game yesterday. All of this panic over the offense is pretty much par-for-the-Huddle-course, and while it was an overall subpar outing, it's not the disaster many seem to think it is.

1.) Carolina dominated in time of possession and big plays, they just continually killed drives with mistakes at critical times. Mistakes can be corrected and Cam will play better. If we had spent this game struggling to move the ball or barely moving the sticks we'd have far more to be worried about, but against a good Buffalo defense that strongly gameplanned for our offense, we were often our own worst enemy.

2.) The loss of Ryan Kalil was a huge blow to our offensive line, as Larsen gave up pressure under center on a number of occasions. Adding in the sudden loss of Olsen early in the game and the offense was bound to struggle to adapt.

3.) The "evolved" offense will take time. Change is always difficult; go back and see the early Steelers games when Todd Haley became their offensive coordinator and the team tried to evolve Roethlisberger into more of a pocket quarterback to prevent him from constantly taking punishment. Sound familiar? Integrating McCaffrey and Samuel into the offense is causing plenty of growing pains and a lot of things that aren't working will have to be adjusted in realtime. But, as Cam continues to practice with the first team and game film is available to scout to understand what is working and what isn't, the offense will continue to evolve and ultimately can be better for it.

Finally, I think much of the ire is directed more at the fact that this could have been a blowout win instead of a nailbiter if execution had simply been better, so that element of frustration is boiling over. Changing the outcome of only a few plays could be the difference between 9-3 and 30-3, while the same couldn't really be said for the Bills as up until the end of the game we absolutely throttled their offense. In every meaningful sense aside from the final score, this was a good win that was simply marred by a litany of mistakes.

[Burnout189]

Pumpkin Spice Latte for clear, rational , and positive thinking. The next two games will truly show us the identity of this team and if we are made for a good playoff run or not.

[Pejorative Miscreant]

5 minutes ago, fieryprophet said:

I was at the game yesterday. All of this panic over the offense is pretty much par-for-the-Huddle-course, and while it was an overall subpar outing, it's not the disaster many seem to think it is.

1.) Carolina dominated in time of possession and big plays, they just continually killed drives with mistakes at critical times. Mistakes can be corrected and Cam will play better. If we had spent this game struggling to move the ball or barely moving the sticks we'd have far more to be worried about, but against a good Buffalo defense that strongly gameplanned for our offense, we were often our own worst enemy.

2.) The loss of Ryan Kalil was a huge blow to our offensive line, Larsen gave up pressure under center on a number of occasions. Adding in the sudden loss of Olsen early in the game and the offense was bound to struggle to adapt.

3.) The "evolved" offense will take time. Change is always difficult; go back and see the early Steelers games when Todd Haley became their offensive coordinator and the team tried to evolve Roethlisberger into more of a pocket quarterback to prevent him from constantly taking punishment. Sound familiar? Integrating McCaffrey and Samuel into the offense is causing plenty of growing pains and a lot of things that aren't working will have to be adjusted in realtime. But, as Cam continues to practice with the first team and game film is available to scout to understand what is working and what isn't, the offense will continue to evolve and ultimately can be better for it.

Finally, I think much of the ire is directed more at the fact that this could have been a blowout win instead of a nailbiter if execution had simply been better, so that element of frustration is boiling over. Changing the outcome of only a few plays could be the difference between 9-3 and 30-3, while the same couldn't really be said for the Bills as up until the end of the game we absolutely throttled their offense. In every meaningful sense aside from the final score, this was a good win that was simply marred by a litany of mistakes.

I think you are missing the point.  If you react calmly then you blow your opportunity to overreact and panic. 

[dpm0409]

Now you watch it with that realistic/rational/optimistic attitude 'round here! 

Seriously though, very nice post with valid points.  Reading it was like a breath of fresh air.....place is depressing this morning.  Do we have areas we need to improve in?  Of course we do, and so does every other NFL team.  I'll take the 2-0 start!

[Moorgan]

Good job OP. This thread will likely be ignored because...panic.

[AggieLean]

Great post, OP. I, too, was encouraged by how we were moving the ball up and down the field. Just didn't fully execute, and hurt ourselves. We'll be fine, and Cam & the offense will be fine. It's a long season. There will be games where the defense needs to be bailed out and the offense will have to win us some games. Right now, the defense is carrying us.

[Dex]

this forum along with most of it's posters are AIDS. good post OP.

[dldove77]

Too many people around here would have been more satisfied with scoring 30 and losing. 

[Jangler]

[Ace_Aladdin]

16 minutes ago, dpm0409 said:

Now you watch it with that realistic/rational/optimistic attitude 'round here! 

Seriously though, very nice post with valid points.  Reading it was like a breath of fresh air.....place is depressing this morning.  Do we have areas we need to improve in?  Of course we do, and so does every other NFL team.  I'll take the 2-0 start!

[Smithers]

Holding penalties killed at least two of our drives on the Bills side of the field.  I also remember a couple delay of game penalties plus Stewart's five yarder for spiking the ball in anger.  The missed throw to McCaffrey as well as the long 3rd down miss to Dickson (which might have been a TD) also hurt.  OP is right...we shot ourselves in the foot a lot.  

[*FreeFua*]

That's just it though... too many times we're left saying "we're our own worst enemy" at what point does that change?

Some of these mistakes won't be corrected and haven't been corrected because of Shula. He continues to fail at recognizing his players weaknesses. Our OL was getting shredded for the better part of the day and he calls a wildcat on 2nd and 12 or something, like c'mon. Either that or he doesn't care and is so fixated on winning "his way".

Matt Kalil and Daryl Williams played awful and whiffed badly on their 1 on 1's that too can't just "be corrected". Buffalo isn't the only team we play this year with a solid DL.

However, those two incompletions to Dickson and McCaffery are must haves and really changed the game. Cam himself would tell you he should have hit CMC in the endzone in the 4th had he been in a wheel chair. It's week 2 and it typically takes Cam a little time to get going. At the end of the day we're 2-0 and I guess we just hope it clicks against the Saints?

For me the most frustrating part in all of this is that we have so much talent on offense and we leave a lot to be desired by sticking with Shula.

[PhillyB]

shula is still awful but i agree, it was a fluke game. we should bounce back against the saints

[TruthVsComfort]

Thanks for this post, OP.