Random thoughts after L @ CLE

I started with this thoughts Sunday afternoon. For many reasons, I read, and read again, and read again... and here's what survived of my random thoughts:

-This game started the way we needed: with a TD from our D. Who else? Our own LT...
-Then, we lost the football. Our D stopped. And we lost the football again, and again, and again...
-Our QB wasn't able to connect with open receivers. I had a flashback to the 80's & 90s, when we had all the pieces but a decent QB
-We converted 1 of 9 3rd downs (11%), had only 1 rushing 1st down and lost the ball 7 times (8, but the last one doesn't count). How many games can a team win with this kind of stats?
-We've scored 23 offensive points in 10 quarters without Ben (6 vsKC, 10 vsBAL, 7 vsCLE). Again, how many games can a team win scoring +/-10 pts per game?
-Leftwich couldn't move the O. Batch wasn't able either.... Is it time to blame the playcalling too? Or another "he was rusty" argument?
-What would have happened if we keep Dennis Dixon... or Jarrod Johnson? Is it a bad-backup situation, or a Ben-built-around O that is falling without him?
-So Mendy, Redman, Dwyer and Rainey all lost the football... Still, I'd go with Dwyer as the feature back
-Was that last deep pass to Wallace intended all the way? Coach T has done this stuff before: risk the ball with 3+ minutes. If it results an int, our D will give us the ball back again. Can't blame him, nothing else was working, but:
-Wallace's lack of passion is begining to bother me. He never seems to fight for the ball
-Mendy & Wallace: you need to build solid arguments for your contract talks. What have you done so far?
-Sanders is the opposite: he seems to be willing to die to stay on this team. IMO, he needs a new contract, Steeler kind of guy
-Another game with no good K or P returns.
-Timmons has delivered big, and this game was not an exception. I'd be surprised if he's not headed to the Pro Bowl
-Clark has played great this season too, but probably will not get enough credit to make the Pro Bowl. A shame, 'cause he deserves it too
-And we witnessed Harrison's best game of the year... so far!
-Our D played with passion, particularly the last two drives. You could almost feel Foote's anger.... Also Kiesel & Hampton had a nice passion display
-C Heyward & McLendon both need to get more playing time. I liked what I saw on sunday. (Kiesel-McLendon-Heyward our D-Line for 2013?)
-Even though our D played a good game, maybe if instead of that Richardson TD we gave up a FG, we could have been able to win the game at the end
-Of course we've had execution issues, as well as coaching issues, but if you're looking into blaming something, try this: Injuries, penalties & turnovers
-The lack of discipline of this team is killing us. Not just the penalties, their timing has been awful (killing drives, nullifying first downs)
-Injured players so far: Ben, Mendenhall, Brown, Cotchery, Pouncey, DeCastro, Gilbert, Adams, Harrison, Woodley, Clark, Polamalu....

So, this are my random thoughts after that painfull loss to those guys.

 

Ditto and ditto!


A couple more:
Our running game is not nearly as effective on the right side with Adams out.
Legursky is an exceptional backup Center but a mediocre backup Guard.
Mendy still looks tentative, almost as if he's running scared.
Is Tomlin the worst clock manager in the league?
if Ike could only catch, we'd be mentioning him in the same breath as Blount and Woodson. Two more dropped INTs Sun.