MontanaHawk05":1r03jp4d said:
volsunghawk":1r03jp4d said:
Never called you a troll, man. But if you want to be sensitive about our disagreements, I suppose that's your right.
"And you damn well know that. You're just using an inflammatory soundbyte for effect, and it's a load of crap."
^^^Your words a few weeks ago, back when the uncharacteristic gaffes and unit-wide lapses were still uncharacteristic. They've been a trend for a while now.
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That ain't trolling, and I don't consider you one. I did, however, think you were exaggerating and being intellectually dishonest ("We almost lost to Ryan Fitzpatrick"). Today, we did almost lose to Mike James. Glennon looked sharp early, and then we seemed to limit him as the game went on. James was impressive throughout. I'm officially concerned over our run D.
MontanaHawk05":1r03jp4d said:
volsunghawk":1r03jp4d said:
So, out of curiosity, how did that uber-awesome Drew Brees do today? I'm guessing that juggernaut Saints team probably just rolled through whatever opponent they were facing.
Are you REALLY trying to nitpick your way out of the idea that we'll face more complete teams in the playoffs than what we've seen this year? I'm thankful that Brees devolves on the road, which will be fine as long as we lock down HFA.
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Nitpick? Did the Saints lose or not? How did that "more complete" team fare against subpar competition? Not so good, huh?
The point is that there's not a team in this league that isn't susceptible to games where they fail to hit on all cylinders. There's not a team in this league that is consistently playing complete games. Not one. Not even Denver. Not even San Francisco. Every team has weaknesses and flaws - some of them more than others. And as we get further into the season, some teams will fix those flaws by getting better play or getting key guys back from injury. Other teams will find those flaws exacerbated by losing key guys to injury or simply being unable to fix them.
In this game against Tampa, our protection issues looked like they were improving. Our run offense was better. Our run D wasn't good. Notice that we keep working on offense, and keep trying to fix issues as they arise. Against Arizona, our offense was more dynamic, but we turned the ball over on fumbles by Wilson. So in the next game, the protection was bad, but we never turned the ball over as Wilson was eating the sacks rather than trying to do too much and putting the ball at risk. Now, in this game, it seemed that they were trying to address the protection/sack issues by having Wilson get the ball out much more quickly. So it's clear to me that the team is putting work in on getting various issues addressed. Maybe not as quickly as we'd like, and maybe not as thoroughly as we'd prefer... but they ARE working on it.
Meanwhile, as ugly as they've been, we've got 8 wins, which is something that no other team in the NFC can claim. Go look at some of those other "complete" teams' boards. The Saints fans are seriously worried about an inability to run the ball. They're worried about teams that can rough them up physically. They're worried as hell that Carolina is going to catch them. They're concerned about their O-line. Niners fans are still concerned about their WR situation, and you can find plenty of heated discussion about both of their coordinators. Broncos fans have been worried about their defense (secondary, in particular) and are wondering if Manning's still got any long-ball ability. Chiefs fans are up in arms over their offense and are worried about their D being decimated due to fatigue because their offense is ineffective.
There isn't a fanbase out there that isn't concerned about some element or other about their team. Everyone's worried about something. And the thing is, that's just fine. It's reasonable to be concerned over areas that need work. But it's not reasonable to paint some doom-and-gloom picture about how we'll inevitably lose to this anonymous juggernaut of a team that seems to be waiting for us. There aren't any juggernauts this year, man.