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.
Other random thoughts:
Comments about the Seahawks@49ers
Post-game comments (1/4/2025)
I was wrong about Darnold turning over the ball and the Seahawk run game. This is the best I’ve seen from the run game. To me, there’s a big question as to whether the Seahawks can run this way going forward.
Black Monday:
The Browns fired Kevin Stefanski. I think he’s a good coach. I think the Titans should hire him. Apparently, these are coaches the Titans are interviewing: Chiefs OC Matt Nagy, Chiefs DC Steve Spagnuolo, Broncos DC Vance Joseph, Colts DC Lou Anarumo. I’d choose Stefanski over them all. (I hope Spags becomes an HC though. I want to break up the Reid-Spags duo.) Also, I think the Giants should hire Stefanski. (Kingsbury might be a good fit for the Giants as well.)
The Raiders fire Pete Carroll. The Raiders were terrible, but this move doesn’t give me confidence about Spytek and Brady. If Pete lost the team, or just is not on the same page with Spy/Brady, the firing makes sense. But if not, I think he deserved another year, especially if establishing a good culture is what you want.
The Falcons move on from Raheem Morris. I can sort of understand this, even though they did improve on the defensive side of the ball. I understand they’re interviewing Klint Kubiak, the Seahawks OC. It would be a good fit for their offense, but I’m hoping Kubiak stays.
Moving on from Raheem Morris is not the move I would make. When the Falcons were out of the playoffs, this team still played to win, which I respect so much. I hate tanking.
The athletes don’t need to be told to play to win, but the coach got them to play well. I’d see where Morris could take them next season.
I only saw the game against the Rams, near the end of the season, and they looked solid. If they played this way at the end, I might agree with you. But earlier, they didn’t look as good as I thought they should. (On a side note, they were great at wide zone blocking, and Bijan made their run game even better.)
Dallas fired Eberflus. I thought Flus had no answers at times and deserved to be let go. Dallas is hoping to get Brian Flores as he’s on his last year of his contract with the Vikings. That would be a good change, imo. I think Cowboy fans would also love to get Al Harris, former DB coach, if Flores is not viable. Dallas’ secondary took a big hit after Harris left, and I think there’s hope he could revive them if he came back. I heard that the Bears secondary improved under Harris.
To me, you always have to judge a coach by also looking at the roster. Was the defensive roster good? I guess you could argue the roster was good once they got Williams and Overshown returned. Or even if they weren’t super talented, the group performed below their talent. If so, then it warrants moving on.
Flores might be a head coaching candidate, so I have doubts that he would be available. The Cardinals fired Jonathan Gannon. He might be a good pick up. Plus, he’s more of 4-3 guy.
I’ll add the real star of the coaching staff might just be Klayton Adams, Dallas’ OC. He revived a pretty bad run game and with pretty much the same caliber pieces as in years past. Schotty will get some credit, but I didn’t think his play calling was exceptional. What was more exceptional was how well the Cowboys could run the ball.
But the one thing Schotty is good at is installing a solid run game. You mean ask why wasn’t it better under McCarthy? My answer: 1) McCarthy is more of pass-first guy; 2) the RBs weren’t that great, especially in terms of physical type of RBs. Tony Pollard is solid, tougher than he seems, but he’s not as hard-nosed and physical and Javonte Williams. Rico Dowdle looked surprisingly good this year, although he seems to have cooled down. But he didn’t run that way with the Cowboys, in my view. One difference is that Canales is committed to the run game more than McCarthy.
To me the scheme is what really changed the run game. Javonte would not have been great last year either without this new scheme. And it seems to be Adam’s doing, as Arizona’s run game seem to have taken a tumble after he left them. Note, after one year as OC, Adam’s name is coming up as a head coaching candidate. I don’t think he has a “real” shot, but he’s one that people are looking at for the future.
At least to me, Schotty should have been even more committed to the run this year. Yes, the Dallas’ defense made it very hard for the offense to remain conservative at times, but I thought there were moments where Dallas could have kept trying to pound the ball. Javonte seems like the type of runner that should get better as the game progresses, but he was tenth in attempts with Dallas having no other viable RB.
That’s why I sort of question or maybe have some doubts as to how well Schotty called the games.
Several thoughts:
I’m surprised Baltimore fired Harbaugh. It seems a little unfair if you ask me. I would say the firing makes sense if they hire someone that is a wizard on the offensive or defensive side of the ball. But I can’t think of who that would be right now. Kingsbury? Maybe. I could see this being a fit, but I’m not sure he’s way better than John Harbaugh. Belichick? I have some uncertainty with whether he still has it, but hiring him may make the firing more understandable. I really like Stefanski, and I was skeptical when he first became the Browns head coach. I think he could make noise if he had a good roster.
There seems to be a lot of interest in Klint Kubiak. If Kubiak really wants to be an HC right now, I think he’s going to get an offer, and he won’t be with team next year. I really would like to see him in year 2 with this team. The offense really hasn’t been able to execute the outside zone runs very well; the execution is far from a Shanahan/Kubiak run game.
Who are some good replacements? Off the top of my head, here are some thoughts:
Generally, I’d want continuity–so someone from the Shanahan tree. I’m not sure who else is out there.
Is Aden Durde getting any type of “love”? I know most of the credit is going to Mike Macdonald, but I’m going to have to say Seattle’s d-line has looked much better and that’s Durde’s specialty.
Ooops, I just heard that Durde got an interview for the Brown’s head coaching position. Cool.
I don’t want to take away from Durde’s coaching, but it’s important to point out the players. Adding D-Law has been huge (with the team moving on from Dre’Mont Jones, who was disappointing). Also, Uchenna Nwosu has finally been healthy, and Byron Murphy seems to have made a year 2 jump. Of course, there is Leonard Williams and Jarran Reed (but they were here last year. Same with Mafe and Hall on the edges.)