I disagree on Pierce....good points otherwise! I don't think AR looks for Pierce at all, probably play calling but too soon to say he sucks!

I said it in the game thread prior to kick off that I expected to see him do some remarkable things outside the pocket today- and he did, there's a LOT of Mahomes in there and it is beautiful. He also threw some wicked strikes from the pocket which was good to see as well.

Another thing that seems to stand out so far in his very brief career- he seems to thrive in the sped up game. Not only does it NOT seem the game is moving to fast for him, it seems he does his best processing when it is going fast. So many young QB's struggle with that element as they are developing because they are so slow to process but because he is so adept at escaping and creating on the fly it seems to suit him perfectly. I would love to see more "2 minute" offense with him. Right now he seems as though he will be great in the hurry up structure. Kudos to him and Steichen for that.

Additional couple of thoughts:

- Granson sucked today. Dropped what should have been 2 1st down catches. The first one was a somewhat tough catch going to the ground, but he had his hands on the ball. The 2nd one on our final possession hit him right in the numbers. Inexcusable.

- Was good to see Pierce finally come down w/ a contested catch. He should have had the 2nd one as well since his hands were on the ball, but 1/2 is better than what we've seen from him so far this year.

- So much for our DL depth. I get that Buckner is our best player (at least on defense), but not having him out there turned the whole group from stud to dud against an OL that was completely dominated the past 2 weeks.

- The playcalling sucked on our final possession. Also, we should have taken the FG in the 3rd quarter. There's still well over a quarter of football left. Take the points there.

- Was pleasantly surprised by our resilience and 2nd half comeback. Think we're in for a very bright future :)

After the game, the beat reporters asked about the LB rotations:

https://twitter.com/RomeovilleKid/st...06373758390276


https://twitter.com/JoelAErickson/st...81644863463712

https://twitter.com/JoelAErickson/st...89985434083485

When was the last time we made half time adjustments that worked? Young team, early in the season but man there are some thing to finally like here. I think Steichen can really coach. I am pretty pleased considering we lost.

o

I thought that the defense played better in the 2nd half ...... and the offense put a lot of excess pressure on the defense from the beginning of the game. Their first 5 possessions of the game were ......

PUNT

FUMBLE

PUNT

MISSED FIELD GOAL

PUNT

2 of those 3 punts were 3-and-outs, and the other was a 6-and-out. The offense finally put the ball in the end-zone for our first points of the game late in the 3rd quarter.


In the first half, after Speed's inexcusable late extended the drive and gave them 7 points right off the bat, they held the Rams to 1 TD and 3 FG's the rest of the way in regulation ...... plus , they made 2 stops late in the 4th quarter just to get the game into OT ...... plus, our head coach eschewed a very good chance to get 3 points after our defense forced a turnover via an INT in the 3rd quarter. A field goal right there (instead of going for it on 4th down) would have cut the deficit to 23-11.

So overall, there was a lot of shit put on them early on, although the late hit which resulted in 7 gift-points for the Rams was their own damned fault. In the game thread when the Rams went up by a score of 20-0 with 6 minutes still left to play in the 2nd quarter, numerous posters were thinking that were were in for something a 41-14 beat-down ...... the defense only gave up 3 points for the final 2-plus quarters of the contest, which is more than half of the game.


And none of what I am saying is negating the critiques that the OP and others have made in regard to the defense's overall play today, because those critiques were spot-on ...... but rather I'm pointing out a nuance that even on a sub-par day when they didn't play well overall, they actually wound up being more effective than it may have seemed.

o

o


Same here.

The score at the end of the first half was 20-0.

The score at the end of regulation was 23-23, and we were a dropped pass away from pulling off an improbable comeback.

I don't think that there was a poster in the game thread that would have believed that if you had told them that that would happen when we were down by a score of 23-0 late in the 3rd quarter.

o

Unless his play massively improves I can see no way to keep him on the team, but if we are willing to trade him no one is taking on that contract. His cap hit for us next year is 20m, but only 8 dead if cut. His base Salaries of 15 and 19 million no one is going to be willing to pay for his production.
https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/indianap...leonard-25135/

It is such a shame to see him robbed of that athleticism that had him on HOF trajectory. Sucks for us but you have to believe that for him it is agonizing to have to come to terms with it and what it likely means for his playing future; lack thereof.