yagersports

A captain ensures the morale of his crew. You don't ensure morale by stating everything is a disaster. You state the obvious, things haven't gone the way we expected, and you determine a course of correction.

Harbaugh will right the ship. He always has. There's still too much talent on this defense not to succeed. And......Suggs is going to be that much healthier. That is a huge X-Factor. We shift gears this week and return to our play-action offense and things will look very different.

What else should he say? Should he detail exactly how we're failing so that the opposition can more thoroughly take advantage of a weakness without having to put the study work in? Should he give up and state that there's just nothing left and move on? I don't get it, what does anyone want him to say? Should he state where he plans to make adjustments and the strategies he'll employ so that the opposition can quickly counter? Harbaugh has done nothing in the past to suggest that this isn't correctable.

Whoa......that would require creative thinking and using players strength's......who let this guy in the meeting room!!!????!!! lol I agree completely......where's the inventive creative Cam from Joe's rookie season? It's like he just stopped being creative thinking Joe being better was enough. Frustrating.

The Bears use alot of 4-3 cover 2. Lovie is very successful at employing that scheme. There's also Fischer's teams, he still likes to use alot of 4-3. Of course Rex uses alot of D-Lineman in his hybrid scheme. And Marvin Lewis still uses it in Cinci. Indy may still use it, I'm not certain. I just think that we could benfit from a simpler scheme allowing some young D-Lineman to get on the field and go to work. We also could get Suggs, Kruger, and Upshaw on the field at the same time if Suggs or Upshaw play DE. Just some random thoughts.

Bingo to the Boldin WR screens. It's beyond incomprehensible why we do not run screens to Boldin. Cam IMHO just doesn't want to design an offense that is tailored to players' strengths. He wants his offense run the way he wants it run. It's too bad cuz we do have some really good mismatches, we just flat out do not take advantage. And shouldn't there be at least one screen a game to Ray Rice? Honestly. lol

We could sure use someone to step up and surprise us. We could really use a rookie surprise. We haven't had any production from anyone that we haven't expected. We need someone to step up. Maybe the return of Suggs will allow Kruger to get some better looks to get the QB. I can only hope. Anyone also think that maybe we should go 4 defensive lineman? I'm just not seeing where three is getting it done. I know teams pass more, but I'm thinking cover 2, with our talent may be the better defense to play.

I think the receivers not getting open has to do with two things. One we don't run the ball enough, so play action goes out the window. Two, our routes have little to no imagination. When was the last time you saw Joe pump fake? Someone mentioned it here a few days ago, crossing routes, can I get a pick on crossing routes. Yeah it's illegal, but once a game will get it done. How about a WR screen to Boldin? The biggest WR in football that runs like a RB and we don't give him the ball on a screen. How about the out and up? Why oh why is that pattern almost non existant from this scheme? Offensively it boils down to Joe is a great play action QB and Ray Rice is an awesome RB. Why do we need to be anything different? We've got a really good back-up RB let's run the ball and win like Ravens.

Obviously I'm no coach or GM, it just seems to me that it's awfully tough to change signal callers midway through a season. I'm all for getting rid of this guy. He doesn't disguise a thing and the blocking schemes are so vanilla it's ridiculous. I watched Pitt run three successful reverses. Cmon, we haven't run but 1 in 3 years? (I don't really know how many successful reverses we've run, I'm exaggerating a little) I think we're going to have to get back to running the football and Flacco throwing 15-20 times a game. That's our winning formula. After the season....we gotta let Cam go, Super Bowl win or not. Yes I still think we can win the big game. Suggs is back and faaaaarrrrrrrrr healthier than I imagined. Jimmy Smith is going to get better. We're going to run the ball, we have 2 capable running backs. We're going to get back to throwing to our TE's. We're also going to blitz more.....did I mention Suggs is back? lol Don't fret, Harbaugh has been good about righting the ship in the past.

I'm pretty blown away that Suggs was able to play effectively today. Just wow. This is gonna be very big for us.

I just don't see how firing an OC midseason helps. It takes a full offseason to install an offense. I would understand a little more the team wasn't in the playoff hunt. Let me clarify....I want Cam fired too. I wanted him gone after last season. I get that Harbaugh wanted to keep consistency etc. However I think John just made the wrong call with Cam. It's time to rectify that. Now Pees on the other hand. I wouldn't mind letting him go and moving on in another direction with the defense. This can't much worse defensively. In any case, under Harbaugh we've played very well after byes and down the stretch. I think Harbaugh has another CTJ talk with Cam and we return to running the football. We're a play action running football team and Cam can't coach much else. That is what it is. If Harbaugh and Co want a no huddle up tempo offense they're going to have to obtain an OC that can deliver that. I'm sure we'll return to running the ball.....this seems to happen every year lol.

Anyone think the run D may improve with the absence of Ray? I remember really liking the way we played the run against SF.

Our run defense could improve with Ray off the field. He does lead the team in tackles, but like last year, he's hitting the RB 3 -4 yds behind the line of scrimmage. He's not meeting the RB at the line of scrimmage with the frequency that he had in his younger days. I really wouldn't doubt if the Run defense improved. We NEED to find a pass rush. I truly hope I'm wrong about Suggs not being able to provide that. Are there any reports on Suggs practicing? How much was he allowed to do? I really think Ellerbe and McClain will be better 1-2 punch in the run game. I'm not sure if they'll be better in the pass coverage. Ray seemed to be around the ball all the time in pass coverage.

The Patriots didn't play like crap against sub par teams during their undefeated regular season or during their most recent trip to the Super Bowl, how did that work for them? As a matter of fact, the team they played both times did lay some eggs to some sub par teams during the season......and they won the Super Bowl both times. Taking it a step further, the year the Pack won the Super Bowl they weren't blowing people away early in the season. They didn't play well when they needed. Contrastly, the Steelers were dominating teams. I believe the Pack won.

Joe doesn't commit costly turnovers or make many boneheaded throws either. He's not perfect mind you, but since he was a rookie he's kept this team in position to win. Did he throw for 5000 yards, no. He's routinely make intelligent plays and he threw the game winner last year. He can't catch it too. Ask Brady. I've liked this guy since his first day. He's just gotten better and better. He just keeps improving.

The Browns game was the result of playing on 3 days rest. We dominated the 1st half and were gassed the second half. We'll be more than refreshed for this game. Our only worry is allowing big runs by Charles.

Another good point. He def looks like he gained weight. We'll see I suppose.

I'm pulling for him. This is very unfortunate.

Does anyone require the rapist to defend his record his first few years in the league? This is nonsense. Someone with little going on upstairs. Or what about Brady? He wasn't all world his first couple of years in the league either. His defense won his first two championships. If anything Brady has failed to win the Super Bowl when it's been put on him. That is also nonsense because Brady can't help that Welker dropped a gimmie pass. Is what it is, some people are just fools.

Suggs would be huge for this team, but are we going to get the game changing Suggs? I'm just not convinced he can really contribute meaningfully this year. The achilles is such a nasty injury.

I'm fairly impressed with the win VA. These guys did not have it easy and this Cleveland defense has played good all season. They're quick and aggressive. For to to get that win in a crappy situation like that shows me this team has guts, heart, and can execute. I'm a little concerned with the short yardage running situation myself. I'm confused why we don't run tosses to Ray in those situations. It seems like he can get yards at will when the ball is tossed to him. In any case, well done. No team goes through the year beating everyone easily. And......we should have won the Philly game, Joe threw the winning TD pass. That would make us 4-0. In any case we're 3-1 with two wins against teams that made the playoffs last year. Really that's pretty good for a middle tier team. lol

The offensive line looked gassed. It was a short week, I'm sure they're beat to all hell. Kudos to them and that stretching guru they've been using to get them ready. 3 days rest is not easy. That Cleveland defense is good......and fast. However in a rematch I don't think it's this close. Our lineman got very tired as the game wore on. That wouldn't happen with a proper week of rest.

Max has been posting here for a long time. He's one of the more positive posters on this board. Like all of us sometimes we get down, sometimes we're flying high. We're fans, aren't we entitled to that? Isn't that part of the fun? In any case, Max makes this board a lot of fun. Let's show respect where respect has been earned. We can all disagree without disrespecting.

The difference. This defense has plenty of playmakers despite it's deficiencies. They'll come through when they're needed.

Bingo.