Not trying to throw shade at our impressive win. But, good teams win ugly ..... they win the close games .... they're consistently effective even when the players have a bad game. We've been laughably bad ........ and then impressive. This is not new. It is the same cycle in each of Coach Flo's seasons. Even when we were playing quite well, we faced a well-playing Buffalo and were horribly exposed.
Our defense couldn't dictate game play and we were routed .... as happens a lot. Our defense is not consistent .... just potentially good with nice stretches in the 50 to 80 portion of the season. Come game week 15-18 will we be good enough to nail down a playoff spot? Will we be able to keep this defense dominating good teams in the playoffs? I don't think so. Not sure I've seen real evidence of it so far at least. Even if we can keep our stars like X healthy for a playoff push (a big 'if'), then we're at the mercy of our defense to dominate ... because Tua's _still_ afraid to throw the intermediate passes.
Even the big play to Jalen Waddle only traveled 14 yards past the line of scrimmage in the air. Yep, 14 yards .... didn't even make the marker for an intermediate pass. Sure, Waddle is electric, and he _finally_ broke one long ... but that doesn't mean defenses need to fear our deep or even intermediate game. When good defenses clamp down .... we'll fold. IMHO, this team is not built for success offensively ...... and at the very least we can agree that it is not built for success yet. As you are, I'm hoping we can get this offense to the point where it can challenge against quality defenses. I'm hoping Tua can grow to challenge more of the field and open up the field for our RB's to do more than just change of pace stuff. I'm hoping we can establish an OL that allows Tua to throw deeper routes so we can take advantage of the skills of Parker (jump balls on the deep sidelines) and Gesicki (devastating seam routes), and the type of offense that punishes defenses who choose to lock down our short passing routes and overload the line of scrimmage. But .... at least so far .... we have no real evidence that this coaching staff can do that, even with massive investment in the offense in terms of draft picks and the endless churn of FA's.
I want to believe ... but when I analyze the data ... it doesn't add up. We've gained and spent a king's ransom of draft picks .... yet our roster is no more talented today than it was when we had the majestic Cam Wake walking our sidelines. This was supposed to be the birth of a dynasty of new talent that justified the horrible tanking and brutal rebuilding. Arguably, our best talent from that haul--Minkah Fitzpatrick and Laremy Tunsil--were both let go. Help me see how this is working .... because you always have a good eye for the positives, and I'm hoping I'm just missing them. I'm hoping we're on the cusp of dramatic and sustained improvement. I'm hoping we're going to see the vision promised when we brought in Coach Flo and the latest iteration of the Belichick coaching tree franchises around the NFL.