(01-01-2024, 09:18 AM)rfc17 Wrote:

(12-31-2023, 09:28 PM)Caldrac Wrote: It's a soup of things.

CJ taking what the defense gave him today and the unflinching commitment to get Etienne involved was probably preached all week knowing Lawrence's injury situation.

Lawrence is guilty though of looking for the homerun plays way more frequently than taking the easy base hits to extend drives.

I think it's something he personally needs to invest himself with during the off season on film collectively because it has been a difference in some of these games.

Playing Carolina with a defense that stayed on them from the very first snap also helped. It's the worst team in football.

I think that's fair criticism of lawrence although that doesn't change my original point about how the coaching staff designed the gamelan. They flat out abandoned the run the prior three weeks even though the browns and ravens game were still close in the 4th quarter. But they stuck with it yesterday. Our ypc was awful until etienne broke the long td in the 2nd half. They need to continue this mindest even when lawrence comes back. It was different than what it had been of late. There were a lot of different looks. Actually ran it on short yardage at times. More traditional play action. Etc, etc...

Yes carolina isn't good and they didn't need the qb to make a play or carry the offense which I'm sure influenced the playcalling. And if we are going to make some noise in the playoffs we'll need the qb to play above the x's and o's of course. But maintaining balance and mixing up the looks will also be needed. And I think this game forced the coaching staff to do that.

Yeah. Agreed on the gameplan. Lawrence was caught with a mic midgame or maybe post game, but, he himself has said that exact same thing. "Glad Press is sticking with the running game". It really has been too much being put on Lawrence to will this team into a victory and it's resulted in him getting beat to [BLEEP] physically this year. 

In fairness to Carolina. They have a decent defense, they just lack pass rushers and their offense has been so bad that they've been tasked with playing too much football all year. Balance is critical though. The best teams have it in this sport. I know it's against Doug's and more than likely Press' nature, but, when your seeing injuries crop up in the WR room, and, your QB is beat to [BLEEP]?

You might want to slide your gameplan a little bit more to running the football. Here's another thought though. Maybe they had more confidence and trust in running it more and doing more stuff under center with Cam Robinson back at LT. Maybe that's a key. Having two competent OT's enables more runs off tackle at times and less reliance on the interior. I also did like seeing Bigsby getting some short yardage work throughout the game. 

Patience is key. I think we'll see the same exact plan regardless of who starts this Sunday.

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