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The NFL is a crazy place this season. For instance, you have winless Oakland shocking KC. Seattle stomping a hole in the Cardinals. Fish giving Denver all they can handle. Buffalo being buried under an insane amount of snow…this truly is an “any given Sunday” league this year.
Hell, let’s look at the division we just played against- the Falcons, the team we just beat, are leading their division with a 4-7 record, while the Browns have the exact opposite record…tied for third (or is it second?)…this might be the maddest season ever folks.
But it boils down to two things- talent and play calling. And in watching our team this season, I’ve seen moments of pure brilliance and athleticism, followed up by stupid play calling, poor clock management, dumb throws, clumsiness, and just plain bad football.
So my question is simple- is this team, with the way we are playing football, with all of our deficiencies and strengths, with the big injuries we’ve had to our big name guys, yet getting one of our key playmakers back…do you think we have a shot to strike deep into the post-season, maybe even into the Promised Land itself?
Are we good enough?
Awesome post. My answer is that we have the talent to move past the first round of the playoffs, but I don’t think this is the year we do it. One thing the great teams have that we don’t have is consistency. Until we can put solid performances together all season, beat ALL the teams we’re supposed to beat and give all the best teams a hell of a battle, we won’t be getting to the promised land. Until the Bengals game our offense and defense had not both had a great game in the SAME game.
Injuries are as bad this season as I can ever remember. Our best players are dropping like flies. The chips are stacked against us. Can we do some damage in the playoffs? Sure, but it will take consistently good performances on both sides of the ball.
Yes, we are good enough talent wise. The issue is play calling. (I just made a situational play calling post). For instance- 1st and goal from the 6 when your starter has 7.3 YPC for 3 and 3/4 of the game. On the drive you’ve had 2 RBs combine for 10, 18 and 20 yard runs. Clock is under 5 minutes. There’s only one acceptable play call in that situation. That’s to hand the ball off. Our issue this is year is situational play calling. Believing the ESPN hype that you have to throw a bunch of TDs. If Shanny can remove that “5 minutes left – we have to pass a lot now even though we have a lead and they can’t stop the run” mentality – we can take it all. Any given Sunday.
Freedom!!!
No we are not good enough.
That’s how I read Ice and Soup’s posts….and its how I feel.
To me, in order to win consistently, the talent has to be ON THE FIELD *AND* the coaching has to be right.
Injuries are severely limiting the talent we can put on the field.
Inexperience is keeping the coaching from ‘being right’
With that said, this team is fun…..and could be an indicator of some very good times in the coming seasons. I didn’t expect us to be 7-4 at this point (although I would contend that we are playing some weak competition outside of our division). So, I am enjoying this season. Will I be disappointed if we don’t get to the playoffs? Yup…will I be happy that I was in the position to be disappointed? Yup. 🙂
I think we will learn over the next 6 weeks this team has lack of leadership – guys this isn’t a bad thing and will come with time.
Anyways you look at it this season has been successful. Players not giving up. Guys playing their asses off. We have so many injuries it is sickening.
Hue Jackson is a loser.
Not good enough… this year. But if we had every player from this team back next year (healthy) and added a few nice additions in the offseason we’d be set for a deep playoff run.
I have to say, I expected no more than 7 wins this season (pretty much a standard with a new coaching staff). By week 3, my expectations went up by two wins. And now?
I see us reaching the playoffs.
But this team has to hit all cylinders at once for us to succeed. If we can do that, if we can play our game, keep the mistakes to a minimum, and face every opponent like they were all the Bengals…
I believe there’s maybe three teams that could beat us. And every one of them in the elite category.
Running the ball is what we do (@soup that makes me happy, too). Unfortunately, the Mack injury has really exploited a weakness that we’ve slowly recovered from. But when we play against tough defensive lines (think Texans), Shanny tends to move away from the run, put the game in Hoyer’s hands…and we seem to repeat the mistakes of the past. If we can stop that shit (hell, even waste a series or two doing nothing but exclusively pounding the ball) and just stick with our game plan…yeah, I believe we could beat anyone.
But this team (coaching staff included) has some maturing to do before we make it to the big one.
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