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Year 3 of a total rebuild

royalshank

royalshank

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We should be a better team right now but instead we have regressed after 1.5 years of steady improvement. The most concerning thing to me is that we are doing things that bad teams do - things we didn’t see all of last year.

- Your no 1 pick Tackle from 2020 gets an illegal hands to the face penalty on 3rd down, negating a 30 yard chunk play - and kills the drive.

- After forcing a punt you go offsides during the punt play and it was 4th and 3.

- You get called for a face mask when it wasn’t a face mask. Only happens when you are bad.

- You kickoff out of bounds after scoring and still having a pulse.

- You have 63 net yards for the game on offense at some point in the third quarter.

- It takes you 4 plays to score from the 1 - two weeks in a row.

- You don’t get your best players involved in the offense until the 4th quarter for the 2nd week in a row.

- Your probowl kick returner muffs a punt.

- Your offense can’t make first downs - and when it does, penalties negate a lot of them.

When did we start beating ourselves? We didn’t in 2019 and 2020. Even when we were horrible to start 2019 it was more of a talent issue and everyone being new vs shooting selves in the foot. The way Flores coached prior to this year I thought we were building something sustainable. When you don’t beat yourself with unforced errors you are in most games. This season we make gobs of unforced errors each week. Why the regression?
 
Honestly I think the players know the offense blows and it's trickling down to the whole team. The whole team is just not buying in anymore and they are starting to mentally check out which leads to dumb mistakes. It's like what's the point of getting a turnover or making a great ST play when the offense is going to go 3 & and out? Sure the players are still trying, but it has to be in the back of their heads. It's all subconscious. They've mentally fallen apart. The talent on paper (besides the O-line) is better than 1-3. That's totally on coaching, especially the people calling the plays.

Everything goes together. Momentum can make everyone better, and this team has NEVER had it this season. We never had momentum against NE. We barely won on some fumbles. They looked like the better team the whole game.
 
Lilseb561 said:
Honestly I think the players know the offense blows and it's trickling down to the whole team. The whole team is just not buying in anymore and they are starting to mentally check out which leads to dumb mistakes. It's like what's the point of getting a turnover or making a great ST play when the offense is going to go 3 & and out? Sure the players are still trying, but it has to be in the back of their heads. It's all subconscious. They've mentally fallen apart. The talent on paper (besides the O-line) is better than 1-3. That's totally on coaching, especially the people calling the plays.

Everything goes together. Momentum can make everyone better, and this team has NEVER had it this season. We never had momentum against NE. We barely won on some fumbles. They looked like the better team the whole game.
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We were beat. Just had a lucky bounce go our way and we escaped with a W. That game was easily another loss.
 
In the first two years of rebuild we were vastly more creative. Fake punts, fake FGs, creative use of talent, crazy defensive alignments, etc. We don't seem to have any creativity left. The coaches seem to think we are now so good we don't have to try hard to beat other teams. Offensive preparations seem non-existent. Such a regression.
 
Heard tell Seiler had a dead nut sack but kinda let it go….in the 4th….

If these guys have checked out, I don’t blame em a bit. D did well the first half, kept getting the ball back for the O, only to go back out 3 plays later…tired and pissed.
 
DrMultimedia said:
In the first two years of rebuild we were vastly more creative. Fake punts, fake FGs, creative use of talent, crazy defensive alignments, etc. We don't seem to have any creativity left. The coaches seem to think we are now so good we don't have to try hard to beat other teams. Offensive preparations seem non-existent. Such a regression.
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Flores isn't as fiery and passionate anymore either. He looks like Adam Gase or Joe Philbin on the sidelines so far this season. Something is off.
 
Lilseb561 said:
Honestly I think the players know the offense blows and it's trickling down to the whole team. The whole team is just not buying in anymore and they are starting to mentally check out which leads to dumb mistakes. It's like what's the point of getting a turnover or making a great ST play when the offense is going to go 3 & and out? Sure the players are still trying, but it has to be in the back of their heads. It's all subconscious. They've mentally fallen apart. The talent on paper (besides the O-line) is better than 1-3. That's totally on coaching, especially the people calling the plays.

Everything goes together. Momentum can make everyone better, and this team has NEVER had it this season. We never had momentum against NE. We barely won on some fumbles. They looked like the better team the whole game.
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I definitely agree. I mean I'm 100 percent certain that's the case. But I also think the coaching staff's message is wearing thin. Of course that's predicated heavily on the offense. But its also the role that the coaching staff has played with offensive struggles. The narrative would be different if the biggest reason this team didn't make the playoffs last year was that it handicapped itself by playing the second best QB on the team for much of the year. Getting to the brink of the playoffs and then bowing out was a negative for this staff.
 
Sirspud said:
I definitely agree. I mean I'm 100 percent certain that's the case. But I also think the coaching staff's message is wearing thin. Of course that's predicated heavily on the offense. But its also the role that the coaching staff has played with offensive struggles. The narrative would be different if the biggest reason this team didn't make the playoffs last year was that it handicapped itself by playing the second best QB on the team for much of the year. Getting to the brink of the playoffs and then bowing out was a negative for this staff.
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It seems like in previous years this team had more more of a hunger and an aggressive mindset because there was no expectation. Flores wasn't afraid to do some trick plays and go for it on 4th down. People have reasonable playoff expectations for them this year, and now they play like are supposed to be a good team who is afraid to lose. They've lost that edge.
 
Lilseb561 said:
It seems like in previous years this team had more more of a hunger and an aggressive mindset because there was no expectation. Flores wasn't afraid to do some trick plays and go for it on 4th down. People have reasonable playoff expectations for them this year, and now they play like are supposed to be a good team who is afraid to lose. They've lost that edge.
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I've never put much stock in what any coach does when there is no expectation on them because they are playing with house money. All it takes is tightening a couple things or a play or two a game to go from bad to mediocre, we've not had a coach since Shula go from mediocre to good.
 
Sirspud said:
I've never put much stock in what any coach does when there is no expectation on them because they are playing with house money. All it takes is tightening a couple things or a play or two a game to go from bad to mediocre, we've not had a coach since Shula go from mediocre to good.
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Totally agree, but I think that plays a part in it. You keep that mindset even when you have expectations.
 
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