The defense was bad.  But, one of their best players, Poz, was out.  And he hasn't been out long so the replacement is understandably going through growing pains.  Armbrister is only going to get better, Poz is going to come back, and Marks will come back.  The defense won't suddenly become top 10, but it also is unlikely to be as bad as it was this week for the rest of the season.

 

The o-line play was bad.  But, this is their first week playing without Linder.  AJ Cann got his first start.  Parnell seemed lost at times, but that could be because he's not used to playing next to Cann.  And, in spite of that, we saw both Bortles and Yeldon make the best of that bad situation. 

 

Corey Grant's drop on the pitch cost us the game.  But he was probably only in because Yeldon strained his groin.  Maybe Yeldon doesn't drop that pitch.

 

I think this team wins the game if Poz and Linder were both available.  I think they win if the pitchback to Grant play call was different.  The depth is not there.  The starters can win, but the backups can't, not yet.  This is a welcome change from two years ago when neither the starters nor the backups could win.  I am willing to give Dave more time to find depth.  Armbrister is an undrafted rookie, as is Grant.  It would be nice if they could win games, but we should not be surprised if they need more time.

 

I don't think Gus is doing a good job, however.  Best case scenario for me would be to fire Gus maybe after the London game, and see if Marrone does better as interim coach.  I would bet Marrone cleans up a lot of the stupid stuff we're seeing.  And, in that case, we can go into 2016 with Marrone as HC and most of this year's offensive staff still in place. 

---