Week 12 2022: Heroes and Goats

[kerouac9]

I'm freaking bugged that Pro Football Reference has put up so many banners and auto play videos. This isn't some late Xer/Early Millennial bellyaching that The Internet Should Be Free. I don't even mind that they put some of their choicest tools behind a paywall (their player comparison engine was sick). But it's such an old-skool approach to profiteering. I wonder if they could make more money by just asking their users for $20 a year to keep the site healthy.

I don't even like Wikipedia and I cough that much up. The stat sites for NFL.com and ESPN.com are basically unusable. I'd rather be extorted then held hostage by bad ads whenever I wander over there or I just want to see the Cards drive summary.

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James Conner, RB - The fumble kind of sucks, but at least it happened early and there was no result from it. Unfortunate that after his TD reception Conner had zero successful plays in five chances. Might've made a difference.

Zach Allen, DE - The Chargers OL isn't very good, but Allen took advantage of their being bad by racking up a sack an four QB hits. Allen continues to impress — but is the rest of the NFL even noticing?

Kelvin Beachum, OT - It's hard to evaluate this offensive line because their coach got handsy South of the Border and the Cards are doing a ton to protect this group. But I think that Beachum could be the worst player on a good OL. Unfortunately he's on this one.

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Kliff Kingsbury, HC - People seem Big Mad about it, but I actually don't mind going for it on 4th down up three in the second quarter. I'm more upset that this team (coaches, players, and fans) just seemed to be going through the motions at home the week before the bye.

Isaiah Simmons, LB - Like, is this guy even good? I know he put up a lot of stats, but every time the Chargers made a big play it seems like Simmons was trailing four yards behind the guy with the ball. I don't understand why he doesn't attend LB meetings.

Trey McBride, TE - This dude just sucks right now. One reception on three targets for one yard yesterday. He's averaging 5.1 yards per reception this season (on 11 targets). He played 52 snaps (79% of the offensive snaps). Like, what is the point of this guy?

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Can't disagree with any of your selections this week.

 

[MrYeahBut]

Since McBride played at Colorado St. Leave him in Denver and he can walk home.

 

[Crimson Warrior]

wow.. you know apathy has really start to set in when the Heroes and Goats thread receives such a tepid response.

I feel sorry for us. lol...

 

[Arz101]

wow.. you know apathy has really start to set in when the Heroes and Goats thread receives such a tepid response.

I feel sorry for us. lol...

Right now, fans care about Cardinals less than Bidwills do.

 

[Dayman]

Conner was second in touches among RBs this week with 28, behind only Josh Jacobs' epic 39 touches for 303 yards. Even Conner's biggest fans have to know that's too much for him. And it showed at the end of the game when he struggled to pick up the extra yards he was getting regularly in the first half. That kind of usage also all but ensures he will be hurt again in the next couple of games.

Cutting Eno and replacing him with nobody wasn't really a viable option, but here we are, I guess.

 

[BritCard]

Conner was second in touches among RBs this week with 28, behind only Josh Jacobs' epic 39 touches for 303 yards. Even Conner's biggest fans have to know that's too much for him. And it showed at the end of the game when he struggled to pick up the extra yards he was getting regularly in the first half. That kind of usage also all but ensures he will be hurt again in the next couple of games.

Cutting Eno and replacing him with nobody wasn't really a viable option, but here we are, I guess.

Yup. It was dumb. More mind boggling game management from Kingsbury.

Conner was obviously gassed in Q4 and he had Clement and Ingram touch the ball 3 times.

Kingsbury's whole Q4 was a disaster. Clock management, play calling, personnel management, overall strategy. All of it was a massive failure. We should have won by 2 scores.

 

[Chopper0080]

I'm freaking bugged that Pro Football Reference has put up so many banners and auto play videos. This isn't some late Xer/Early Millennial bellyaching that The Internet Should Be Free. I don't even mind that they put some of their choicest tools behind a paywall (their player comparison engine was sick). But it's such an old-skool approach to profiteering. I wonder if they could make more money by just asking their users for $20 a year to keep the site healthy.

I don't even like Wikipedia and I cough that much up. The stat sites for NFL.com and ESPN.com are basically unusable. I'd rather be extorted then held hostage by bad ads whenever I wander over there or I just want to see the Cards drive summary.

You must be registered for see images attach

James Conner, RB - The fumble kind of sucks, but at least it happened early and there was no result from it. Unfortunate that after his TD reception Conner had zero successful plays in five chances. Might've made a difference.

Zach Allen, DE - The Chargers OL isn't very good, but Allen took advantage of their being bad by racking up a sack an four QB hits. Allen continues to impress — but is the rest of the NFL even noticing?

Kelvin Beachum, OT - It's hard to evaluate this offensive line because their coach got handsy South of the Border and the Cards are doing a ton to protect this group. But I think that Beachum could be the worst player on a good OL. Unfortunately he's on this one.

You must be registered for see images attach

Kliff Kingsbury, HC - People seem Big Mad about it, but I actually don't mind going for it on 4th down up three in the second quarter. I'm more upset that this team (coaches, players, and fans) just seemed to be going through the motions at home the week before the bye.

Isaiah Simmons, LB - Like, is this guy even good? I know he put up a lot of stats, but every time the Chargers made a big play it seems like Simmons was trailing four yards behind the guy with the ball. I don't understand why he doesn't attend LB meetings.

Trey McBride, TE - This dude just sucks right now. One reception on three targets for one yard yesterday. He's averaging 5.1 yards per reception this season (on 11 targets). He played 52 snaps (79% of the offensive snaps). Like, what is the point of this guy?

Thanks for doing these. Good work. I know they can be tedious and repetitive over the course of the season.

 

[slanidrac16]

I agree with all of your choices except Simmons. When I see a LB Covering a Wr I have a problem with that.

Insert Dingleberry in Simmons spot. He deserves a double goat award.

 

[BritCard]

I'd have had JJ Watt on there too.

1 sack, one batted pass, 1 TL, 3 QB hits. Very similar to Allen.

 

[Jetstream Green]

Marco Wilson played well, along with Allen are at least two players which are showing improvement

 

[BritCard]

I agree with all of your choices except Simmons. When I see a LB Covering a Wr I have a problem with that.

Insert Dingleberry in Simmons spot. He deserves a double goat award.

I see K9's point. And it's not just when covering WR's.

For a quick, athletic linebacker that they brought in for coverage skills he often looks completely lost in coverage. He looks like bambi on ice. Never gets his head around.

So far this year he's given up a 75% completion rate, 108 passer rating and 3 TD's for 412 yards.

He's only 60 yards short of last years total and he's only just over half the snaps.

 

[GoldGloveschmidt]

Regardless of what Simmons was "brought in for", his strengths at this point are clear. He should be playing downhill at the LOS, blitzing from the middle, the edge, spying mobile QBs to prevent runs, covering backs out of the backfield, etc. To continue to use him as a coverage safety is akin to using Reddick at ILB when OLB was his clear strength. Simmons makes impact plays frequently when he's played to his strengths.

 

[HomerPimpson]

Thanks for doing these. Good work. I know they can be tedious and repetitive over the course of the season.

+1

 

[football karma]

Regardless of what Simmons was "brought in for", his strengths at this point are clear. He should be playing downhill at the LOS, blitzing from the middle, the edge, spying mobile QBs to prevent runs, covering backs out of the backfield, etc. To continue to use him as a coverage safety is akin to using Reddick at ILB when OLB was his clear strength. Simmons makes impact plays frequently when he's played to his strengths.

he is a long-legged guy -- who has awesome straight line speed but gets eaten up with short space change of direction guys. Offensive coordinators know it too -- they regularly look to get him matched up 1v1 in man in space

his strengths are zone coverage and pursuit.

So in games its a combo of splash plays vs giving up plays. I feel like thats 80% on Vance

 

[football karma]

last note on the game:

in the 4th Quarter - Kliff was a scared play caller.

three possessions in a row with a chance to ice the game. Three possessions in a row that started with a first down hand off to Conner that LAC totally expected. Not one play action pass to grab an easy 5-9 yards and put the offense in control.

the worst was the final possession. With 2:15 and LAC with all 3 timeouts and a 7 point lead-- keeping the ball and making at least one first down is the priority, not running clock. The full offense should have been on the table rather than the conservative one he employed.

 

[BritCard]

last note on the game:

in the 4th Quarter - Kliff was a scared play caller.

three possessions in a row with a chance to ice the game. Three possessions in a row that started with a first down hand off to Conner that LAC totally expected. Not one play action pass to grab an easy 5-9 yards and put the offense in control.

the worst was the final possession. With 2:15 and LAC with all 3 timeouts and a 7 point lead-- keeping the ball and making at least one first down is the priority, not running clock. The full offense should have been on the table rather than the conservative one he employed.

Kliff had this problem his first 2 seasons. I wrote about it alot.

He was a terrible situational play caller. Up by only a score late he was exactly like Sunday. Shaking in his boots, scared to pass and king of 3 and out.

Down multiple scores he would just lose the plot. No patience. He'd abandon the run early. We'd be going 5 wide in Q2 and throwing 50 times a game.

The only time he was "fine" was up early or down by a small margin late.

I thought he had got over it but I think last year and some easy wins just masked it. It showed with a vengeance again on Sunday.

 

[Jetstream Green]

Regardless of what Simmons was "brought in for", his strengths at this point are clear. He should be playing downhill at the LOS, blitzing from the middle, the edge, spying mobile QBs to prevent runs, covering backs out of the backfield, etc. To continue to use him as a coverage safety is akin to using Reddick at ILB when OLB was his clear strength. Simmons makes impact plays frequently when he's played to his strengths.

This, if the staff would limit this fragile Swiss Army knife approach, he could be a sharp Bowie knife going at the QB... he showed that when he obliterated Herbert sent up the gut

 

[Jetstream Green]

Kliff had this problem his first 2 seasons. I wrote about it alot.

He was a terrible situational play caller. Up by only a score late he was exactly like Sunday. Shaking in his boots, scared to pass and king of 3 and out.

Down multiple scores he would just lose the plot. No patience. He'd abandon the run early. We'd be going 5 wide in Q2 and throwing 50 times a game.

The only time he was "fine" was up early or down by a small margin late.

I thought he had got over it but I think last year and some easy wins just masked it. It showed with a vengeance again on Sunday.

Kliff is addicted to being 'cute' and seems to call plays oblivious to the down, distance and situation, and especially the overall flow of the game and his opponent. Often it looks like he attempts to adjust to the defense by the fourth quarter after he gets his initial plays out of the way, like he was never able to see them on tape prior

 

[kerouac9]

last note on the game:

in the 4th Quarter - Kliff was a scared play caller.

three possessions in a row with a chance to ice the game. Three possessions in a row that started with a first down hand off to Conner that LAC totally expected. Not one play action pass to grab an easy 5-9 yards and put the offense in control.

the worst was the final possession. With 2:15 and LAC with all 3 timeouts and a 7 point lead-- keeping the ball and making at least one first down is the priority, not running clock. The full offense should have been on the table rather than the conservative one he employed.

He's always been a conservative guy when games are tight. That's who he is.

 

[Jetstream Green]

He's always been a conservative guy when games are tight. That's who he is.

Napoleon once made a comment that any man who charges when afraid is brave and any man who charges with no fear at all is a fool. I think when Klff goes for it early and take chances it has nothing to do with being bold but being a moron and then cracks under pressure when the risk is obvious, and the game is on the line... he coaches with blissful ignorance till his brash behavior puts him behind the eight ball and his inability to then calm down (as Kyler pointed out haha) when he realizes what he has gotten into again and again

 

[kerouac9]

Napoleon once made a comment that any man who charges when afraid is brave and any man who charges with no fear at all is a fool. I think when Klff goes for it early and take chances it has nothing to do with being bold but being a moron and then cracks under pressure when the risk is obvious, and the game is on the line... he coaches with blissful ignorance till his brash behavior puts him behind the eight ball and his inability to then calm down (as Kyler pointed out haha) when he realizes what he has gotten into again and again

I think this is nonsense. I'm not going to project any character traits on these people that I don't know except for a couple of seconds I see them on the sidelines on Sundays. I'm happy to give them the benefit of the doubt.

I think that Kliff probably wants to establish his game and doesn't believe that teams are already dialed in to his tendencies at kickoff and runs his tendency-breakers later. I believe smarter coaches probably get a report of what their tendencies are from the past four weeks (which is what most opponents look at) in the runup to the game and then run tendency-breakers as part of their initial script.

Tons of teams run these little smoke routes more effectively than we do. Tons of teams run these Jet Sweeps more effectively than we do. It's not that these plays Just Don't Work in the NFL; it's that we're running them when they're least effective.

Our initial game plan was fine this week. We got consecutive first downs until Conner coughed up the ball (also the Chargers' defense is butt). Second drive we marched down the field and scored a TD despite Billy Price holding on the first play.

My feeling is that Kyler doesn't want to have input on creating the game plan, and so we're limited by the practice schedule on what we can install week-to-week because he's basically discovering it for the first time on Wednesday.

 

[Chopper0080]

My feeling is that Kyler doesn't want to have input on creating the game plan, and so we're limited by the practice schedule on what we can install week-to-week because he's basically discovering it for the first time on Wednesday.

I agree with this so much and believe it was part of the reason why he called plays in the pre-season.

 

[DVontel]

If the only thing Isaiah is good at is blitzing, then he needs to get traded.

Drafting a ILB that’s bad in man coverage is one thing, drafting one 8th overall is atrocious.

 

[SoonerLou]

If the only thing Isaiah is good at is blitzing, then he needs to get traded.

Drafting a ILB that’s bad in man coverage is one thing, drafting one 8th overall is atrocious.

Cant believe how easy that 2pt conversion was on him.

Devin White hasnt been great outside of his super bowl run either.

Probably be a long time before a team drafts an ILB in the top 10.