I have heard talk about Belichick being fired, which I have dismissed. However, after the last two weeks, there is a dire situation the the Belichick and the Patriots that I think is a real possibility.
I’m talking about Belichick losing the team. The idea is unimaginable. Indeed, after the first two weeks, I picked the Patriots as a dark horse team, even though they didn’t win. But my position was based on the belief that the ball security would improve. It hasn’t. Equally bad is that ever since Christian Gonzalez was lost for the season, the defense has not looked good. Now, if this was the first year of struggle, I wouldn’t worry, but this has been several bad seasons for Belichick and the Pats. The two really big losses is something that could cause the players to lose faith in Belichick. Additionally, I’ve always felt the Belichick’s approach was contingent on winning. That is the players would put up with him, as long as they continued to win. Not only are they not winning, but they’re losing badly. It’s not conceivable to me that the players could lose faith in Belichick and tune him out. Belichick and the team would be in serious trouble at that point.
Seahawks@Bengals
I hate the style of both offenses, but I think it’s more viable for the Bengals. Geno didn’t have a good game, but I tend to put more blame on the inability to run the ball (especially from the shotgun), and the play calling–more shotgun and more one-dimensional.
The silver-lining was the Seahawk defense. They really clamped down in the second half.
49ers@Browns
Well, the 49ers offense can be stopped. You just need a dominant defense. Also, don’t allow the Niners to get a big league, and hope they have negative plays. If the 49ers have to pass a lot, especially on long yardage situations, they’re vulnerable.
Browns defense, especially their front seven–looked very strong–it had to be given that the Browns offense wasn’t very good. PJ Walker had two INTs as well, and almost threw a third one that would have ended the game.
Patriots@Raiders
Patriots are among the worst teams in the league, and I’ve never seen a Belichick team play this badly. It’s not just the ineffectiveness, but the mistakes and turnovers. The Raiders weren’t especially good. They also had to play with Brian Hoyer at QB, and they still won this game.
My sense is that last week was a critical game for the Patriots. If they didn’t turn things around, the season would be lost. That’s what it seems like now. Depending on their remaining opponents, it wouldn’t surprise me if they won only 4-5 games.
The Ringer guys said Geno played well. They said his receivers weren’t getting open. The Ringer guys love Big Lou (Anarumo), the DC for the Bengals. They said he was running various stuff at the end of the game which made Geno hold the ball longer than he wanted to.
Playing well goes too far, especially since he threw 2 INTs (and could have had one or two more). But I put more of the blame on Waldron. As an example, someone mentioned that the last four possessions the Hawks passed 22 times and ran it 3 times. On the second to the last possession, the ran the ball on the first play and then passed 9 in a row. And they’re doing this in a way me. If the Hawks had a way better OL (they’re still missing their two starters) or they had a QB like Mahomes, Allen, Burrow (or even Russ in his prime), maybe this would work. Geno is good, but he’s not like those QBs.
On side note, I feel nurturing both the passing and run games, while also using one to set up the other is difficult and an entirely different approach than just attacking an opponent with the passing game (like the run-and-shoot or Air Raid). I guess that’s obvious, but I’m not sure fans know when one is happening versus the other.
(By the way, Ken Dorsey, the Bills OC, employed the more run-and-shoot approach, but not this year. The Bills are making a concerted effort to involve the run game in a more balanced way. I think Kellen Moore has done this a little as well, although he still seems not to like having the QB under center very much. My understanding is that Todd Monken, the Ravens OC, was more of “run-and-shoot” guy, but I’m impressed by the balance of their attack.)
Cowboys@Chargers
Both DLs seemed to have the upper hand for most of the game. The pass rush seemed to really affect Herbert’s throws, more than the pass rush pressure affected Prescott. Maybe the best Prescott’s looked this season.
Dallas’ run game sucks. I was blaming the o-line especially when there were rookies playing, but now I really believe it’s the system. The inside hand-off from shot gun is not working. When you see that play work, the offense usually has four wideouts and everyone is spread or there is some kind of read option where the edges have to stay home to protect against the QB running. The Cowboys run game is none of that.
The Cowboys defense dominated for good portions of the game. And it wasn’t the usual front seven who only had one sack, but it must have been the DBs playing well. Herbert had more time to throw than any other QB the Cowboys faced this year so far. He was getting pressured, but not like some of the other teams.
I agree Dak looked better in this one despite being under pressure some. I didn’t see the quick throws in this game which I thought was McCarthy big change to the offense. I’m not saying that’s a good thing, because I like some of the timing things the Cowboys ran early on this season.
My sense was that the Cowboys need better RBs, and I thought this would really come back to haunt them. However, for this game, I’d blame the OL. It wasn’t just in run-blocking as well. I don’t know if the Chargers front seven is fully healthy, but this is the best I’ve seen from them.
But it the pressure was pretty intense. It really seemed to affect his throws, even when he wasn’t pressured heavily. In the way the Chargers front seven won the battle in the trenches, I’d say the same about the Cowboys front seven.
There were a enough of those slants that made me think of the Packer offenses (when Jordy Nelson was healthy).
What was the deal with the Cowboys gunner on the punt–pulling a Leon Lett? Also, on Pollard long run, I thought if he veered to his left, away from the nearest defender, he could have gotten in the end zone. Seemed odd he didn’t do that.