Anyone See Trend ??

What are you asking here? Yes the players failed to execute I don't dispute that. I am saying that there is coaching and preparation that needs to happen also that isn't or appears to not be. When I talk about blitzing I'm not talking about just blitzing, I am talking about some of the things they were doing in games previous to the Cardinals game and this one where Butler went with a much more conservative blitz scheme. We saw less overload blitzing, less CB blitzing basically less risk taking which resulted in Smith finding the TE and making throws. When they made him uncomfortable they had more success at short completions or him throwing it away. Some of those pressure packages helped create turnovers the last few games but we saw less of them the last two games.

As far as Tuitt they didn't have to invent anyone to take his place but they did have solid tape on Cam Thomas and should know he is not "standard" before they entered the season and if he was the horse they had to roll with then perhaps game planning for this would have been better. Again give them the tools to succeed. The depth issues most definitely are Tomlin's fault and Colbert's as well. They had a choice between a healing Keisel (a known commodity) under contract for 1 mill or Cam Thomas ( a guy playing out of position and badly) for 1 million. They cut Keisel and kept THomas so thats on them. I'm not giving any player on that field a free pass, there was definitely a lack of execution however there were coaching issues as well.

 

I wonder if some of the coaching issues are they are coaching the team as they hope it is (or will be) and not the team it is. If players are developing, especially on defense, do you install a plan that expects them grow into it, or do you plan for what you have? If you plan for who they are, does this stunt their development? Do you coach for the long haul, or for today? The blitzes don't quite get there, and we get burned, but is this preparation for someday learning how the blitz will get there? We'll never know if the busted coverages were poor execution or a poor play call or a poor read on the part of the group as a whole. The D is young and learning - they will make mistakes, maybe especially when the offense is struggling, but I hope they learn quickly.

However, none of that is an excuse for the poor tackling. Please wrap people up.