alright just stream of consciousness on the state of this team

we looked and played like **** tonight. no hiding that and what's worse is it was a primetime game. but we arent as bad as we looked today. sp tms yes but not the whole team and the whole team played bad tonight. what are our problems heading into the bye week?

1) special teams. i cant even begin to describe how bad we are here. this is past the point of acceptance. john bonamego has to go. i dont know whether we have someone to replace him this year but he's gotta be ditched in the offseason at the very least and i mean the very least. if darren rizzi has any potential or if there is some veteran out there unemployed, bonamego has to be fired now. he is flat out clueless. we suck in all phases. all. its mind boggling how much we need to fix

2) special teams. i cant even begin to describe how bad we are here. this is past the point of acceptance. john bonamego has to go. i dont know whether we have someone to replace him this year but he's gotta be ditched in the offseason at the very least and i mean the very least. if darren rizzi has any potential or if there is some veteran out there unemployed, bonamego has to be fired now. he is flat out clueless. we suck in all phases. all. its mind boggling how much we need to fix

3) special teams - well you get the point

4) run defense - this might actually improve. dansby is fine but dobbins is a bust (unless he's hurt). the thing is crowder should be back after the bye. i think we improve dramatically when that happens

5) odrick and mcdaniel returning should also help us in not only the run defense but the pass pressure. we need to improve the pass pressure slightly. its decent but a little more would help us immensely and possibly force some errant throws

6) jason allen needs to get better cleats. he is the target out there. noone is going after vontae. they are attacking jason. he's doing ok for a number 2 overall but he's having some issues with taking bad angles and then slipping when he makes hard cuts. either improve your angles or get better cleats but you cant be falling down as much as you have been or sean smith will make his return. clemons is fine. bell could be better

7) offensive line improved tonight and will get better as we keep playing. plus john jerry is coming back which will help immensely.

8) henne has to go back to playing safe and throwing the ball away when necessary. he had his craptastic game of the year. you can only have one more of these disasters so save it for the end of the season. you're going to see coverages that confuse you. let the play develop as much as you feel comfortable and if the rush is getting there and the receiver didnt get open throw it away rather than trying to force it in.

9) this was the first game i got a bit upset with henning but not for the reasons everyone else is. i'm upset because we didnt run enough. your first instsinct was that henne wasnt ready to have the game on his shoulders and we should be a run first team. against the jets we had to throw but against new england we couldve run but chose to pass. anytime we can run we must run heavy. put the game in the hands of our running backs and only as a last resort put it in the hands of henne. he will have his games where he will have to pass but limit those to only the necessary ones.

i said before the game that gm 4 wasnt that important. because we lost, game 5 just became a must win. the packers have a weak offensive line and no running game. we need to keep it that way and force them into bad throws. we need to beat the packers. we beat the packers and we stop the bleeding and we are right back in it, probably one game back. we lose it and our season starts slipping away. i want to go into the pittsburgh game with confidence, not questions

so to summarize.....special teams

 

well at least steps have been taken to improve gripes number 1,2,3

 

and number 3. :lol: i was trying to make a point

 

true. my gripe was the interceptions and getting back to throwing it away in those situations instead of forcing it. i think one of the ways to protect henne and our teams chances for winning is dialing down the attempts. we know he can wing it but the more attempts the greater likelihood for picks. henne seems to do best with about 20 pass attempts. when we can run effectively to limit his attempts to that number he tends to play error free relatively speaking

 

:lol: went right by me. damn.

i agree. when we are the run first, punch you in the mouth, play action offense, Henne shines. When we force him to become Marino he makes mistakes. Dont get me wrong he can throw and maybe in a year we will be able to put the ball in his hands and tell him to win it for us by himself. but at this stage he needs to have the running game working for him

 

i think his problem is he doesnt do well when he's confused by the coverage. i think that will improve as he gains experience and sees all the tricks and coverages thrown at him. i dont think he's the type of qb that can improvise well so he's going to have to be smarter and well prepared in his career. that means experience is going to be more important for him. thats my take on him. hope i'm right

 

not coverages confuse him, just coverages that he's not expecting :lol: when he sees something he didnt expect pre snap it seems like he panics or freezes a bit. this is not a fatal flaw by any means. as he plays and gets more experience he will become familiar with all the tricks a defense can do and he seems to be a damn good QB when he knows what to expect