Injuries vs Coaching

[THE PISTONS]

I tend to think that they overachieved under Marvin during the regular season may times. In the playoffs, it was a combination of Coaching Strategy, but our roster always had 1 or 2 glaring weaknesses that other teams could exploit...and they sure did.

Also, in the playoffs even under Zimmer our defense would kind of fold. Teams could generally run on us. In the Steelers meltdown, people forget that Bell was out and the Steelers STILL ran on us for instance.

Last year, totally healthy...we probably win 10 games.

The thing that Marvin had going against him was 15 years without a playoff win. You lose the players at some point.

But, also...Management undermined him. I remember Marvin saying that Chris Henry wouldn't be bad, then MB signed him. That undermines a coach.

Then, the meltdown against the Steelers. You either have to fire the coach in that situation, or get rid of the players (Burfict and Jones). Jones was a free agent and they retained him. Burfict eventually signed an extension. Speaking of Burfict...he misses A LOT of time with injuries or suspensions. It's hard to win when you build your defense around that guy.

I don't think the Bengals job is an easy job. Coughlin questioned if he could win here and he went on to win 2 SB's in NY. Marvin was able to come in here and thrive. It will be interesting to see if inexperienced coaches like Taylor and company can. So far, there have been some red flags...but IF they can come up with an innovative scheme...the might be able to overcome the lack of offensive line.

The poor LB thing, I don't think you can scheme around as much unless you use more DB's. But, that has it's flaws too.