Agreed. Offense wasn't great by any stretch. But when you're playing for a spot in the playoffs on a cold and windy day against a mediocre team with 1 true offensive weapon, giving up 22 points is inexcusable. Especially if the defense is supposed to be the strength of the team. 17 points should've been enough to win a game like yesterday's IMO. Defense put em behind early, changing the offensive gameplan , and ultimately cost them the game by letting Buffalo sustain time consuming drive after time consuming drive.
This is an excellent post right here. I feel the same way. And for the same reason I hope the offensive core is back: Fitz, Mangold, Marshall and Decker. With Harris on D, these guys are professionals who set the tone for the whole club.
During the offseason I hope Fitz continues his comraderie with Dec and Marshall Maybe next season starts with a roar like the Panthers, angry and hungary We get depth at running back, offen line and linebackers . Watch out Ugh the offseason is here ...I can imagine the threads going marching thru the wasteland till DRaft Day Depressed
That's the thing though, how many upper echelon QB's are in the AFC playoffs this year besides Brady - or would have been if we'd kept Ben out anyway? McCarron/Dalton with a bad hand? Hoyer? Alex Smith and the rotting corpse of Peyton is stretching it. And not every defense that has gone on a Super Bowl run was great, the Colts, Saints, Steelers and Packers of recent vintage weren't great defenses by any stretch. For the most part they were turnover opportunistic. And there's players that get passed on every year that get taken 3-4 spots later. 3-4 spots is only a big deal in hindsight when people know which players get taken within five spots of them, there's still plenty of good players available in the draft whether you're picking at 10, 15, 20 or 25. The only time I care about draft position is when there's a potential franchise QB up for grabs. Last year we were supposed to have the sixth pick in a five player top tier draft until voila, one of the top five tier fell to us. The Bills trading for Sammy Watkins looks fine in hindsight except when you realize they could have had Beckham just by staying put without giving up picks. It's just not realistic to me to have no expectations at all. It's having UNREALISTIC expectations that's not healthy.
There are two upper echelon QBs in the AFC playoffs...Brady and Rothlisberger. That's all it takes. Notice that I didn't say anything about having a great defense. I said a great pass rush. Big difference. Both NE and and the Steelers have a good pass rush. That's how the Giants won 2 SBs. Eli has elite talent, and seldom plays at that level, but in those two years he did, and the Giants had a strong pass rush. The Packers have had a great pass rush. I think the Saints did the year they won as well. Yes there are some players that get passed on every year, but those are the exceptions, not the rule. They're not only a big deal in hindsight. That's ridiculous. To a GM making the pick it's huge. You can't draft a player that's already taken. Depending on the round, you can sometimes still get a player who is the BPA and who also fills a big need. Look at the Jets in the draft this year. They were drafting #6. If they had been drafting #2 they could have drafted Marcus Mariota, Dante Fowler, Amari Cooper, Brandon Scherff or Leonard Williams. If they truly had Williams rated as the BPA, they probably would have taken him, but they may have just said that and may have had Mariota rated higher. Even if they didn't, with the difference in importance between the QB positions and DL positions, they could have taken Mariota. In the 2nd round, they may have had Donovan Smith or TJ Yeldon rated higher than Devin Smith. In the 3rd round, they could have taken either OG A.J. Cann or OG Jeremiah Poutasi, or could have taken WR Tyler Lockett instead of Devin Smith. In the 4th round, they wouldn't have had to trade up for Petty if they wanted him over DE Trey Flowers or OG Daryl Williams. They could have then taken a player with the 7th round pick they traded to move up. That could have created a dramatically different draft, that not only could have dramatically impacted this season, but every season for the next 3-8 years. That's just one draft. Just because you don't care about draft position doesn't mean that GMs don't. Perhaps I am more jaded, and I get how it will come across that way to others, but you know what? I'm actually happier, more positive, more optimistic about the team, and enjoyed the season more than I have in years. Would it be that way if Mac hadn't made the moves he had and had Bowles not been hired? Perhaps not. Even with my mindset to have no expectations, I might have been more frustrated with the loss yesterday than I am and be as upset as some posters are, but I don't think so. I have to say that I'm enjoying this all much more than I used to.
And one of them wouldn't have made the playoffs if we had. So it would have been Brady who we just beat and a whole bunch of guys who are just as big a ? as Fitz. That example is why I added the caveat the only time draft position matters to me is when a franchise QB is involved. Obviously higher draft position increases odds of getting a good player/player you want in general but not by anywhere near as big a margin as you're portraying.
I've never understood why it is a coaches job to motivate players. Players themselves should be motivated. Coaches job is to instill a game plan and coach the players, not hype them up. Which is why I also never understood the "had the players ready to play." Do you really think Bowles didn't do anything he hasn't done the past 4 weeks that "had the team ready to play?" I don't. I just think on this day our players didn't execute.
To me motivation and having your guys prepared to play are two separate things. Not many pro players are going to get motivated by what another adult says to them. Just the way players are these days. More than half the Jets team has already forgotten about the loss. Every Jets fan is still miserable. Just the way it is. But back to the game. A good gameplan and instilling some confidence in a player before a big game can go a long way into how that players performs that day. It's clear that Bowles isn't the rah-rah guy that Rex is, and that's fine. And obviously Rex's defenses had their own issues with not always showing up for games. But 90 percent of the loss was on the gameplan. Only 10 with preparation. The adjustments that Bowles has made in the past were not made in this game. And I'm still wondering why.
While I agree that players should be motivated on their own, there's a lot of things we humans should do, that we don't. How could it not be part of their responsibility/job? Some players don't even like the game that much and just play because it's a way in which they can make a lot of money quickly. Because of that, they don't really care whether they win or lose. We aren't automatons or robots. Our moods and attitudes can make a huge impact on what happens, and can be the difference between winning and losing. Coaches motivating players is part of the lore of the game ("Win one for the Gipper"), and the game itself. It gives teams with lesser talent hope and an ability to win games that they normally shouldn't be able to win. Part of coaching is getting the best out of your players. If a coach can gain an extra edge for his team by simply saying the right things, pushing the right psychological buttons, why not do it? Sometimes players who are tired, or who are slightly injured may not want to play or play as hard. The coach can push them to go beyond themselves, to push through the tiredness, the pain and overcome. Some people are less confident, more negative, and perhaps quicker to give up hope when the chips are down. At that point, they need someone pushing them to keep believing, keep working hard, to focus more, to not quit.
i would take that if it was on the back of a young team. but out core is all guys in their 30's. not a ton to build on long term. this team needed to make the playoffs
