German_Panzer wrote: ↑26 Jan 2021 03:04
Everyone just talks about missed opportunites and that we could/should have won but Tampa did as much as we not play well overall. How many picks did Brady throw? How many times did their receiver not catch very catchable passes?
If Tampa did play well it would have been a blow-out like just one year ago. Do you see a pattern? We seem to be built for regular season and mediocre opponents - there we thrive - but not for the do-or-die games in January; we lack a**holes like Suh/JPP, we lack charismas like Sherman, we may have too many "nice" guys and too few "streetfighters".
The same vibe with Rodgers: he too often gets scared and disappears when good defenses are in his face (and probably that's the reason why he didn't run it on 3rd & 8, because in the back of his head his angst of Suh/JPP prevented him to do so), maybe he needs to condition himself more to enjoy the pain & gain especially in these type of games, Eli Manning comes to mind who wasn't HOF, but who did thrive exactly in the kind of games where I feel Rodgers trembles a bit.
So maybe we should draft/get more streetfighter-types of guys that may cause problems with their attitude but who can also solve problems thru their attitude?
Some truth in this theories or a long shot?
I think Any Given Sunday explains it well enough. We played faaaar from our best, it was an opposite of a mistake-free game. With a performance like vs the Rams, we win....if TB plays the same way. On other hand, Tom Brady has a BAD game (a QB should get big minuses for throwing interceptable balls, even if they're not caught) and his receivers dropped a few. So they also had room to improve.
There is a pattern: One usually tends to lose more to good teams than to bad or mediocre teams.
Such complicated logic.
Yoop should jump all over you for implying that AR is soft. Much worse insult, and way more wrong, than pointing out AR only played a very good game, but not a perfect game. AR wasn't soft. He just thought in the split second he had, that he wasn't gonna get there by rushing. And looking at the angles of defenders, he may have been right. The throw had a chance of completing, also a chance at a flag.
The whole idea you "need" thugs is so weird. As if 15-yard penalties and suspensions were a great plus. Jaire blows up screens like a beast, and he's no thug. AJ Dillon carried a bundle of defender for 8 yards. I'd call that a physical play. And he's a nice, polite kid. If he were a thug, same play probably would seem cooler, but it would still be 8 yards. I do think we could use a fast, physical, hard-tackling ILB. But you find one by scouting top ILB talent, not by looking at mug shots.
In an earlier post, I gave Arians credit for making such a ragtag group of ageing mercenaries work. Can't remember when such an approach worked last (anyone?). So I think it's an anomaly more than a system one could copy.