On a more serious note, it’s hard to really see this team in it’s current construction making waves in the playoffs. But who knows, maybe a more up to date offensive philosophy and upgraded O-line could make the difference?
I know it’s easy to look through our purple tinted glasses and see all the talent on the team, but how does an offense with a competent QB, Dalvin Cook, Adam Thielen, and Stefon Diggs not show more consistency on offense? Perhaps none of those guys are as good as we thought they were.
On one hand, there were times that our offense was great* this year!
*When we were able to run the ball on 1st and 2nd down effectively. The problem is when we get to the playoffs(or to a big game with playoff implications), we inevitably run into a team that has a stronger D-line than our O-line(Bears our last 4 matchups, Eagles in the NFCCG in 2018, Niners, Chiefs, Packers week 15, etc). In which case we crumble into a pile of the most ineffective offenses I’ve ever watched.
1st down: Run the ball for no gain.
2nd down: Run the ball for no gain OR throw a screen pass for no gain.
3rd down and long: Drop back and get sacked or pressured before our receivers get through their routes.
They showed a few replays focused on the WRs/secondary in the niners game and every WR was just smothered by the defense, nowhere for Cousins to throw.
In some cases, sure, maybe we want him to throw the ball up for guys like Thielen and Diggs, both of whom are good at contested catches, but I just don’t think that’s a long-term strategy for success.
Meanwhile, we watched the niners just kill us with quick-fire passing plays on their first drive. A lot of pre-snap movement and motion to open up parts of the middle of the field. Where is our innovative play design? Oh yeah, double reverse to Diggs incomplete pass/sack happened twice.
It’s impossible to watch this offense in games where our run game sucks, which is like 1/4 of the games, which is way too many for us to win a super bowl. And when that happens our game plan appears to be, throw screen passes, if that doesn’t work….?
The niners gameplan and execution was just top notch on Saturday. First drive they just absolutely carved us up with short passes, and continued to show that ability throughout the game. We had to adjust to stop those types of plays and then they just ran it down our throat. Meanwhile, they showed early that they could stop our run game and we couldn’t do anything to slow down their D-line.
Shouldn’t we have like 50 different quick-fire passing plays in our playbook that highlight Thielen and Diggs’ skillsets? Or Rudolph’s size? Or Dalvin’s ability to catch and run(excluding screen passes)?
Or is Diggs only good at running down the sideline. Is Rudolph only good at catching redzone passes where Kirk can throw it up with the safety net of the endzone, etc.
