In Reply to: Personally, I’m still not happy with Chip Kelly. posted by hotspot on November 24, 2024 at 11:58:35
no disagreements at all with what you and BuscH wrote - and mh as well on Bieniemy's offense which has scared me since the day he was hired (although having experienced coordinators was, i thought, very important for a rookie HC who had never even been a coordinator before). And i won't even start on that "Discipline pillar" PR stuff. Just a thought on heart:
we measure teams' heart by how they stand up when everything's on the line. But this coming week may just be even more of a measure. There is nothing on the line next weekend. Nothing external. Just playing to play the game - football, hoping to send your teammates out on a winning note, a number of your teammates playing their last game ever, hoping to give your quarterback a going away present as a reward for all the bumps, bruises and criticism he absorbed while trying to lead his team through a new conference, a new coaching staff, a lackluster offensive line and a horrendous spate of injuries at the position tasked with protecting your vulnerable blind side. Just a Mountain West opponent. Not a main course, merely a side dish - not the turkey, just the green beans or something.
Showing up for this game is going to be really hard - for coaches as well as players. But there are plus sides if we can:
After this season (as well as recent ones) and especially falling short with a singular lack of creativity in terms of play calls and adjusting during the game, it's going to be near impossible to build up a war chest sufficient to improve where we desperately need to improve. Instead of proven stud Left Tackles and Linebackers and playmakers all around, we're going to have to go after players with decent upsides but perhaps questionable injury profiles (see this season at Left Tackle) - taking chances - and we have 15 starters (at least!) to replace just to be right where we are. A win ends our year - Foster's first - on an upnote - and in a situation such as this, every little bit helps.
To me, how we show up and what we put into next week's game against an opponent that has proven a lot tougher for us than the inspiration it generated for our players to play them. (And ending our season with an afterthought game rather than an actual rival still sucks!)
And the game will actually be played in daylight!!
Imagine that!