Punch's Post-Game Thread

Good call.

Also, they played some snaps in 5-2 packages last week, in "running downs" IIRC, good way to get Allen-Payne-Settle + Sweat&RK(or Anderson) on the field at the same time.

Yes I noticed the down 5 lineman as well.

Another thing I noticed ... we aren’t asking Sweat, chase or Kerrigan to drop back into coverage like years past. I’m sure on some instances with a pre snap shift they will have to but I haven’t seen it like years past. I think KPL helps in that regard.

Yup, it’s like it. Why not put your best talent on the field? Our lb outside of kpl and bostic ain’t shit

Yup, it’s like it. Why not put your best talent on the field? Our lb outside of kpl and bostic ain’t shit

Yap. Hope Holcomb comes back fast cause SDH isn't good.
And listening to Cooley I realized something: remember that slow ass #58 that played some snaps last week ? Watching live I thought that was a late practice squad brought up nobody... Yeah? That was Thomas Davis ladies and gentlemen... talk about another great FA signing...

Yap. Hope Holcomb comes back fast cause SDH isn't good.
And listening to Cooley I realized something: remember that slow ass #58 that played some snaps last week ? Watching live I thought that was a late practice squad brought up nobody... Yeah? That was Thomas Davis ladies and gentlemen... talk about another great FA signing...

The only reason I can think of is his leadership, Davis looked like he was stuck on quick sand.

When this season started, Rivera gave everyone the strategic plan of a rebuilding year. He let several players leave, who wanted to go, including Trent Williams. After years of Bruce Allen’s “winning year is just around the corner”, it was a nice change. The team was quiet in Free Agency and completely IGNORED chances to get legitimate TE, WR or OL players in FA. Okay, because the team has the third or fourth in cap money for next year.

Haskins was a project player and I understand Rivera and the coaches seeing Dwayne cut back on his film study and time at the practice facility. If true, that must have infuriated them, with Alex Smith outplaying Haskins in training camp and also spending much more time in the practice facility than Dwayne. Haskin’s FUNDAMENTALS were awful, with bad foot work even on plays with no rush. He needs at least a full offseason to fix those bad footwork habits.

So, it is kind of amazing that suddenly Rivera wants to “WIN NOW”. Did he forget about all the FA he passed up at TE, WR and the OL?? Our OL gave up 8 sacks today!

It was really depressing to see Kyle O’Connell pummel our defense. Meanwhile, Scott Turner’s offensive plan was weak. If you keep running the same plays the defense will make your players pay. The Rams had some spectacular defensive plays because they knew the short passes were coming. Finally, when we were down three scores, Turner tried a long passing play. It’s kind of basic, but if you stretch the field occasionally, they can’t crush your short game. O’Connell is running a varied offense that kept the WFT off balance all day. Turner’s short game program was predictable and amateurish.

Watching the Cowboys and the Giants play, I don’t think either of these teams are going to be an easy victory. Both of their offense’s can put up points. Can our offense do so? The other team’s defense simply puts eight in the box and double-teams McLaurin. We’re stuffed.

In the end, by changing the teams strategic plan for this year, I think it will spell failure. We may win one more victory than if they had stayed the course. We’re NOT going to win 7 games this season. I think we’ll be lucky to get 5 wins. All the holes they ignored in the draft and in FA are the Achilles heal of this team.


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We aren’t winning five more quarters let alone games....

We will be lucky to win 3 games

We will be lucky to win 3 games


You may be right. It all depends on how Allen plays. He showed that he could run and scramble, which is better than Haskins or Smith. That running ability gives at least a modest upgrade to the offense. A second upgrade would be Allen’s ability connect on medium to long passes. We’ll have to see if Allen can connect on real medium to long passes in these next games. Building a full assortment of passes will open up the run game AND the short passing plays.

Haskin’s had that one long pass to McLaurin in his last game, but he hasn’t been able to accurately make passes over 20 yards (he has passes over 20 yds but they were mostly all YAC). Smith had the same problem. Both Smith and Haskins ended up doing very short passes as their basic staple. But the Rams showed the BLUEPRINT of how to beat Smith’s SHORT passing game: put “8 in the box” and double-team McLaurin. Neither Haskins nor Smith has showed the ability to connect on the mid-to-long passes. So, with the defense crowded up to the front, the rushing game is jammed, and the YAC from short passes is MINIMAL.

I think Allen will do better than Haskins and Smith. But his desire to prove himself may result in getting hurt, as he almost was today in a helmet-to-helmet play that let Alex Smith come in. Also, as teams get tape on him, his ability to surprise them will go down.

AGAIN, the best things to happen to this team are the following:

1. Snyder is forced to sell the team by the NFL / Owners. The Haskin’s fiasco is just another in a incredible number of horrible personnel decisions made by Snyder over the years. The amazing thing is that after 20 years of mistakes, failures and losses, Snyder still thinks that he knows more about picking NFL personnel than anyone else. He ignored Gruden, the scouts and picked a QB because Haskins went to school with his kids!! If he’s not forced to sell, Snyder will eventually lean on the next HC to let Danny play fantasy football some more.

2. Win the least number of games. The fewer the better, because the team will need to pick a QB in the first round. Right now the Giants, Jets and Falcons are all at 0-5. If the Giants beat us, that drops us below then. Our QB draftee in the first round , all the rest of the draft picks and FA signings will be the first chosen SOLELY by Rivera, Kyle Smith and the rest of the coaches with ZERO INPUT from Snyder or his lackey GM. Unfortunately, it will take SEVERAL YEARS to eliminate all the Snyder-dictated or Snyder-influenced personnel MISTAKES. It will take at least 2 years to clean out Snyder’s trash!

I understand why Rivera couldn’t keep Haskin’s in any longer. If the stories are true, Haskin’s slacking off of his film study and practice time must have totally pissed off Rivera and the coaches ( and even the players). In fact, it was really being thrown back in the coach’s faces. But thinking the team is better than it is, was a major Bruce Allen character flaw. I hope Rivera figures out quickly how bad this team really is, for the changes he needs to make after the season is over.


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I'm convinced Rivera already knows. He seems to be testing out every element he has, to see what's worth keeping. Why else keep Smith in the game when Allen was cleared? It wasn't to win the game, maybe even to break him and force him into retirement. I think last weeks "we have a chance to win the division" speech was more for the owner than anyone else, so he could sell benching DH. I don't think he's a guy to tank but will take advantage of situations like 2+ scores down to allow the inevitable to happen as he has already.

Got to ask, as I don't really follow CFB (we don't see much of it over here and with Covid...); would we be better off with the #1 pick or trading down? Don't we need to all but draft a new OL? If we were to get Lawrence, how do we build an OL to protect him, given we haven't done close to a decent job of that up to this point? Not to mention the need for TE, WR and DBs.

We will be lucky to win 3 games

That may be good enough to win the NFC East.