Originally posted by AKfanster:
Originally posted by NCommand:
people keep talking about "balance" which is great in an ideal world. But in the real world, game-planning and adjustments are what seperate the best OC's from the average. And THAT is what concerns me most about Raye. While I'm skeptically optimistic Raye will get it this year, many of his comments scare me esp. regarding his philosophy to keep games close and "hopefully" win them in the 4th quarter. A great OC attacks weaknesses. This is the area Raye seems to fail the most besides his vanilla play-calling and philosphy. If we're playing a team who's 32nd against the pass, I want an OC who passes all game long and exploits these waeknesses (screw balance). If we play a team who's 32nd against the run, we better be running all game long. If a defense has slow LBers and safeties, I want us exploiting that weakness by attacking with VD and crossing and post patterns. This is where Raye scares me the most. He and Singletary share a similar philosophy but "balance" should not be the objective...game planning and attacking weaknesses should be. Given we tend to start out games very poorly, are terrible on the road, are terrible after bye-weeks and were backwards last year (threw against teams we should have run against and vice versa), I have my concerns. But now that Sing/Raye have all "their" tools to implement the kind of offense they want to run, it's 100% on them now. No more throwing Alex or the o-line under the bus or Raye not knowing his personnel yet. THIS is the year we find out if Raye can game plan and attack weaknesses. Screw balance!
As usual, COMMAND, you know your s**t. Miss talking defense with you.
You say you're "skeptically optimistic" that Raye can call a decent game. I guess you could say I'm sure he can't. Raye attack a Ds weakness?? Not happening. I take that back, he can attack a Ds weakness..........if that weakness is at NT/DT/MLB.
I watched this team fall WAY behind in games while they were trying to "establish" the run last season. You're a fan, you saw it, we all saw it. Raye's playcalling cost this team several games last season. I have ZERO faith in that guy, NONE. Same goes for Singletary. His views on offense are a joke, "only three things can happen when you throw the ball and 2 of them are bad"....or something to that effect. Gimme a break.
The current offense can score points. They have the weapons, they just need the brains.
Hey AK. Obviously, that was my one positive (hopeful) post about Raye and more importantly, our philosophy on offense. What exactly did Singletary pick Walsh's brain for if we do just the opposite from a "philosophy standpoint?" That philosophy had Martz leaving the team, no viable OC's wanting the job and we're stuck with ol' Raye and "hoping" he can get it this year with ALL of the weapons we have this year (and last year too).
That said, I can recognize (though, not an excuse last year IMHO) that Raye finally is more familiar with his weapons, what players can do, how they fit in and Alex and the whole offense can build off chemistry and continuity. We also added the pieces Sing/Raye wanted too.
So, while I'm skeptically optimistic, I'm not blind either. Can you teach an old dog new tricks?
Defense? Let's wait until Brooks/Franklin are back. RJF played exceptionally (I predicted this one!)...he's going to excel in the one-gap, is younger, stronger and faster then Franklin and of the same body build. He just needs experience and you can see he's growing with every snap. He was pretty stout last game. He made two back-to-back tackles behind the LOS running a RB down from behind on consecutive plays. Briggs is looking very stout and aggressive as well. If LaBoy can get it together, we'll have a great rotation and Brooks pushing to start this year. Lawson is Lawson. We all know what we have with him.
