veganfan21 wrote:
I alluded to this in a different thread, but I think the guy has been throwing his assistant coaches under the bus when he explains some of his playcalling.
He's already said twice or thrice this year that he's neglected to kick FGs early in games because he anticipated the game would become a "track meet," and going for it on fourth was an attempt to keep up - even though this is all speculative in real time. The clear implication here is that he doesn't believes his defense can do its job. Now, it's certainly true that the defense sucks, but as HC why would you just give up on the D by trying to keep them off the field as much as possible? Isn't that an admission of failure?
I think he did the same thing this week with the FG attempt on second down. The explanation was he didn't want an error or penalty to push them back and force them to punt, but no coach who trusts his ST unit is going to say something like that. Special teams has gone backwards with Toub's department, but again as HC you're responsible for providing oversight for each unit and putting everyone in positions to succeed. These sorts of explanations are akin to saying "we suck and I can't do anything about it."
I think Tresty is right. for most of the season the defense has sucked and we know it is time to score score score.
Next year, defense will be better and this team will be something to watch.