19-0 or bust

What does "or bust" mean?

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For anyone who says the goal is merely to make the Playoffs, imagine what Coughlin would say if you told him as much. Coughlin would ring you a new one. You see, Coughlin is not about rebuilding or just making the Playoffs. Coughlin plays to win it all, and you see this in his offseason moves. I noticed this back in the 90s when he was coaching the team, and it was even more apparent with the Giants.

The question isn't, "How are we going to make the Playoffs?" Again, that's Bengals thinking and what good has that done them over the past couple decades? The question is, "How are we going to win a Lombardi."
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Marrone has been vocal about his coaching methodology on "goals." 

As has been repeated ad nauseum in this thread, the SB is always the ultimate goal. 
But you can't get there without first overcoming a series of short term goals. 

That's why Marrone divides the season into quarters and sets a goal to achieve a winning record in each quarter. 

It's not a bad way to think "big picture" yet still remain sharply focused on what's right ahead of you.

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For anyone who says the goal is merely to make the Playoffs, imagine what Coughlin would say if you told him as much. Coughlin would ring you a new one. You see, Coughlin is not about rebuilding or just making the Playoffs. Coughlin plays to win it all, and you see this in his offseason moves. I noticed this back in the 90s when he was coaching the team, and it was even more apparent with the Giants.

The question isn't, "How are we going to make the Playoffs?" Again, that's Bengals thinking and what good has that done them over the past couple decades? The question is, "How are we going to win a Lombardi."
...

Marrone has been vocal about his coaching methodology on "goals." 

As has been repeated ad nauseum in this thread, the SB is always the ultimate goal. 
But you can't get there without first overcoming a series of short term goals. 

That's why Marrone divides the season into quarters and sets a goal to achieve a winning record in each quarter. 

It's not a bad way to think "big picture" yet still remain sharply focused on what's right ahead of you.

You beat me to it.  I 100% agree with how you worded it.  The only thing that I would add is to listen to Coach Marrone during training camp and the pre-season.  He is always talking about meeting short term goals in order to achieve long term goals.

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There are 10 kinds of people in this world.  Those who understand binary and those who don't.

Marrone has been vocal about his coaching methodology on "goals." 

As has been repeated ad nauseum in this thread, the SB is always the ultimate goal. 
But you can't get there without first overcoming a series of short term goals. 

That's why Marrone divides the season into quarters and sets a goal to achieve a winning record in each quarter. 

It's not a bad way to think "big picture" yet still remain sharply focused on what's right ahead of you.

You beat me to it.  I 100% agree with how you worded it.  The only thing that I would add is to listen to Coach Marrone during training camp and the pre-season.  He is always talking about meeting short term goals in order to achieve long term goals.

You mean "long-term goal." There's only one long-term goal for the season. I'll let you guess what that is. Hint... it's not "making the Playoffs." 

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'02

For anyone who says the goal is merely to make the Playoffs, imagine what Coughlin would say if you told him as much. Coughlin would ring you a new one. You see, Coughlin is not about rebuilding or just making the Playoffs. Coughlin plays to win it all, and you see this in his offseason moves. I noticed this back in the 90s when he was coaching the team, and it was even more apparent with the Giants.

The question isn't, "How are we going to make the Playoffs?" Again, that's Bengals thinking and what good has that done them over the past couple decades? The question is, "How are we going to win a Lombardi."

The Jaguars are in a tough spot to win the division because we're in a division with four contenders. Sure we might win the AFC South, but more than likely it's coming down to that sixth WC and Coughlin surely knows this might be our route this year. Coughlin is the guy deciding what direction this team takes. Caldwell is the guy who makes it happen, and Marrone stays out of it and just coaches. From all accounts, Marrone is on the same page with Coughlin as far as what this team needs to become in order to win it all. They're not thinking Playoffs. They're looking at what it's going to take to win in the Playoffs on the road in places like Cleveland and New England. They're looking at what it's going to take to win the Super Bowl when they get there by installing a guy who they know has the poise, tenacity and talent to do just that. 

Don't get me wrong. The fans, the coaches and the players should have the goal of winning every game and ultimately the title. The franchise however, to maintain a healthy fan base over the long term has to be competitive year in and year out. That means you don't mortgage the future with a go-for-broke mentality if you're the owner or front office. You want your fan base excited each season that there's the *potential* to win a superbowl every year. That's what cements a fan base and leads to ticket sales, etc.  That doesn't work as well if you go for broke and maybe get to the big game and even win it but then average 5 wins over the next 10 seasons.  In an optimal scenario, you can do both (see Patriots) but that's unusual.

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I'm condescending. That means I talk down to you.

For anyone who says the goal is merely to make the Playoffs, imagine what Coughlin would say if you told him as much. Coughlin would ring you a new one. You see, Coughlin is not about rebuilding or just making the Playoffs. Coughlin plays to win it all, and you see this in his offseason moves. I noticed this back in the 90s when he was coaching the team, and it was even more apparent with the Giants.

The question isn't, "How are we going to make the Playoffs?" Again, that's Bengals thinking and what good has that done them over the past couple decades? The question is, "How are we going to win a Lombardi."

The Jaguars are in a tough spot to win the division because we're in a division with four contenders. Sure we might win the AFC South, but more than likely it's coming down to that sixth WC and Coughlin surely knows this might be our route this year. Coughlin is the guy deciding what direction this team takes. Caldwell is the guy who makes it happen, and Marrone stays out of it and just coaches. From all accounts, Marrone is on the same page with Coughlin as far as what this team needs to become in order to win it all. They're not thinking Playoffs. They're looking at what it's going to take to win in the Playoffs on the road in places like Cleveland and New England. They're looking at what it's going to take to win the Super Bowl when they get there by installing a guy who they know has the poise, tenacity and talent to do just that. 

Don't get me wrong. The fans, the coaches and the players should have the goal of winning every game and ultimately the title. The franchise however, to maintain a healthy fan base over the long term has to be competitive year in and year out. That means you don't mortgage the future with a go-for-broke mentality if you're the owner or front office. You want your fan base excited each season that there's the *potential* to win a superbowl every year. That's what cements a fan base and leads to ticket sales, etc.  That doesn't work as well if you go for broke and maybe get to the big game and even win it but then average 5 wins over the next 10 seasons.  In an optimal scenario, you can do both (see Patriots) but that's unusual.

Indeed some teams think like that, and Caldwell may personally have a similar mindset, but that's not Coughlin's MO. Coughlin is always about the current season, and he'll load up and do what he feels is best to field the best possible team to win a Lombardi every year. 

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'02

I don't think there's ever been an NFL coach who was fired for failing to make the Super Bowl.

Tony Dungy with the Bucs.

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Don't get me wrong. The fans, the coaches and the players should have the goal of winning every game and ultimately the title. The franchise however, to maintain a healthy fan base over the long term has to be competitive year in and year out. That means you don't mortgage the future with a go-for-broke mentality if you're the owner or front office. You want your fan base excited each season that there's the *potential* to win a superbowl every year. That's what cements a fan base and leads to ticket sales, etc.  That doesn't work as well if you go for broke and maybe get to the big game and even win it but then average 5 wins over the next 10 seasons.  In an optimal scenario, you can do both (see Patriots) but that's unusual.

Indeed some teams think like that, and Caldwell may personally have a similar mindset, but that's not Coughlin's MO. Coughlin is always about the current season, and he'll load up and do what he feels is best to field the best possible team to win a Lombardi every year. 

Indeed that's what he did in the late 90s.  He mortgaged the future for a shot at a Super Bowl, broke our salary cap and we wound up having to unload major talent and as a result he had 3 straight losing seasons and got fired.    

Meanwhile, teams like the Steelers just make the playoffs every year, and as a result, every now and then, they win a Super Bowl.  

This is why "Super Bowl or bust" is a bad strategy.   A better strategy is to make the playoffs as often as possible.  So often, a team sneaks into the playoffs and gets hot and wins the whole thing.  

It's short term thinking vs long term thinking.

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Don't get me wrong. The fans, the coaches and the players should have the goal of winning every game and ultimately the title. The franchise however, to maintain a healthy fan base over the long term has to be competitive year in and year out. That means you don't mortgage the future with a go-for-broke mentality if you're the owner or front office. You want your fan base excited each season that there's the *potential* to win a superbowl every year. That's what cements a fan base and leads to ticket sales, etc.  That doesn't work as well if you go for broke and maybe get to the big game and even win it but then average 5 wins over the next 10 seasons.  In an optimal scenario, you can do both (see Patriots) but that's unusual.

Indeed some teams think like that, and Caldwell may personally have a similar mindset, but that's not Coughlin's MO. Coughlin is always about the current season, and he'll load up and do what he feels is best to field the best possible team to win a Lombardi every year. 

Luckily for us, Coughlin became the boss of a front office that was already wise enough to structure free agent contracts in a way to mitigate the damage often done by that short sighted methodology.

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The Texans goal appears to be making the Playoffs every year, but what good has that done them? You have to build every season with the ultimate goal in mind. Just looking to win 10 games and then praying you get hot might be even more short-sighted. You could potentially end up in the Playoffs every year and never really get close. If we just wanted to win 10 games we could have signed a game manager, but we signed a Super Bowl MVP. 

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'02

The Texans goal appears to be making the Playoffs every year, but what good has that done them? You have to build every season with the ultimate goal in mind. Just looking to win 10 games and then praying you get hot might be even more short-sighted. You could potentially end up in the Playoffs every year and never really get close. If we just wanted to win 10 games we could have signed a game manager, but we signed a Super Bowl MVP. 

You seem to think short term and long term goals are mutually exclusive. 

They aren't.

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Making the playoffs every year if you play inside a weak division is easy and doesn't mean much...

much like the AFCS and NFCW and AFCE (well the Pats probably would have owned the league regardless of their division) have been for years.

Every year we see a meh team make the playoffs because there are 16 open spots and only about 12-14 good teams every year
Making the playoffs is a coach speak goal.

"Win your division, make the playoffs, then it's a new season"
blah blah blah

lol

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The Texans goal appears to be making the Playoffs every year, but what good has that done them? You have to build every season with the ultimate goal in mind. Just looking to win 10 games and then praying you get hot might be even more short-sighted. You could potentially end up in the Playoffs every year and never really get close. If we just wanted to win 10 games we could have signed a game manager, but we signed a Super Bowl MVP. 

The Giants went 10-6, slipped in with a wild card, and won the whole thing.  

What I am objecting to is the idea that we have to go for broke to win the Super Bowl.  That's what we did in the late 90s, and as a result, we went way over the cap and had to unload players, and as a result, we were condemned to wander in the wilderness for a decade.  Don't you remember that?  

Do you remember trading up for Derek Harvey because our front office thought that was the last piece of the puzzle?  If instead, we had thought long term, and just made good solid choices, we'd could have had a contender for years.  

You can't go all out to win the Super Bowl if it means mortgaging your future.

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If Harvey turned out to be Javon Kearse then we still wouldn’t have made the Super Bowl. We lost 2 or 3 olinemen that year. I think our kicker got hurt during pregame. Our WRs were trash. Man we’re we wrong about Derrick Harvey.

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The Texans goal appears to be making the Playoffs every year, but what good has that done them? You have to build every season with the ultimate goal in mind. Just looking to win 10 games and then praying you get hot might be even more short-sighted. You could potentially end up in the Playoffs every year and never really get close. If we just wanted to win 10 games we could have signed a game manager, but we signed a Super Bowl MVP. 

The Giants went 10-6, slipped in with a wild card, and won the whole thing.  

What I am objecting to is the idea that we have to go for broke to win the Super Bowl.  That's what we did in the late 90s, and as a result, we went way over the cap and had to unload players, and as a result, we were condemned to wander in the wilderness for a decade.  Don't you remember that?  

Do you remember trading up for Derek Harvey because our front office thought that was the last piece of the puzzle?  If instead, we had thought long term, and just made good solid choices, we'd could have had a contender for years.  

You can't go all out to win the Super Bowl if it means mortgaging your future.

Sure, we went too far trying to keep the team together and ignoring the future, but looking to field a Super Bowl winning doesn't mean being ignorant about the team's future. Playing for the Playoffs is what teams do to string their fans along with the hopes that one year they stay healthy and go far, but when you have a Patriots type of mentality to win the Super Bowl every year, you tend to make the playoffs most years anyway. You need to look at what it's going to take to win those last few games. Things like having a QB that's been to the big game and won it. 

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'02

The Giants went 10-6, slipped in with a wild card, and won the whole thing.  

What I am objecting to is the idea that we have to go for broke to win the Super Bowl.  That's what we did in the late 90s, and as a result, we went way over the cap and had to unload players, and as a result, we were condemned to wander in the wilderness for a decade.  Don't you remember that?  

Do you remember trading up for Derek Harvey because our front office thought that was the last piece of the puzzle?  If instead, we had thought long term, and just made good solid choices, we'd could have had a contender for years.  

You can't go all out to win the Super Bowl if it means mortgaging your future.

Sure, we went too far trying to keep the team together and ignoring the future, but looking to field a Super Bowl winning doesn't mean being ignorant about the team's future. Playing for the Playoffs is what teams do to string their fans along with the hopes that one year they stay healthy and go far, but when you have a Patriots type of mentality to win the Super Bowl every year, you tend to make the playoffs most years anyway. You need to look at what it's going to take to win those last few games. Things like having a QB that's been to the big game and won it. 

Using the Patriots as an example of anything is ludicrous.  How many other teams have had the same success as the Patriots over a short span?  How many other teams have Tom Brady?

Your goal has got to be the playoffs.  You can't advance to the Super Bowl without making the playoffs.

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