Can't tell the difference between this team and the last few years of Norb/AJ

[Lightningwill_420]

I almost think the worst thing that McCoy could have done was win 9 games his first year with that roster. That team vastly overachieved and the reality is we were probably about a 6 win team talent wise. Telesco has had to remake almost the entire roster over the past 2 years and 2 games and the harsh reality is we had so many holes and so many bad contracts that it killed us. It took a couple of years to clean up AJs mess and only now is when we are finally starting to see his team. We'd all like the Cowboys oline but that simply wasn't going to happen quickly in our situation. Having a QB like Rivers just hid the many flaws on the team. I do think we are a team on the upswing and if we don't get Rivers killed in the process will be fine over the next couple of years.

Bad contracts? Like Cox, Butler, and Brown. Yea, I know Gaither was worse - but we still have bad contracts that have nothing to do with AJ Smith. I'm guessing the new Liuget contract will also be one we wish we could get out of.

Winning is always good - that's never bad.

I don't think we overachieved McCoy's first year. I think we were right on par with our level of talent. Last year, we had the same record with even less talent than we did the year we supposedly overachieved. The first year, we had Mathews. Last year, we didn't. The first year, we had a guard and a center. Last year, we didn't.

And we were a 6-win team the first year under McCoy? So are you saying that same team overachieved under Norv? He never got as few as 6 wins, and he sucked.

Telesco gave us a left tackle and hopefully, with some luck with our health, a much, much better secondary. However, our biggest impact players - Rivers and Ingram - are still from the old regime.

[Den60]

My assessment:


1. Gordon looked good the first half. I missed the first 10 minutes of the game so I didn't see his early runs. But then he was pretty much out of the game plan the second half. I really don't think you want to make Woodhead a workhorse. He ain't a spring chicken.
2. Green can be a weapon on offense though his blocking is lacking.
3. The Chargers aren't going to win a lot of games scoring just two TDs.
4. The OL still sucks. This was supposed to be a priority when TT took over but I don't see much improvement here. If Rivers goes down for any significant time we will be looking up at the Raiders come the end of the year.
5. Take away Malcom Floyd and this passing games is just dink and dunk. Makes the field a bit smaller for the other team. The great majority of our offense is in front of the safeties.
6. The DL is soft, especially up the middle. You don't want Weddle being your leading tackler and he has been in both games so far.
7. Thank God for Andy Dalton or this game would not have been as close as it was. Hill gets an assist.
8. Turnovers. 3 each in the two games played this year for a -3 in TA/GA stats.
9. Our special teams are not so special.
10. No pass rush. 1 sack in 35 pass attempts (2.8%) versus 6 sacks in 56 Charger pass attempts (10.7%). The latter stat would translate to 61 sacks of our QB this year.
11. Flowers looks a bit slow.
13. I still think McCoy has limitations as a game day coach.

[Marshall/Boogie]

Bad contracts? Like Cox, Butler, and Brown. Yea, I know Gaither was worse - but we still have bad contracts that have nothing to do with AJ Smith. I'm guessing the new Liuget contract will also be one we wish we could get out of.

Winning is always good - that's never bad.

I don't think we overachieved McCoy's first year. I think we were right on par with our level of talent. Last year, we had the same record with even less talent than we did the year we supposedly overachieved. The first year, we had Mathews. Last year, we didn't. The first year, we had a guard and a center. Last year, we didn't.

And we were a 6-win team the first year under McCoy? So are you saying that same team overachieved under Norv? He never got as few as 6 wins, and he sucked.

Telesco gave us a left tackle and hopefully, with some luck with our health, a much, much better secondary. However, our biggest impact players - Rivers and Ingram - are still from the old regime.

No GM is gonna be perfect, and the ones considered "the best" don't approach it, either. Those GMs and their greatness is attached to one very special draft of theirs or a very special QB/player that their hat is hung on.

I can't remember what GM or former NFL guru said it, but in the interview he said something to the effect that if a GM hits around 50% of his personnel/draft decisions, he'll be amazing. (Not verbatim, but that's the gist of it).

I'm not apologizing for the Brown or the Cox or the Butler contract, but I think he'll learn and get better. And I'll call him out as well if those situations become more and more frequent. But I like the youth at both the GM and HC positions. I think they'll both get better. I think we have the potential for a special combo in them. There. I said it.

Besides, as s Bolt fan, patience isn't a virtue - it's a necessity.

[Wheels]

Dudes...put the gun down! We played two playoff caliber teams and are 1-1. We made a lot of mistakes and still was in this till the end in an away game. I expect inconsistent play by the lines. I did see some positives. We ran the pretty effectively. Cincy has a very strong D and we still put up some solid yards on them. We need to reduce the turnovers no doubt...Allens drop was just bad and cost us 7 after a solid stop by our D. Lambo needs to get his balls back and hit them like he was in PS.

We have 14 games to go....i didnt expect to be 2-0 against these opponents but we can compete with the better teams.

This is where I'm at right now. I watched that game and came away impressed with Cincy. I think they're a talented team with a lot of weapons on offense. I think Chargers and Cincy are about even, and we would've won at home. Tough loss on the road, but that's the breaks.

One thing I was really curious about was why Rivers fumble wasn't reviewed, seemed awfully close to the tuck rule for us too. The TV broadcast never really showed a clear replay of what happened, they just accepted fumble and moved along. The tuck rule is horrible though. Why should QB's get the benefit of the doubt when the defensive player hits him before the ball was released?

[Lightningwill_420]

No GM is gonna be perfect, and the ones considered "the best" don't approach it, either. Those GMs and their greatness is attached to one very special draft of theirs or a very special QB/player that their hat is hung on.

I can't remember what GM or former NFL guru said it, but in the interview he said something to the effect that if a GM hits around 50% of his personnel/draft decisions, he'll be amazing. (Not verbatim, but that's the gist of it).

I'm not apologizing for the Brown or the Cox or the Butler contract, but I think he'll learn and get better. And I'll call him out as well if those situations become more and more frequent. But I like the youth at both the GM and HC positions. I think they'll both get better. I think we have the potential for a special combo in them. There. I said it.

Besides, as s Bolt fan, patience isn't a virtue - it's a necessity.

Patience is no longer a virtue for me. We need to win this year or the last near-4 decades of fandom will have been for not.

So far, I don't have a good or bad opinion of Telesco or McCoy.

And why should I care how old our GM and coach are?

[Marshall/Boogie]

And why should I care how old our GM and coach are?

The youth thing is an opinion of mine, a generalization that may be right or may be wrong.

The generalization is that sometimes a younger, fresher set of eyes and brains may have a better chance to shake things up - in a good way - than a veteran: an old war horse that's been in an industry for a very long time. Maybe the older one is set in his ways a little bit too much and will less likely change if change is needed and be stubborn. In a lot of those cases, the person in question is the last one to see it. A bad trait in either HC or GM, imo.

Maybe I'm just a little ageist, but having a little more youth at these positions, where the average age is a bit older, gives me a little extra hope for the future.

[BoltBalls]

The biggest gripe I have with McCoy is his extremely conservative nature. It is predictable and doesn't inspire confidence to the team. Actions speak louder than words, and the most successful coaches in the NFL don't play conservative like that. They should have gone for more points at the end of the half. Other than that I think the team is definitely better than the last couple years with Norv. I still like Telesco and believe he will make the right personnel adjustments moving forward.

[richpjr]

The biggest gripe I have with McCoy is his extremely conservative nature. It is predictable and doesn't inspire confidence to the team. Actions speak louder than words, and the most successful coaches in the NFL don't play conservative like that. They should have gone for more points at the end of the half. Other than that I think the team is definitely better than the last couple years with Norv. I still like Telesco and believe he will make the right personnel adjustments moving forward.

I don't nearly have the problem with the end of the half as some others, or some of McCoy's previous conservative calls. They were punting from the 45 so an even average punt pins us deep with a long way to go in 40 seconds. We had already witnessed Allen fumble one punt and almost witnessed a strip/sack/TD fumble return against Dalton the other way around. Just don't see this as that terrible of a decision, especially with the way we were pass blocking in this game.

[Lightningwill_420]

I didn't mind that we didn't call time out. We didn't have the momentum; we already dropped a punt. It was more likely we would fumble the punt and have the Bengals score than it was we were going to go 80 yards for a TD in a minute.

[TTK]

I don't nearly have the problem with the end of the half as some others, or some of McCoy's previous conservative calls. They were punting from the 45 so an even average punt pins us deep with a long way to go in 40 seconds. We had already witnessed Allen fumble one punt and almost witnessed a strip/sack/TD fumble return against Dalton the other way around. Just don't see this as that terrible of a decision, especially with the way we were pass blocking in this game.

I agree. I just posted this in another thread but it's appropriate here as well:

Hardwick had a good explanation defending McCoy at the end of the half. Basically, the Chargers couldn't make any chunk plays so it was a good idea just to regroup at halftime and make adjustments. And they wound up scoring on the 2nd half kickoff.

That being said, I would have liked to see the timeout called anyway. Go for a blocked punt or hope for a bad snap or something. If nothing happens, just take a knee at that point. What do you have to lose?

[KYBoltsFan]

Despite the turnovers, penalties and sloppiness, we had the ball with plenty of time + a timeout and a chance to win the game vs a playoff team on the road (who were also out to get us after we beat them there in playoffs a couple years ago; trust me it was all over the local radio there). I don't think its time to hit the panic button.

If you want to see a team that looks like the last few Norv years, see Indy.

[Boltx]

My assessment:


1. Gordon looked good the first half. I missed the first 10 minutes of the game so I didn't see his early runs. But then he was pretty much out of the game plan the second half. I really don't think you want to make Woodhead a workhorse. He ain't a spring chicken.
2. Green can be a weapon on offense though his blocking is lacking.
3. The Chargers aren't going to win a lot of games scoring just two TDs.
4. The OL still sucks. This was supposed to be a priority when TT took over but I don't see much improvement here. If Rivers goes down for any significant time we will be looking up at the Raiders come the end of the year.
5. Take away Malcom Floyd and this passing games is just dink and dunk. Makes the field a bit smaller for the other team. The great majority of our offense is in front of the safeties.
6. The DL is soft, especially up the middle. You don't want Weddle being your leading tackler and he has been in both games so far.
7. Thank God for Andy Dalton or this game would not have been as close as it was. Hill gets an assist.
8. Turnovers. 3 each in the two games played this year for a -3 in TA/GA stats.
9. Our special teams are not so special.
10. No pass rush. 1 sack in 35 pass attempts (2.8%) versus 6 sacks in 56 Charger pass attempts (10.7%). The latter stat would translate to 61 sacks of our QB this year.
11. Flowers looks a bit slow.
13. I still think McCoy has limitations as a game day coach.

Pretty good take.

The sad part is that you could have posted this same message anytime from 2010-today and nobody would know what year you were talking about.