My short breakdown: I am not going to pretend I am some kind of film clip by clip expert. I am a guy who has watched this game for over 30 years and I rewatch games and study plays.
Have the coaches been perfect?: Absolutely not! Doug has done a couple of straight out
STUPID decisions this season. I still get pissed thinking about that 4th down call in our own field territory against Miami. I also hate the fact that we didn't run down the clock last week on our last possession. The right call would be to run the ball 3 straight times and having the play clock drop to 0 but no they threw a couple of incomplete passes and burned almost 0 clock. Also the team comes out looking flat and uninspired. The coaches have been far from perfect and I can't defend a strong case for them getting fired.
Why the coaches deserves some slack: Lets not forget that Doug has a Superbowl ring and has brought the first back to back winning seasons here in recent memory. There are things the coaches just cannot control
1. The QB has regressed to a pathetic state. There appears to be no easy throws combined with the fact he has pure accuracy issues right now. The coaches get blamed but they dialed up a great gameplan but the QB missed 2-3 Td's. The QB is not elevating anyone and playing like a bum. Sugar coat it and make excuses all you want but it is what it is. The coaches can't throw the ball
2. The offensive line is overpaid while underplayed: Cam, Schreff, and Harrison have been god awful. I doubt they make 2nd string on the better teams in the league. The real bummer is they had a good game last week but the QB fell off the map. '
3. No pass rush: Hines-Allen (been ok but not good this year) and Walker (disappeared after Miami and still have 0 technique): The coaches are counting on their guys to win. The opposing QB's have been way too comfortable in the pocket this year. They have a High Priced Defense end on one side and they have the first overall pick on the other. These guys should be killing Opposing QB's. Too often you see these guys getting stood up with no pressure on the QB. Walker especially is a bad pass rusher. He just runs into the Tackle and it's like glue he can't get the tackle off of him. Baalke really screwed us with no picking Hutch combined with the QB contract. The coaches are rushing 4 and expecting their pass rush to get through. The players aren't making the plays. Allen has 1 sack and Walker had 2 with one being a kinda accident both occurring in week 1.
4. Outside of Brown, there is nobody playing well in the secondary. Campbell is hurt yet again. I thought Cisco would break out but he sucks and lets not even talk about Antonio Johnson who I nicked named Burnt Toast.
The bottom line: We are stuck with Lawrence for a few years with that contract. The team needs to build a wall of a line around him and having him throwing through tires all offseason. It is clear as day the team is just void of talent. Baalke has had a couple of questionable drafts that are looking worse by the game. Baalke is the blame for this one and the coaches are put in a bad spot. Vince Lombardi, Steve Walsh, Don Shula, Mike Shanahan, John Madden, name any great coach (outside of Tomlin that somehow keeps winning), have all had bad and sometime horrific seasons. It wasn't like those guys forgot how to coach those bad seasons. They were limited by the
TALENT they had. You can't make fine wine out of raisins. Baalke is the problem and it could be the case the coaches just do not have the tools to do their job.
Just remember: We all knew the offensive line was a major problem going into the off-season. Baalke signed one guy and just forgot about it. In the draft he wasted picks on luxury players who needed time to develop.
