“Accepting dismal mediocrity” refers to anything less than a full-throated critique of that last game and everyone involved in it.
Losses happen, sure. But there are good losses and bad losses. Last year, the losses to Tampa Bay and Buffalo came against a legit playoff teams. The loss to Washington was due to tremendous injury.
Even this year’s loss to Kansas City, we generally looked competent amidst some terrible blunders, and Mahomes is really good.
But against both Green Bay and Minnesota, we looked LOST. I haven’t seen a Dan Campbell team looking LOST in three years! And I can sort of forgive the GB game, what with everyone starting new, but against Minnesota? After a bye? At home? Against a QB making only his 3rd start in his career?
Minnesota spent 10 days preparing for this game. We fled to the four corners of the earth, then came back and dressed up for Halloween. That’s coaching malpractice.
The offensive line is in a shambles. Everything is off, and they look like they’re getting worse, not better. Other teams are improving much faster than we are. Meanwhile, our OL is falling behind, and getting more banged up by the minute (which also begs the question of just how competent the training and conditioning staff is). We showed no ability to change and adapt on the fly. The entire operation is stagnant, on the verge of being a dumpster fire.
The defense had no answer for Aaron Friggin’ Jones. He only stopped gashing us when he got hurt.
Even Amon-Ra is regressing. After the KC drop, you’d think he’d be playing clean football for a good long stretch. Nope.
This past game deserves a full critique, as well as all the moves made and not made that led us here.
We’re not gonna win anything until the OL gets sorted out. And it’s too late this season to get it sorted out. Everyone but GG is hurt, and with him it’s only a matter of time. With Mahogany out, our leaky interior just got another hole punched in it. It was folly to trot out such an inexperienced interior in the first place – that’s on Holmes not getting good veterans on board before the draft – guys who don’t have a two-year learning curve in front of them. He foolishly trusted that Decker wouldn’t be compromised after his surgery.
But let’s say we eke out a division title over the other losers in the North and get the 4th seed. We’ll have either the Seahawks or the Rams in town. The Hags boast the league’s best run defense. The Rams have a tremendous defensive line, and Stafford’s playing lights out. This doesn’t bode well, based on what we saw against Minnesota.
Sorry, the evidence points to this being a transitional year at best.
