8 hours ago
(9 hours ago)Au165 Wrote: ....and with all of that, Mac hitting a 53 yarder against the Ravens and Daijon Anthony not getting PI on 4th and 16 and this team is 11-6 and no one really talks about it as they head into the playoffs.
We will never truly know some of the chicken or egg issues with this team, offense specifically, I think. Does Burrow take too many sacks because the line is bad? Yes. Does he also take a bunch more because he believes he can make something happen? Yes. Are we bad at rushing especially in short yardage? Yes. Are we bad at rushing in short yardage because we cater to our elite QB who doesn't want to play from under center? Yes. Is Zach Taylor's play calling bad at times? Yes. Does Joe Burrow check into plays at times that make it look worse? Yes.
I think at the end of the day though what we can say is, the offense is good enough to win right now and was good enough to win 11/12 games last year including against two of the best teams in the AFC. I get the desire to protect Burrow, but as mentioned above, I don't know if we are ever going to be able to actually do that because I fear with more protection he just becomes more emboldened to take more risks. It's a double edged sword.
I agree. But the question/comment I was responding to, was, the offense is "kick ass."
I interpret kick ass to be elite. Dominant. Elite scoring. You give us the ball under 4 min with a lead & you don't get it back. Tied & under 2 min and we win. Down 3 and under 2 min is OT. More than 2 and we most likely win. Not every time, obviously. But more often than not.
Good enough to make the PO's eith a better D? Or a couple made FG's? Yep.
Good enough to come up clutch when the chips are down & beat good teams? Sketchy at best.
With a little help they could be elite. A run game, better G play, and a TE who can block and catch and we are a PO team regardless of the D, and a threat to go deep in the POs.
TE pickins were slim, so I get bringing back Gesicki in FA. Most of the TEs in the draft were pass catchers primarily (Ferguson & the ND TE I liked more than Rivers/Carter). But fine.
But we could have done much better at guard.
The interest in Fant probes my point at TE. He isn't high end, but certainly a more diverse skill set than Sample, Grandy, Gesicki, & Hudson.
