At this point I still disagree. The Colts are a playoff team andwe had them on the ropes and that includes that ridiculous 1st quarter. Same applies for Dallas who also looks like a playoff team. We had a chance. In fact, even against the Giants we were only down 7 in the 4th before the wheels fell off. I think all of that points to the fact that we have a good team albeit very thin. A great team it is not but no one expected that and you've got to be good before you can be great. AFC looks weak this year so playoffs are not out of the question yet.
They lost to, IMO, the best QB in football last night. Last week to a solid top-10 QB. If Foles doesn't turn it around (he currently has a worse QBR than Fitz), they don't face two better QBs again this year ... (except when, you know, they face Luck again). They're better than Ten, Cle and Jax - that's five games. And I don't think Pittsburgh or Baltimore are appreciably better than Dallas - that's seven winnable games remaining. And they get their far-and-away toughest match-ups (Eagles and Bengals) here. I'm not suggesting they're going to the playoffs... but I don't think 8+ wins is out of the question....
Hell I think 9 wins is still likely, that 10th win that would get them into the playoffs is going to be tricky though.
Yeah, I mean... last night was certainly frustrating. But I'm certainly encouraged by what we've seen so far. They have the far and away best defensive player in football who is single-handedly changing game outcomes; they have a finally healthy RB who ranks among the 3-4 best in football, and I've been (mostly) impressed with the coaching staff... They lost last week on a catch that might be the best I've ever seen, and last night after crawling back into a game most of us were starting to fear might be the largest TNF blow-out yet. They have issues (btw, among the things ranking higher than Fitz on last night's blame scale - how about the secondary tackling? Good night!) - but I think this has been.... not bad.
Also, TY Hilton is just the Texans kryponite, they just can't guard him, there was some crazy stat that said Luck's QB rating when throwing to TY Hilton last night was 150 something and it was 63 when throwing to everyone else. We simply didn't cover him all night long.
I still think we can win 8 or 9 games, but any hopes of winning the division died last night unless, for some reason, indy implodes. And I don't think 8 or 9 games is going to get us a wildcard. Oh well, it can still be considered a successful season if BOB wins 8 or 9 games a year after losing 14 in a row.
This. This is the biggest reason we lost and, if not rectified, will be the reason we don't make the playoffs. John Joseph was garbage all night long. Swag is more concerned with forcing fumbles than actually tackling a guy. God help Kareem if he can't even attempt to touch a guy when he is down after being completely roasted (Thankfully he accidentally nipped him with his thigh). AJ Bouye was our best player in the secondary last night. Good for him, but if that remains the case for the year, we are done.
Fitz is obviously a stop gap QB who is one or two game away from being benched. I'm more concerned about the inconsistency of the o-line and the lack of tackling by the secondary as you both noticed as well. They need to tackle lower and wrap them up, instead of always going for the big hit/big play.
The fact is that not a single unit has played a complete game and instead has had wild swings during the game and week to week. Offense has been mostly pedestrian but then will have a great quarters. Same for defense, look great and horrible in the same game. Last night STs was not good with that botched onside play and the missed FG. I mean seriously we need to fix those wild swings of performance. I'm hoping that is just due to the new coaching staff and that as the season goes along they will get more consistent. We've all seen the flashes from each unit and they can look very good.
I fully expect them to beat the Steelers next week then the Titans the week after that. The final week before the bye they get the Eagles which is another winnable game, then Cleveland after the bye. Going undefeated or 3-1 in their next 4 is very possible.
They can't guard speedy deep threats. It's baffled me that for 3-4 years now this has been the case yet more teams don't exploit it. The way to tear up the Texans is to keep going down the field on them. JJo and Kareem just can't hang and the safety help over the top is bad.
I'm a homer I think 10-6 is still reachable I looked at last night game . .. we won . . .every quarter i think except the first one Trying to figure out why we lost that one so badly Rocket River
No team is going to risk their QB standing in the pocket, waiting for their WR to run 30 yards, against a defense that features JJ Watt. He would blow the play to smithereens too often and you put your QB in harm's way. Having said that, Hilton is so incredibly fast that his 30 yards doesn't look like a lot of other 30 yards. I'm guessing Anotnion Brown is licking his lips...
