Quarter Season review and thought

4 games in, a quarter of game gone. These are toffee's thoughts:

Defense:
We managed to be in the top 1/3 of the league according to PFF, got to be proud of effort by FO, HC, and DC. Ridding the team of expensive stars was one year too late but better late than never. We would have a lot more picks and cap room as we started the rebuild in '17. We weren't that much better this time last year? or were we?

1. LOB - The dawn of LOB v2 has been promising, Tre Flowers is a huge surprise for me, McDougal's great, if Tedric Thompson could step in and play at adequate level. I am callin' this season the dawn of LOB v2. As it's we may be one pick away from having a great secondary.

2. DL - has been a bit underwhelming. Frank Clark is good but not dominating ... anyone double team him? If this is Jarren Reed's break out season, he hasn't broken out yet. Shamar Stephen and Jefferson simply underwhelmed. Love to see Poona as replacement for Shamar, hey he could be our Tre of DL? i expect our run defense to improve with Poona.

Offense:
So far we fixed one problem but created another. Overall looking like it needs a lot of work. Our new OC has been underwhelming, sadly as expected.

1. QB - Schotty was talked up as someone who will push and discipline Russ. So far, he has focused on pushing Russ to become a pocket QB, make that a pocket QB with questionable pocket. I like to see Schotty with some flexibility to allow Russ be Russ, say 40% of the time? So far Russ hasn't been himself, Harbaugh pushed Kaep to become a pocket QB, this push basically finished Kaep off. I am seeing lots of similarities. So Schotty, please don't ruin Russ.

2. Running - way better than last year. our OC seen to have patience to allow running plays to get established.Carson and Davis both gotten quite a bit of yardage after first contact, but can their body last with that type of style? Penny has been very underwhelming, our OL's run blocking is marginal at best.

3. WR - our weak link. Baldwin was out for 3 games and came back rusty. Marshall is a "F", Jaron at best a "D". So we have a weak OL, a mobile QB learning to be a pocket QB, with WRs couldn't get seperation. See why our passing game sucked? I felt like WR is where we need lots of help!

3. Kicking - I think Pete fumbled on his pick of seabass, John should start looking, like now.

4. OL - Sweezy was a nice savior up to this point. still not quite sold on Fluker's longevity, Ifedi is better, but still long way to go. Hunt's a pleasant surprise, so now we are stack in center with Britt, Hunt and Pocic, may be trading one for a RT?

Team:
Earl's injury could be the best thing for this young team, without his daily drama and attitude, youngsters and emerging stars will get the media encouragement that they need to go the next level. Our team can finally focus on FOOTBALL.

Conclusion:
We are two-two, with a couple of field goals away from 3-1. This is a rebuilding team with sight on next season. I was hoping the team will start kicking in by game 9 or 10, then finish strong!! IF we could end up 4-4 by mid season and finish 5-3 in second half, we could finish the season 9-7, may not make playoff but THIS IS A REBUILDING TEAM.

I am reasonably happy so far, some frustration and disappointment here and there, but happy nevertheless.

Can we just officially retire LOB now?

Out of both respect and fatigue and sadness.

There is no LOB 2, we have no Browner or Kam, Boom means impact and punishment.

We have a great start on a good secondary however with Griff and Shaq 1, I still think Shaq 2 should be a SS and let McDougald take Earls spot.

toffee":3jlnn4t3 said:

4 games in, a quarter of game gone. These are toffee's thoughts:


2. DL - If this is Jarren Reed's break out season, he hasn't broken out yet.

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Interesting reads, thanks for taking the time to post. Most I concur with.

But right now, Reed is on pace for a 12 sack year. This would be a huge breakout for him, and a bigger sack total from DT since...I can't remember when.

Yeah, you lost me at Jarran Reed. He looks like he is absolutely having a breakout year.

Natethegreat":j1f9m1y6 said:

Yeah, you lost me at Jarran Reed. He looks like he is absolutely having a breakout year.

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He needs a great game against the Rams next Sunday to convince me.

Toffee,

If the team holds its own right up to the Raiders/Lions/Chargers stretch - then we are improving.

That Chargers game will tell us a lot.

Because I don't think you can expect anything from this team this year.

Both Rams games are likely losses, I don't think expecting us to beat the Packers or Panthers makes sense, the Vikings are still beyond us and we still have the Chiefs to deal with. Other than the 49ers twice and the Cards one more time there is not much you can expect from them during that part of the schedule.

And the 49ers might not be a given with how we played the Cards. They are shockingly still scoring points with a 3rd string QB.

So we can use that to see if we will be better next year, but that last run up to the end of the year will probably be too tough to overcome.

My review: The Seahawks are closer to being the worst team, than closer to being the best team.

They show some instances where they look capable but inconsistent most times.

So we are 2-3, but we could easily be 4-1. We almost had this one, against a team with the #1 rank OL and DL. If we played like this in the first two games, we could have won both.

Let me repeat again that I am happy with the rebuilding process ... for an injury ridden rebuilding team with new OC and DC, we have been remarkable. I am so looking forward to the second half of this season when the team play with more maturity and ready to kick some butts.

Go Hawks.

Man, if we could have beaten either Denver or Chicago, we would be in such a good spot right now. Ah well. Win in London and try to go on a tear.

Lockett has been pretty strong. The rest of the WR group not so much.

The team's development is ahead of schedule in my opinion, I expect this level (yesterday's game against Rams), by med season, so we are 3 games ahead of schedule.

Offense:
Our running game is legit, DCs of opposing teams have to game plan for our running. That will benefit our passing game, which is Pete's plan all along. Our WR corp is still super weak, super super weak. If Moore, Reynolds, or we sign a WR, our offense will finally click on all cylinders. Our OL played legit against Rams' #1 ranked DL. Heck, ran on them with authority for 3 quarters ....

Defense:
LOB v2 is taking shape, my adopted rookie Tre Flowers is way ahead of his development curves, already making big plays. A bit disappointed at Shaquill Griffin's progress, he is serviceable at this point but I expected more. Thompson didn't shine against the Rams, won't judge him at this point, but will after another 4-5 games.

DL: Quite happy to see Poona gotten more playing time, but pass rush remains our weakness. Our DL/LB did do a decent job against Rams' running game for 3 quarters ...

Depth:
We obviously lack depth, we were winning till the 4th quarter against the Rams, but our OL/DL slowed down some in 4th, more so than theirs. At that point, their DL stopped our runs, their OL powered their runs, that was the game.

I am super optimistic about the next season, no more big mouths, lots of hungry guys.