If Delhomme were healthy this year....

I'd say we'd be a bit better and would have won (or at least have been more competitive) some of the closer games.

 

There was only one close game that we lost.

 

If we'd have had a little offense vs Tenn we might have pulled that one off considering how many times Tenn turned it over.

 

Collin - nobody is saying we'd be "world beaters" with Jake. 7-6 (which is what most of us are predicting) is not setting the world on fire, and I was hoping for much better coming into the season.

We are a flawed team. Nobody disputes that. I personally just feel that continuity at the QB position would have gone a long way to landing an extra win or two.

 

well, it would undoubtedly improve the offense. The things we did against AZ, and early against Indy, were nice. Showed the offense had more to put in that they couldn't, and then had to back off after each to make things simple. Don't know how it would've shaken things out, or whether it would've meant wins or not. He started hotter than he ever had, and I don't expect that would've held constant, but it was a good sign. At this point, it'd have been nice to "just have Smitty and Jake". And an inconsistent but stable run game. That's what we had in 2005, and while Piper's right that it masked a lot of problems that ended up showing in 2006, it's a start. I'd take it over what we have.

 

Again, there was only one close game this year that we lost.


strat:
The pressure Tennessee was generating would have made it the Chicago game all over again. Carr taking sacks is still better than throwing the ball up for an easy pick 6.

 

just reading through this thread, this is all totally speculation. my gut feeling says we would probably only win 3 more games with jake at this point. but, you couldn't convince anyone that a jake led team could make the superbowl. yet this team has done it before. without anything resembling decent qb play this year we've had some success running the ball. i've got to think that jake has proven with an ample running game he's thrived. the year we started 1-7, jake was playing out of his mind when goings started piling up yards. i'm not saying this WOULD have happened. but to say it WOULD NOT would be just as foolish. that 1-7 team was going nowhere and then they just clicked.

that being said, with the schedule we have down the stretch, i don't think this team would have done much more.

i just hate playing the what if game so much. having jake playing there would be no excuses and we would know if this team truly were heading in the right direction.

the offense has definitely struggled but i'll give jake credit for getting 7 td's in 2.5 games. the last td against houston was garbage time and it was all smitty. the other two games jake had 5 td's in close games. miles and miles ahead of what we've seen out of our other 3 qb's. i'd kill for one of our current qb's to have 5 td's in two games.

 

Unfortunately, we'll not have the chance to know. But Haynesworth is a badass for sure and their D was really playing well with him in there.