semiahmoo":3bymu65o said:
Shanegotyou11":3bymu65o said:
You got Pete? Check.
You got russ? Check.
We will never have 4 or less imo.
Disagree - sort of.
Biggest difference is the O-Line and run game this season which has taken a ton of pressure off of Russ and the defense.
Not sure how much credit Pete gets for those two huge improvements which frankly should have come along several seasons earlier, the fault of which might fall mostly on Pete's shoes.
Hrm, I'm curious about this "several seasons earlier". In my book, one season is "one", two is "a couple" and three can be either "a few" or the beginning of "several", but generally "several" is 4 or more.
Four seasons ago would be the 2014 season. We were the first team in a long time not to suffer a Super Bowl hangover and almost managed a repeat. We showed ominous problems on offense primarily in the first half of that Super Bowl, but the fact we were there tends to obfuscate the need to fire anyone at that point.
Three seasons ago was 2015. Lynch was injured for a lot of it but Rawls looked quite good and we piled up over 2000 rushing yards at 4.5 per carry, and as team produced over 30 points in 7 of our regular-season games. We ended our season against Carolina in the Division game. It's hard to fire someone for a lack of rushing performance when you're rushing for 4.5 per attempt, and your main back (Rawls) was at 5.6 per attempt. That actually seems fairly successful even if the slow-starting offense was often frustrating.
Two years ago the OL looked pretty rough in pre-season and started the season the same way. At the time we thought it may have something to do with us facing the league's best defensive lines week in and week out to start the season, and then Wilson got hurt. Rawls' production fell off a cliff, and Christine Michael proved to be every bit of a draft bust. However, because Wilson was hurt and everyone knew we had to run to protect him, our opponents focused on the run. Still, we ran for over 1500 yards at 3.9 per carry. Not where we wanted to be, but not hideous, either. Toward the end of the season the line seemed to get better, and we once again finished in the Divisional round of the playoffs, having a record 1/2 game better than the previous season. At this point do you fire people for 3.9 a carry? Hard to say. Yes, the line started terribly, but it was improving by the end of the year. You could argue this is the handwriting on the wall for at least Cable if not the both of them, but you have to ask if it was an anomaly or a new status quo, and given the second-half improvement in the OL, you might be forgiven in thinking things may right themselves next year.
Last year it was more obvious things were falling apart. Wilson was back healthy, but while a promising rookie flashed early, we struggled to piece a rushing game together. Rushing figures looked "ok" on the surface at 4.0 per carry and over 1600 yards, but most of the good was Wilson, and most of the bad were our running backs. The next 3 were 2.6, 3.5, and 2.7 YPC respectively, before we come to Carson's standout 4.2 YPC season-before-injury. It was now obvious and without mitigation that the OL was problematic and the offensive production simply not up to the job. To me, it is at this point the firings were beyond doubt, and this is where the firings happened.
There were certainly indications we had difficulties on offense all along. I don't think we've ever been truly happy except during a 3-game stretch in 2012 where we were the hottest thing in the NFL. But the litmus test here is were they worth firing guys who helped to build the 2013 and 2014 teams.
At "Several" seasons ago, I would say no. At "A few", I still say no, but with some doubts around the edges. At "a couple" I could see it if not for the upswing - there was certainly need for improvement. After last season it was of course obvious.
Now, I would love to be one of those guys who gets everything right so I can stand here hand-on-heart and say that even when we were playing in the Super Bowl that we needed to fire people, but I'll be honest; I can't say that, and I didn't say that until last year.
Keep in mind we have a QB who goes off-script so often that it's hard to tell what was planned vs what was executed, making it even more difficult to pin a given outcome as being definitely the result of the OC or the OL coach. Pete is closer to it so obviously knows more what was supposed to happen.