"They practice too"

One of those beauties from Foxy. But it's so true.

They practice too. You're just not gonna win them all.

I will say this much (and it's just an observation):

If there's a problem, John Fox will fix it.

That's not blind faith. That's been proven. Whenever there's a problem, John Fox will fix it. Might take a little longer than most of us would like, (hell, it took half the season in 2004) but it always gets fixed.

Lose three straight in 2003, come back and win six in a row.

Start 1-7 in 2004, win 6 of 8.

Get embarrassed by New Orleans week one. Come back and dominate the (healthy) defending world champs.

All teams (other than Indy) lose games. Tampa got hammered by Carolina back in November. They also lost to the Jets and 49ers. It happens.

Pittsburgh was left for dead, and they proceed to rush for 190 yards on the Bears defense.

Miami beat San Diego.

It happens.

Allright...I'm a hopeless homer. Whatever. I just can't justify writing off this season based Sunday's game. We got our asses handed to us. But they practice too.

 

It was what it was.

 

BTW...

Something about Proehl's comments, and the timing of them, make me feel very warm and fuzzy inside. It needed to be said, and it was.

Gotta stop treating Delhomme like a retard, even if he is. Gotta turn him loose, and to hell with the consequences. Waiting until late 4th to get a TD against Buffalo is bullshit. I don't care if there is no running game. If we sit around waiting for Jake to earn the trust of Henning again, we will be watching the playoffs from home.

You know what's been missing lately? Shotgun. No huddle, in obscure situations. We used to do that alot. It kinda saved our season this year after we got down 7-0 to NE. We go no huddle, get the deep sideline to Foster, and the deep ball down the hash to Proehl. It's like Henning decides that no matter if it would work or not, shotgun/hurry-up will only apply to certain games during the year. It's almost like a fucking video game glitch!!

 

It always is what it is.

 

"yeah but we put 34 pts. on a pretty good defense in November" - Coach Fox

 

Ah but the one thing I'm not sure he HAS fixed is inconsistency. I don't feel like this is the first time we've been that way during his tenure.

 

and it will become what it will become.

 

I agree. We are inconsistent.

But we are not as talented as we think we are. Defensively, we are as advertised.

Offensively, we have Smith. Foster is a beast, but inconsistent. Davis is average, at this point. Our right guard is Tutan Reyes, and our left tackle is Travelle Wharton. Rod Gardner is a non-factor. Colbert is average. Proehl is clutch, but under-utilized and average. Mangum is servicable. Seidman suddenly can't get off the bench, and Gaines is progressing, but still not the consistent threat at TE that I feel that Jake could use.

So, what are we? Unbalanced. Great #1 receiver, and a bunch of #3's behind him. A scrub at RG, and an average pass protector at LT.

With a good defense, no running game, and only one receiver that makes plays for a nervous quarterback with no consisitent pocket to throw out of, I would say that 9-4 is not that bad.

 

Fixed

 

I suppose the short of it would go something like this:

The better team on Sunday won. They scored more points, stopped us on 3rd down, converted their 3rd downs, and made all their field goals.

We didn't.

Hopefully, the Panthers can be the better team this Sunday.

And, Collin: I know this is not the X and O analysis that you crave, so don't take this thread too seriously.