Is this an early must win?

[Mage]

I feel like people overthink "must-win" too much.  Like, yeah, every game is a must-win.  The overall point though is, does this game and the timing of it have more of an impact than other games?  And I think it does.  If we lose, we're suddenly on a 3-game skid and all confidence is lost.  If we win, we bounce-back from a rough 2-games, maintain a winning record at 4-2, and all is good with McCaffrey hopefully recovering and Gilmore being able to be activated.

Every game is must-win, but losing this game at this stage after everything that has happened will be much, much worse than losing to Dallas when we're 3-0.  This game will be the difference between a young team regaining their confidence and going 4-2, a winning record, and a young team getting their confidence shattered and going 3-3, a .500 record.

IMO if we lose this game my confidence in this season will be absolutely crushed.  And really, my confidence in Darnold will be crushed.  I think the offensive line has hurt him, and I am definitely one of the biggest Darnold supporters on this site.  But he needs to play well tomorrow.  A good QB will make sure he comes off a 2-game skid ready to play some of the best ball of his life.  I better not see missed throws on Sunday.

Edited October 16, 2021 by Mage

[unicar15]

Literally the only thing that matters for the rest of our season is if CMC comes back. Even if we win this game..if he doesn’t come back the season is probably going nowhere. If we lose this game and he DOES come back there is hope. So in grand scheme of things probably need the win for end of season jockeying. But if CMC is gonna pull a “2020” then none of it matters anyway. 

[unicar15]

3 hours ago, Mage said:

I feel like people overthink "must-win" too much.  Like, yeah, every game is a must-win.  The overall point though is, does this game and the timing of it have more of an impact than other games?  And I think it does.  If we lose, we're suddenly on a 3-game skid and all confidence is lost.  If we win, we bounce-back from a rough 2-games, maintain a winning record at 4-2, and all is good with McCaffrey hopefully recovering and Gilmore being able to be activated.

Every game is must-win, but losing this game at this stage after everything that has happened will be much, much worse than losing to Dallas when we're 3-0.  This game will be the difference between a young team regaining their confidence and going 4-2, a winning record, and a young team getting their confidence shattered and going 3-3, a .500 record.

IMO if we lose this game my confidence in this season will be absolutely crushed.  And really, my confidence in Darnold will be crushed.  I think the offensive line has hurt him, and I am definitely one of the biggest Darnold supporters on this site.  But he needs to play well tomorrow.  A good QB will make sure he comes off a 2-game skid ready to play some of the best ball of his life.  I better not see missed throws on Sunday.

If there is anything the last 2-3 game have shown me it’s that Darnold is a MID-tier QB. Which admittedly is better than he was at the Jets. But there is no hope imo of him being a guy who can carry a max contract. He has to have ALLLL the pieces around him. 
 

Then the question becomes…who is the last team to have a QB like that and go to a Super Bowl? I guess it would be the Goff Rams (lost) and the Eagles (flash in the pan can’t count on that). 

[kungfoodude]

15 hours ago, rayzor said:

Every game is a must win.

The idea that it's not a big deal if we lose some makes us losers...that and the fact that we lose games we should win.

Small picture(week to week) this is true. Big picture(17 game season), it's not a must win game. But....the more games you lose, the more games start to become "must win" if you want to have any meaningful success.

I went into this season expecting 6-9 wins, so we are already tracking pretty well for my expectation level. 

[glenwo2]

3 hours ago, Mage said:

I feel like people overthink "must-win" too much.  Like, yeah, every game is a must-win.  The overall point though is, does this game and the timing of it have more of an impact than other games?  And I think it does.  If we lose, we're suddenly on a 3-game skid and all confidence is lost.  If we win, we bounce-back from a rough 2-games, maintain a winning record at 4-2, and all is good with McCaffrey hopefully recovering and Gilmore being able to be activated.

Every game is must-win, but losing this game at this stage after everything that has happened will be much, much worse than losing to Dallas when we're 3-0.  This game will be the difference between a young team regaining their confidence and going 4-2, a winning record, and a young team getting their confidence shattered and going 3-3, a .500 record.

IMO if we lose this game my confidence in this season will be absolutely crushed.  And really, my confidence in Darnold will be crushed.  I think the offensive line has hurt him, and I am definitely one of the biggest Darnold supporters on this site.  But he needs to play well tomorrow.  A good QB will make sure he comes off a 2-game skid ready to play some of the best ball of his life.  I better not see missed throws on Sunday.

What about dropped passes? 

[kungfoodude]

22 minutes ago, glenwo2 said:

What about dropped passes? 

We get it, you have a crush on Sam Darnold and can't see any of his flaws. 

[Shocker]

10 hours ago, hepcat said:

This team loves losing streaks. And they’re about to go on a very long one again.

[mrcompletely11]

53 minutes ago, kungfoodude said:

We get it, you have a crush on Sam Darnold and can't see any of his flaws. 

He has flaws for sure but I am not sure what option B would be going forward at this point.  I think its a must win in the sense we sure as hell dont want to be sitting on a 3 game losing streak.  That has to be a killer mentally with this team. 

[kungfoodude]

21 minutes ago, mrcompletely11 said:

He has flaws for sure but I am not sure what option B would be going forward at this point.  I think its a must win in the sense we sure as hell dont want to be sitting on a 3 game losing streak.  That has to be a killer mentally with this team. 

There is no option B in 2021. There probably isn't in 2022. 

Sam is clearly not a franchise QB but he might be a bridge QB if we can protect him. Currently he would be on pace for 20 INT season, so I don't know how long we can do that without making a change. 

He can't control the dumpster fire of blocking in front of him, but he can control not making stupid throws to the wrong team. Perhaps we can get some upgrades in 2022 to the OL that will allow us to mitigate his history of poor decision making. 

It's hard to say, he might have David Carr Battered QB Syndrome after this season.

[glenwo2]

2 hours ago, mrcompletely11 said:

He has flaws for sure but I am not sure what option B would be going forward at this point.  I think its a must win in the sense we sure as hell dont want to be sitting on a 3 game losing streak.  That has to be a killer mentally with this team. 

Yeah he has flaws and you are right to be concerned.   But I will try to stay optimistic and believe the team will rise to the occasion Tomorrow and NOT suck (and win the game).   

For that to happen, though, Sam must NOT suck so "Paging Mr. Brady....you have Sam on Line 1...".   

Roll-outs, Bootlegs, anything to get him moving and not keeping him in one place where he would get annihilated by the O-Line's Turnstile Performers. .

(and stfu, kungfool)

Edited October 16, 2021 by glenwo2