After the Darnold threw 4 INTS against the Rams in their first meeting, my interest went off a cliff. I don’t know if Darnold’s performance is the reason for this, but it’s the best explanation I have. I’ve still watched the Seahawks, Raiders, and some of the other teams, but I don’t watch most of the games as I did earlier.

Anyway, here’s a thread to discuss all the games and happenings after week 11, the last thread that I posted for this season. Here are some general thoughts since that time:

Raiders:

• They’re the worst team in the league. At times, what they’re doing seems really vanilla, almost like they’re in pre-season mode. My sense is that Pete is really trying to achieve some basic, fundamental goals–e.g., protect the football, not give up explosives. But the results are an anemic offense and a defense that doesn’t really make it hard on offenses. To be fair, they’ve been missing their starting LT for most of the season, and their OL is probably one of the worst in the league. Additionally, after trading Jakobi Meyers, they must have had the worst WR unit in the league.
• In spite of this, I think they should stick with Carroll. They need to improve the roster, and they need to get a solid OC and ST coach.

Seahawks

• The ST has been really good and a big difference maker. The thing is, besides good punt/kick coverage, I don’t feel like one can depend on much more from the ST, so I would feel uneasy depending on this going into the playoffs.
• A better OL, especially more consistent execution in the run game, is the missing piece for this team.
• With the defense, I think MacDonald has an outsized role. His game-planning and play calling goes along way in determining the defensive performance–or, so it seems to me. If he does this well, I feel like the Hawks can shut down almost any offense. But if he doesn’t, they can also struggle more than a good defense should. For Macdonald, I think the biggest challenge is not trying to be too clever and complicated, not trying to do too much.