05-02-2017, 07:36 PM
Quote:It's been clear for years that the team was underachieving under Bradley. They never beat a team that was more talented than they were and were only fortunate to get wins against teams with less talent on a seemingly random basis. In 2015 the team had marginal talent, but should have been able to get to .500 against the favorable schedule they faced, but they were consistently caught unprepared and ended up a season that could have resulted in the playoffs with only 5 wins. In 2016 they were more talented, yet consistently looked even worse than in 2015. I know it's chic to blame that on Bortles recently, but the team lost in more ways than just bad QB play. Consistently poor special teams play, consistently poor defensive efforts at the ends of games, consistently poor offensive play around Bortles resulted in a team that could barely rush the ball and constantly fumbled, and a group of receivers once considered the team's strength that regularly bobbled passes into defenders for interceptions.
I don't think the team has been bad because of a lack of talent, the team has been bad because of a failure to prepare and utilize its talent. I think Marrone will be a massive upgrade over Gus in that regard, whether he's good enough to take the team to where we really want it to be remains to be seen, but at least we've cut out the Gus cancer and can move on from that.
Preach