The Positives - 2022 Edition

So, you think we are contenders? For what? Winning more than 8 games? Having a 1 and done in playoffs? Or winning the SB. There are no positives about the MNF game. None. There are a lot of reason to wonder what this new regime was thinking with continuing with Cousins and a competitive rebuild with a defense that has more holes in it that swiss cheese. I bet we lose to the Lions (who at least put up a good fight playing the Eagles).

We know nothing who this team is. Its a week to week league. We were crowned week 1, got our face punched in week 2. Ill wait till week 5-6 to judge. Its the NFL nothing matters right now. Teams start off 4-0 and fizzle off to 8-8 seasons. Ill let this thing play out before judging. 

Ohh so Packers had a bad day, but Vikings (Kirk) cant have a bad day? Got it.

Respectfully, I disagree with this line of thinking. The Players are who I thought they were. The only real unknowns are Ingram in terms of development and what Cene, Booth, Asamoah, Evans, Blacklock and Reagor can bring to the table in terms of consistent contribution of any sort.

I knew the IDL wouldn't pressure the passer against good IOL. That had nothing to do with being flat or punched in the mouth or MNF on the road. I knew only Hunter consistently set the Edge against the run. I knew that Kendricks and Hicks would struggle with speed.

And I certainly knew that Peterson is washed, Dantzler is inconsistent, Sullivan is meh and the rest are in diapers. I also knew that Bynum had too small of a sample size to count on.

Donatell doesn't have the horses to run the Fangio Scheme against talented Teams. But if he abandons that scheme he risks blowouts. The entire point of that scheme is to make Offenses methodically earn their points while looking to force TOs and capitalize on mistakes to end drives.

He's not going to suddenly start playing Man with Corners that don't have that skillset or go blitz happy. The Defense is Average and Bend but Don't Break in nature. Nothing will change that.

The Offense is what ticked me off. O'Connell got outcoached and couldn't adjust. That is the single biggest takeaway for me. He's the one that needs to get up off the mat. He tried doing exactly what I predicted but the Line couldn't open lanes for Cook and Irv is a bust.

OK, time for Plan B. Except there wasn't one. Sticky Man Coverage turned Kirk back into the pumpkin he's always been. So how about going Shotgun and deploying the quick passing game? How about some more rub routes? Screens? It was like when his initial gameplan was taken away he just reverted to trying to force the ball to Kupp, er, Jefferson.

That worked fine in LA because Stafford will absolutely risk the biscuit because of his arm talent and moxie. Kirk doesn't have either.

So now it's time for Kevin to look in the mirror. He said all the right things afterwards. But he has to walk the walk and be more prepared when Plan A is taken away.

This Team's ceiling is only so high due to the remaining holes. Only O'Connell's Coaching can overcome them. He just failed on that front. Time to see how he responds.

Real contenders also usually lose some big games every year during the regular season.