The Latest ScapeGoat

[twylyght]

Everyone is piling onto the Clausen-bashing bandwagon. I've seen thoughtful posts from Rayzor, Mr. Scott, and others on the matter, but the vast majority of people are now chalking this up to "chemistry" and how unlikeable Clausen is.

When you lose this badly, that's what happens. Is Clausen playing badly? From what I can tell, he is half-bad/half-good when he actually gets a chance to be a QB rather than try to find a way out of a quickly collapsing pocket. He's a rookie in a poo situation. What is with the crazy expectations otherwise?

What kills me more than anything is this talk of Smith just railing on the QB with no one on the coaching staff looking to intervene. For a long time now, Smith has gotten away with some despicable poo on this team and come out being praised.

If half of what I'm hearing is true, the person acting like a braggadocious brat is Smith, not Clausen. The kid is a rookie, and he takes his queue from the veterans. From what I've seen, Clausen has tried to handle himself with poise and class. Rather than keep it in the locker room about apologizing to Beason rather than his own huddle, why doesn't Smith pull up a chair to the grown-up table and keep it in-house? Maybe Clausen can't get a foothold in the huddle because a certain professional can't find a way to be a professional and get behind his teammate. I could see that crap happening in the Delhomme years and would explain him get force-fed in quadrouple coverage just to get him to stfu in the huddle.

The scenario I just posted is every bit as plausible as what everyone else is claiming. Yeah, it's obvious that Smith gets away with what he does because of the talent he used to showcase. I could see how a journeyman with nothing-to-lose could handle the situation better than a rookie QB trying to make his way.

I still have yet to see anyone just explain away not having 3 seconds to pull the trigger on a designed play for the majority of snaps. Everyone's gearing up for the Luck bandwagon. I get it.

Mark my words though. If we don't get the OLine pass protection corrected, these same civilized huddlers will be eating their young all over again when we are playing next season.

[Mr. Scot]

You may be right, but even if you are it may not matter.

David Carr was pretty well ruined early on in Houston. Yeah, it wasn't all his fault, though he had to bear some blame too.

Practical reality though was that the team had to move on.

[cookinbrak]

No one person lost us 12 games (not a player, anyway).

[Mr. Scot]

It's impossible to know what Clausen could have been had he been able to sit a year, or if we had a more WCO type of approach, or if the offensive line didn't have so many issues, or if...etc, etc.

[Jangler]

Who really knows. Clausen was thrown into a poo storm. And is just trying to play 3 more weeks. Maybe he is mentally tough enough to put this season behind him and not let it bother him. Will the new Coach and staff see this and give him another season? If that number one pick is ours and Luck is sitting there, I can't see the new coach passing on that opportunity. I have a feeling Clausen is on his way out of Carolina.

[SorthNarolina]

I think starting around the 1st bucs game I was going to start judging Clausen harsher. I would have judged him during the Ravens game but he had the concussion.

Really he's thrown a very pretty ball at times and it brings up the cliche that he "can make all the throws".

Right now it's hard to evaluate him due to certain factors but there are some things that are charles barkely levels of turrible.

I really hope Luck is the pick.

[Brooklyn Bully]

ANOTHER Clausen thread? Jesus. Sure, this one is to call out all the immature bashers, but it's only going to attract them.

[twylyght]

You may be right, but even if you are it may not matter.

David Carr was pretty well ruined early on in Houston. Yeah, it wasn't all his fault, though he had to bear some blame too.

Practical reality though was that the team had to move on.

My thought is this though. If we don't address these issues, why would we expect anything different next year?

Honestly, at this point, I would not be crushed to see Smith take his act to another team in the offseason. Like Delhomme and Peppers, I think this could be addition by subtraction. Then again, I think the right coaching staff would have taken care of this issue long ago. Perhaps a new cast of characters will provide some spark thought to be a lost cause.

[Proudiddy]

Franchise QBs make their teams better, crappy OL included. I just don't understand the need to stick up for him. He gets paid like everyone else, he's just not as good at his job. Regardless of how we feel, IF he is successful, it won't be here.

What is so hard about accepting that he has failed here. Who cares how it has happened, the experiment has failed.

[twylyght]

Franchise QBs make their teams better, crappy OL included. I just don't understand the need to stick up for him. He gets paid like everyone else, he's just not as good at his job. Regardless of how we feel, IF he is successful, it won't be here.

What is so hard about accepting that he has failed here. Who cares how it has happened, the experiment has failed.

What are you going to do when we get ANOTHER QB in here that is failing for the SAME reasons?

[AceMan]

My thought is this though. If we don't address these issues, why would we expect anything different next year?

Honestly, at this point, I would not be crushed to see Smith take his act to another team in the offseason. Like Delhomme and Peppers, I think this could be addition by subtraction. Then again, I think the right coaching staff would have taken care of this issue long ago. Perhaps a new cast of characters will provide some spark thought to be a lost cause.

Bolded is more like just subtraction.

We all knew Clausen getting "David Carr'ed" would be a strong possibly this year.

[Proudiddy]

What are you going to do when we get ANOTHER QB in here that is failing for the SAME reasons?

I don't see that happening. If Clausen is failing because of these 'reasons' he's soft. I've found in sports, that if a guy doesn't stand up for himself, a coach isn't going to do it for him. If a guy is accountable through the good and the bad, others will respect that.

Jake had his faults, but look at how often he would go to the press and take accountability for what he did wrong. We've hardly heard anything from Jimmy through his struggles. Even the report in the Boston paper recently about him trying to avoid the Luck pick was him talking himself up.

It just appears he hasn't been accountable or humbled for how badly he's performed.

I understand that a alpha male personality like Smitty's can be intimidating to a young guy, but if Jimmy was a franchise QB, do you think he would've folded underneath him? During games, he just seems to have a "I'm just along for the ride" attitude. Problem is, he's been trained to be "the guy" since he was a kid. So what happened?

Take Peyton Manning as a rookie. Phillip Rivers. Michael Vick. Tom Brady. Put them as rookies in there with Smitty and a less than "invested" coaching staff, and I bet you those guys would still turn out relatively close to where they are now. It's in their personality, it's part of their make-up. So, Clausen is just proving that he isn't one of those guys IMO.

They are all fiery and competitive, and I think that makes a huge difference.

[twylyght]

....

Jake had his faults, but look at how often he would go to the press and take accountability for what he did wrong. We've hardly heard anything from Jimmy through his struggles. Even the report in the Boston paper recently about him trying to avoid the Luck pick was him talking himself up.

It just appears he hasn't been accountable or humbled for how badly he's performed.

I understand that a alpha male personality like Smitty's can be intimidating to a young guy, but if Jimmy was a franchise QB, do you think he would've folded underneath him? During games, he just seems to have a "I'm just along for the ride" attitude. Problem is, he's been trained to be "the guy" since he was a kid. So what happened?

...

I've seen nothing but accountability and earnestness from Clausen in his post-game interviews and anywhere else for that matter. The fact that he continues to get up after every OLine breakdown should speak to his heart.

As for Smith and the Alpha male being intimidating... he needs to man up and be the leader or stfu and let those who will lead instead of complain take the reins. If my perception of him is right, I would have jerked his ass out of the game long ago.

[Mr. Scot]

What are you going to do when we get ANOTHER QB in here that is failing for the SAME reasons?

We're looking at an entirely different staff though.

Let's say you're a team official, and you come to the realization that Clausen's issues are more the team's fault than his.

Do you try to fix him, or do you cut bait?

Keep in mind, it's your job in this role to build the best team more so than it is to look after individual players.