Could anyone have done a better job this year with the hand Spags was dealt?
Short answer:
SPAGS would have done better if he had hired a WCO coach like Bevell.
Long answer, in the form of a wandering meditation:
First, "doing better" is relative because injuries to CB and OT just demolished the season. No one would have coped with that.
If someone disagrees with that, name the guy who DID cope with that. And it has to be equal to the Rams injuries. 4 OTs have been injured. They reshuffled the entire OL--several times. Right now their best tackle is Dahl and they signed him as a guard. Their guards are Brown and Mattison, and Mattison has been on the team for what? 4 weeks? In fact when you factor in Le Voir, Wragge, and Mattison, that's 3 starters who were not with the team in August. Then of course there's the qbs. The WRs. Jackson missing time. Now both Hall and Long are hurting.
My bet is, no one can name a guy who did well with that list of injuries.
Back to Bevell.
I was one of those who positively hailed the McD signing and I even went out of my way to learn more about his system and post about it.
It wasn't till the season started that I said he was throwing the entire offense off balance. It wasn't the system so much as his absolutely clueless understanding of who his players are and what they could do.
I always said that in the longrun they would catch on to the offense and do better and that it was a good system.
NOW, recently, when he has even less to work with, we see that McD can also be a poor playcaller under certain conditions. That shows up sporadically. Often he is the opposite--the run game, when they had their real OL from the summer, has not been this good since Olson called the plays in 06.
But the shellshock, out of sync start was bad enough; injuries made it all worse. An easier transition would have been just to hire Bevell.
The run defense got derailed by Robbins and his decline. Yes the LBs were part of it, but, they did better last year with an arguably worse situation at OLB. This year, whenever BOTH Bannan and Robbins can't go--they are just sitting ducks against the run. Even a diminished Robbins is better than nothing and he is better with Bannan in there.
Anyway.
No coach would have done better with these conditions...unless they too brought in a good WCO coordinator for continuity. Even then the injuries would have kicked his ass--no matter who it was (and, again, if you doubt that, then name a guy who did well with equivalent injuries...and that includes 4 OTs. Heck Green Bay fell apart in the first half of 09 after losing 2 OTs). (And I will want exact numbers! :cheese: )
People like me thought that hiring McD was a big corner turner. We said, he can make more out of lesser receivers. We said his system fit Bradford. We said signing Dahl stabilized the OL and things would be fine, in spite of the schedule.
Turns out that after injuries McD was their biggest problem. I was completely wrong about Mcd and all my off-season enthusiasm was wasted. McD was Spags's biggest mistake.
All the other stuff people name strikes me as minor. The kind of things that get magnified when a team is losing and forgotten when it is winning.
They would be better off keeping Spags, but it won't happen it looks like. With Spags here and the injured back they're fine. If the next coach is a good hire (which is not the Rams track record as a rule) chances are he has a setback year but is still positioned to be further along than they were in 09. They may lose Jackson (will he want to start over with someone else?) and guys like Mikell who fit the system could be wasted, and someone like Kendricks who had value in a 2 TE offense may be waste (unless they draft or sign an in-line TE and stick with the 2 TE plan), but they will have several offensive linemen, Bradford, a couple of young receivers who fill #2 and #3 roles, Long, Quinn, Stewart, and Laurenaitis. They also have some decent depth/role player/ grade B acceptable starter guys like Chamberlain and Bannan. They didn't have half of that in 09.
In terms of fighting over this, it will always be a value judgement. I will always say that they should have kept Spags, and my bet is the rest of his career bears me out on that. If his replacement is a good coach, then I can both say "hey his replacement is a good coach but they still shoulda kept Spags." No one wins that fight, since it's a value judgement.
Short answer:
SPAGS would have done better if he had hired a WCO coach like Bevell.
Long answer, in the form of a wandering meditation:
First, "doing better" is relative because injuries to CB and OT just demolished the season. No one would have coped with that.
If someone disagrees with that, name the guy who DID cope with that. And it has to be equal to the Rams injuries. 4 OTs have been injured. They reshuffled the entire OL--several times. Right now their best tackle is Dahl and they signed him as a guard. Their guards are Brown and Mattison, and Mattison has been on the team for what? 4 weeks? In fact when you factor in Le Voir, Wragge, and Mattison, that's 3 starters who were not with the team in August. Then of course there's the qbs. The WRs. Jackson missing time. Now both Hall and Long are hurting.
My bet is, no one can name a guy who did well with that list of injuries.
Back to Bevell.
I was one of those who positively hailed the McD signing and I even went out of my way to learn more about his system and post about it.
It wasn't till the season started that I said he was throwing the entire offense off balance. It wasn't the system so much as his absolutely clueless understanding of who his players are and what they could do.
I always said that in the longrun they would catch on to the offense and do better and that it was a good system.
NOW, recently, when he has even less to work with, we see that McD can also be a poor playcaller under certain conditions. That shows up sporadically. Often he is the opposite--the run game, when they had their real OL from the summer, has not been this good since Olson called the plays in 06.
But the shellshock, out of sync start was bad enough; injuries made it all worse. An easier transition would have been just to hire Bevell.
The run defense got derailed by Robbins and his decline. Yes the LBs were part of it, but, they did better last year with an arguably worse situation at OLB. This year, whenever BOTH Bannan and Robbins can't go--they are just sitting ducks against the run. Even a diminished Robbins is better than nothing and he is better with Bannan in there.
Anyway.
No coach would have done better with these conditions...unless they too brought in a good WCO coordinator for continuity. Even then the injuries would have kicked his ass--no matter who it was (and, again, if you doubt that, then name a guy who did well with equivalent injuries...and that includes 4 OTs. Heck Green Bay fell apart in the first half of 09 after losing 2 OTs). (And I will want exact numbers! :cheese: )
People like me thought that hiring McD was a big corner turner. We said, he can make more out of lesser receivers. We said his system fit Bradford. We said signing Dahl stabilized the OL and things would be fine, in spite of the schedule.
Turns out that after injuries McD was their biggest problem. I was completely wrong about Mcd and all my off-season enthusiasm was wasted. McD was Spags's biggest mistake.
All the other stuff people name strikes me as minor. The kind of things that get magnified when a team is losing and forgotten when it is winning.
They would be better off keeping Spags, but it won't happen it looks like. With Spags here and the injured back they're fine. If the next coach is a good hire (which is not the Rams track record as a rule) chances are he has a setback year but is still positioned to be further along than they were in 09. They may lose Jackson (will he want to start over with someone else?) and guys like Mikell who fit the system could be wasted, and someone like Kendricks who had value in a 2 TE offense may be waste (unless they draft or sign an in-line TE and stick with the 2 TE plan), but they will have several offensive linemen, Bradford, a couple of young receivers who fill #2 and #3 roles, Long, Quinn, Stewart, and Laurenaitis. They also have some decent depth/role player/ grade B acceptable starter guys like Chamberlain and Bannan. They didn't have half of that in 09.
In terms of fighting over this, it will always be a value judgement. I will always say that they should have kept Spags, and my bet is the rest of his career bears me out on that. If his replacement is a good coach, then I can both say "hey his replacement is a good coach but they still shoulda kept Spags." No one wins that fight, since it's a value judgement.
