Tony Rizzo is losing his mind

[golfer704u]

Originally Posted by Masters

Agree. I wish them luck with that, cause with the line issues and RB issues it's not mattering what you call if you give up instant pressure and your down to PS RBs that must play.

seems we're having this debate across a few threads and as usual I appreciate your perspective. But again, call more screens. And I still say line up cribs in the backfield and throw a screen to him. that will slow down a defense.

I do agree that the playcalling is affected by the Oline and injury issues. But that's the problem I am having, I don't see the playcalling being changed because of those issues.

[pl4tinum]

The defense has to be demoralized when they see how bad the offense is and can't keep them off the field for more than 3 seconds at a time. Probably the only reason we kept running Ogby was to give the defense a breather before they came back out to get raped some more.

I think Colt is the only thing keeping this from looking like our offense did under Mangini during the 4-5 games in a row where we passed for under 100 yards. We've had the same garbage ass receiving corps(e) we've had for the last 3 years.

Do they think these idiots are magically going to un-suck?

[Masters]

I see what you are saying pl4tinum. Though yesterday I can't put it on the D being demoralized. They gave up a long drive right off the bat. It sucks that Oboy fumbled on first down for the O (that's two weeks in a row of him fumbling), but the D needed to step up there and let HOU just run it right by.

I think they were expecting MoMass to take that next step in year 3 like a lot of young WRs do (he can't stay on the field), Little to become a factory, Cribbs to make some plays, and production out of Robo (gone now). There wasn't a lot out there in the FA market, and they focused the draft on the D over haul that needed to happen.

[Masters]

Originally Posted by golfer704u

seems we're having this debate across a few threads and as usual I appreciate your perspective. But again, call more screens. And I still say line up cribs in the backfield and throw a screen to him. that will slow down a defense.

I do agree that the playcalling is affected by the Oline and injury issues. But that's the problem I am having, I don't see the playcalling being changed because of those issues.

It will slow them down, for a few plays. Then they'll take that away and your right back where you started. If they were covering up for just blitz protection or one guy sucking on the OL I could see it helping more than a few plays.

I just don't see a ton they can change in the play calling that will help with 3 of the 5 OL guys not pulling their weight. What could help is making some changes in personal on the OL. Even if it means marginal improvement.

[Greythan]

Look, my point still stands on the personnel side: Heckert/Holmgren/Shurmur decided to go into this year with the roster as it was.

• They decided to not bring in any experienced OL depth in case the oft injured Pashos got hurt or one of the two very young guards struggled
• They decided that last year's receiving corps + a rookie who hadn't played organized football in 2 years was sufficient

You could add in the lack of RB depth after losing Jackson so early. With Hardesty's durability a lingering question, we really only had Hillis.

Its not like the FO was victimized by outside forces and subjected to the roster. Hell, they turned over a ton of the roster and this is Heckert's second year at the helm.

Yes, we are injured (what team isn't; we just got our asses kicked by a Houston team down its two best players). Yes, we are young.

I just can't give the FO a pass on this one so far. Its troubling.

Sincerely,

Mr. Broken Record

[Masters]

Originally Posted by Greythan

Look, my point still stands on the personnel side: Heckert/Holmgren/Shurmur decided to go into this year with the roster as it was.

• They decided to not bring in any experienced OL depth in case the oft injured Pashos got hurt or one of the two very young guards struggled

Completely agree they should have had a better plan for RT with Pashos injury issue. The plan was Pinkston to back up early on and that went out the window when Eric went down. But the argument could be made that they needed a plan for G (of course they didn't expect what's his nuts to decide to retire during camp).

Originally Posted by Greythan

• They decided that last year's receiving corps + a rookie who hadn't played organized football in 2 years was sufficient

Probably not the best answer at WR, but its not like there were a ton of choices. I mean they could have drafted a different WR or drafted more WR at the expensive of the help they needed to go after on the D side. It's not like there were really a bunch of FA WR who were really worth bringing in (or were going to come to CLE).

Originally Posted by Greythan

You could add in the lack of RB depth after losing Jackson so early. With Hardesty's durability a lingering question, we really only had Hillis.

Once Jackson went down it's not like there was a bunch of FA RBs sitting out there who could help.

Originally Posted by Greythan

Its not like the FO was victimized by outside forces and subjected to the roster. Hell, they turned over a ton of the roster and this is Heckert's second year at the helm.

It is Heckerts second year. But he is filling in guys for different schemes. So not everyone he brought in last year or retained last year was going to fit the team this year.

I am not saying I give the FO a pass, but there was really only so much they could do. The OL plan is where I fully agree they screwed the pouch.

Originally Posted by Greythan

Yes, we are injured (what team isn't; we just got our asses kicked by a Houston team down its two best players). Yes, we are young.

And CLE got run over by two backs who have been running over just about everyone this year and one guy ran all over everyone last year. Yes HOU is missing a key guy on O and what was a key guy on D (he wasn't quite lighting it up as an OLB just yet). But they aren't missing 2-3 guys on their OL.

Now that said, it give no excuse for the D getting run all over yesterday. CLE wasn't missing any key people on D most of the day. You should never, ever be giving up 100+ yards to two RBs in the same game.