Henning/Crossman

Don't think for a second that execution isn't a LARGE part of what I was getting at. While the play calling is vanilla, it's only amplified by the fact that we have guys that shouldn't be breaking a sweat on gameday starting on the O-line and a over-hyped under-achieving D with a dash of poor ST's play.

Top to bottom, inside/out...I am starting to think this organization is built to wallow in mediocrity. When they can't even do that, it's rather upsetting.

Then again, I could just have a case of the Bah-Humbugs...either way, the Panthers have looked like ASS for more consecutive weeks than I care to recall!

 

I don't believe that attacking whether someone is able to competently replace Henning dispels the criticisms against him. He's not so good as to have consistently put a good offense on the field. He's not immune.

I'm not suggesting he go, but ultimately, he's as responsible for the O as anyone besides Fox himself. And his relatively inflexible gameplans seem well suited to having great special teams and a very good defense, but right now, the goal should be to sustain drives, not set up big plays. And right now, if you put he and Trgovac on the block and weigh them on performance, Trgovac bests him. The crafty old veteran should be craftier.

I have to assume that everyone's on the same page there. Specifically, while I wish Hurney had any idea about talent evaluating, he admits he doesn't, so I have to assume that Hurney's being told what type lineman to get. I was actually surprised that Mathis and Montgomery were picks here - they're strong. Of course, they're not showing they're functionally strong right now.

As for blame, I'm not after that specifically. I don't want a direction to point a finger or a name to yell to be fired. I also don't expect much of it to happen. Any team game, where young guys and old guys all seem to fuck up too much, it goes from the player right up the line.

 

There really aren't better alternatives out there. Okay, maybe a few. But the end result is that, if it were to happen, it would have to come from JR or from Dan simply deciding to get out. Were that to happen, Skipper would almost cetainly assume the role, we'd get a new RBs coach, and we'd keep moving. It's not as if we'd get a young hotshot offensive mastermind, like Lane Kiffin or Tom Cable, add a technical QBs coach, and change philosophy.

I do believe that Skipper's method of attack would be a bit more complex, more interesting. Henning's stuff just isn't working that well at all right now, be it execution, playcalling, or being outschemed. I think, right now, it's a portion of all three, and in the end he answers to all of them. But I'm not against him returning, I just wish there were more arguments in his favor other than "needs more talent."

 

Saw Hankton mentioned and I'll add, he completely fuked up on the blocked punt. There was no one outside him to block the most outside dood, and the guy came up well before the snap. Hankton started to block in on the tackle, which was a double team because he ws blocked, and all the sudden relized his fukin man was running past him. He pulled off the initial block to go after the dood, but was beaten of course. Then he had to tackle the dood, which by the way, he still got a hand on it. Now, I don't know if that's coaching/assignments, but it was a mistake anyhow. A big fukin one on a supposed ACE vet special teams nearbout only player.

Want proof our gamplanning sucks?

OK howabout this one just for starters:

Every team we played this year which had an obvious deficiency at something, like terrible run stopping or terrible pass defense, well, we never exploited ANY of it. Bad run Ds held us to no rushing (when over the course of previous weeks looked like a sieve against mediocre teams in that area on O). Bad pass Ds held us to no passing worth mention (when over the course of previous weeks looked like they had no secondary against mediocre teams in that area on O).

Now I'm sure somebody if they try can look that up for most games and find the stats/prior stats opponent-wise, etc. I don't have the time, but I know it's true, and so do many of you.


Bottom line, I'm pissed and tired as hell of rehashing the same old shit after every game, nearbout, win or lose over the past 4-5 seasons of this regime.

 

We didn't exploit the Rams run defense?

 

wasn't he the guy who held on the fumble we had theoretically recovered, also?

He has to go. I saw some merit in him before, but I see absolutely none now.

We've had problems, it seems, exploiting weaknesses this year moreso than in the past, but either way, it seems like we still just do a certain number of basic things and we're going to run it regardless. I don't like that.

Of course, flipside of that, I don't like it when our D does exotic things when the D isn't executing well, because it's not going to be executed well. The difference is that our O can't get much more basic. We do a lot with formations with those basic plays, and I like that, but that only gets us so far.

 

there's one. We did that.

Philly's run D is three spots better. We didn't do that.

 

Sure, but I've repeatedly said that I'm fine with upgraded at OC if we can. What I object to is certain people constantly complaining about Henning when they really don't have the slightest clue about how an NFL offense should be run. It really is like the parents who come to high school games and yell for the coaches to be fired. Those people don't know what they're talking about, they're just using the coaches as an outlet for their frustrations. It's understandable, but that doesn't make it "right."

Overall there just isn't much difference in play-calling between what we did in 2003 and what we're doing now. Some people look at that and think we're not being innovative enough, but as the San Diego example showed, NFL offenses are generally not about being innovative, they're about executing well. If we do that, it works as well as it worked in '03.

Yeah, they definitely need a new face in there to save Fox from himself. His personnel decisions are driving me up the wall.

Then regarding Philadelphia, they were playing 8 in the box early in the game. Even so, we still ran 23 times for 108 yards. Maybe we should have run more, but it's not like we ignored it altogether.


Coach:
I understand where you're coming from, I do, but you have to understand that you have a misconception about the NFL. You think that offenses should adjust and change to attack weaknesses in a defense, but that's not the way most teams operate. Most teams focus on doing what they want to do, and then try to work within that framework to exploit weaknesses. Fans might think "Dude, that defense sucks against the pass so let's throw 50 times today!" but that's not the way it works. Similarly, you don't dictate your offensive gameplan based on the idea that an opposing defense sucks against the run. You try to do what you want to do, and then adjust off of that.

 

yeah

yeah thats what im saying.. im not saying change our whole plays week by week to go against a teams weakness.. we need to use what we run.. and then judge by what a team is weak against and run our stuff to pound their weakness.. but its like we do that for a while but we dont stick with it.. we go away from what was working.. thats the complaint i have.. there are some upgrades i think that can be made but its how much is those upgrades gonna cost

 

The argument stands on merit or doesn't, I agree, but it should be based on the merit.

I don't think that we should be calling the same stuff as 2003. It's a generality, but we should be able to know what we do well now. Granted, that may be nothing, at this point.

Some teams have, like with Seattle/SA/Jones/Hutchinson, something that works really well. I'd be better with the same group of plays over and over if they worked better. There's a balance there, between being able to establish something and trying new things, though.

I don't see this getting better, unfortunately. Fox has too much input, and flowers at Foster's bedside say JR does too.

true enough and rescinded.