Thread: If we never got Manning - how would the last three yearshave unfolded?

Originally Posted by TXBRONC

That is ridiculous Denver isn't the only team to lose to a supposedly weaker opponent. A few years go the Giants finished 9-7 barely made the playoffs and beat the number one seeded Packers at Lambeau.

The Giants won the SB that year so "supposedly weaker" doesn't really cut it with them. The Colts went to Foxboro and died a horrible ugly flaming death very reminiscent of the Broncos SB performance or perhaps the Broncos - 49ers SB. (I apologize to old timers for mentioning that game but despite years of effort, I still haven't entirely managed to kill off all the brain cells that remember that afternoon).

Originally Posted by MOtorboat

Your assessments on the coaching staff are so ******* ridiculously overblown that it makes you look stupid.

John Fox is incompetent because he lost a game he should have won? His entire career be damned! How ******* ridiculous is that. For ****'s sake, it was time for a coaching change but dammit how ******* stupid is this drivel?

I think we can all relax and watch just how good a coach John Fox is when he tries to make something out of Jay Cutler. If he can do that, then I take my hat off to him. I'm not holding my breath though. I think Fox made a fatal mistake going to Chicago and that Del Rio is utterly doomed in Oakland just like Dennis Allen.

Originally Posted by Cugel

I think we can all relax and watch just how good a coach John Fox is when he tries to make something out of Jay Cutler. If he can do that, then I take my hat off to him. I'm not holding my breath though. I think Fox made a fatal mistake going to Chicago and that Del Rio is utterly doomed in Oakland just like Dennis Allen.

I think del Rio is a better HC than DC and I think Oakland are dangerously close to turning it around

Originally Posted by daveaitken18

I think del Rio is a better HC than DC and I think Oakland are dangerously close to turning it around

Well, they could hardly be worse! But, they've got exactly 2 players: Derek Carr and Khalil Mack. The entire rest of their roster is composed of guys who would be cut by most of the other teams in the NFL. If they get to 7-9 next season it will be a miracle.

Originally Posted by Cugel

Well, they could hardly be worse! But, they've got exactly 2 players: Derek Carr and Khalil Mack. The entire rest of their roster is composed of guys who would be cut by most of the other teams in the NFL. If they get to 7-9 next season it will be a miracle.

They have a good running back, Murray I think. James Jones is a good wr.

They will have lots of cap room - 2 years away from the playoffs IMO

Originally Posted by MOtorboat

Your assessments on the coaching staff are so ******* ridiculously overblown that it makes you look stupid.

John Fox is incompetent because he lost a game he should have won? His entire career be damned! How ******* ridiculous is that. For ****'s sake, it was time for a coaching change but dammit how ******* stupid is this drivel?

Losing games he should've won summarizes Foxs career: He got the same one-and-done result with the same huge advantage in 2012, and got beaten badly 3 solid quarters of his previous SB before letting the offense play TOO LATE, score 19 4th qtr pts to turn an 11 pt deficit into a 1 pt lead, yet lose on a walkoff FG because he didn't show up before Tebow Time. If bad teams so often beat good ones on the road after playing an extra game, perhaps you can cite a time a great coach like Fox was on the RIGHT side of that? For that matter, if he's so good, why was it "time for a coaching change"?

Yet this wasn't just a good team beating a slightly better one: It was ONE GUY beating HALF A TEAM of Pro Bowlers.

Originally Posted by TXBRONC

That is ridiculous Denver isn't the only team to lose to a supposedly weaker opponent. A few years go the Giants finished 9-7 barely made the playoffs and beat the number one seeded Packers at Lambeau.

Not only is Cugel right NY was GOOD enough to beat the #4, #1 and #2 seeds on the road before beating NE in the SB, it was virtually the same team that did the SAME THING in '07; only difference is

1) Dallas was the #1 seed they beat on the road, so GB was the #2 seed NY beat on the road in the NFCCG and
2) The Pats were undefeated until that "inferior" team beat them in the SB.

The Colts don't have the '07 nor '11 Giants pass rush, and haven't had Ahmad Bradshaw since he broke his leg in mid-November: They have Andrew Luck and NOTHING ELSE. That shouldn't be enough against a home team with a week off to rest, heal and prepare when it produced HALF THE AFC PRO BOWL STARTERS. This wasn't a marginally lesser team lucky enough to squeak our a marginal road win, it was a WEAK team DOMINATING a VASTLY superior one throughout a road game. And not the first time that happened on Foxs watch, hence Elway cleaned house.

Good coaches get fired. Great coaches lose games. Organizations sometimes need to move on. Coaches sometimes need to move on. It's not a black and white conversation.

Fox is a good coach who didn't win enough big games and he and Denver (mutual) wanted to move on. It's not some idiotic endictment of his competency as a coach.

Fox will have the Bears at 8-8 this season. He's not foolish enough not to address the defense and not use his running game as the weapon it could be. He will stabilize the team and have them in the playoff race in a year or two.

Will he win a Super Bowl? Probably not, but he will make the Bears relevant again. That's his MO.

Originally Posted by HORSEPOWER 56

Fox will have the Bears at 8-8 this season. He's not foolish enough not to address the defense and not use his running game as the weapon it could be. He will stabilize the team and have them in the playoff race in a year or two.

Will he win a Super Bowl? Probably not, but he will make the Bears relevant again. That's his MO.

Not if he keeps Jeff George Cutler he won't.

The fans in Chicago are in a state of riot. They want Cutler gone yesterday. And who can blame them? He's be horrible. Yet they would have a huge cap hit if they cut him because he's only played one year of a $57 million guaranteed contract. Most likely they try and find a QB to groom behind him for a year and then cut him because in his 10th season he's not going to suddenly become a SB quality QB. Yet they can't just cut him now and eat a huge cap hit and find a new QB this off-season.

It's very probable that Fox will have some success in Chicago and get them stabilized. He's a player's coach and very mellow. He will do in Chicago what he did with Tebow here - maybe 7-9 if they can beat the Lions. And they should beat the Vikings twice. But, they're in the same division with Aaron Rogers and the Lions are a good team. No shot at backing into the playoffs in a weak division like Tebow did at 8-8.

Fox is a coach who will take an 8-8 team and make them 8-8. If they're a 10-6 team talent wise he'll get them to 10-6. What he won't do is like John Harbaugh or Belichick or Pete Carroll, or Tom Coughlin, or even Andy Reid, make everybody play better than their talent level.

Originally Posted by Cugel

Fox is a coach who will take an 8-8 team and make them 8-8. If they're a 10-6 team talent wise he'll get them to 10-6. What he won't do is like John Harbaugh or Belichick or Pete Carroll, or Tom Coughlin, or even Andy Reid, make everybody play better than their talent level.

I think this is probably the fairest most accurate analysis of Fox I have read