jackrussell;2069335 said:
Man that really bothers me...everyone so quick to throw Carp under the bus but continually ignore the coaches admission. This is a major error in coaching, something not to be expected from such a veteran presence.
My feeling when Phillips came in as HC was that 3-4 players needed to emerge in the Phillips defense and on this team if it was to be the dominating defense we want it to be.
1) Carp had to get time and be developed and the rust removed and made servicable within the schemes and prove Phillips and his statements when he became HC that he adapted his schemes to the players to get the results instead of the other way around, which is what the approach was under BP.
This fell flat on it's face and later as you said, Phillips admitted they hadn't given Carp enough of an opportunity.
I blame that on too many defensive coaches on the staff still that were hired by BP and had made up their minds Carpenter wasn't good enough. Phillips listened and let the lock remain on Carp's jailcell without personally taking control and finding the real answers himself.
I think that is on Phillips and a negative failure that needs to be changed.
2) we needed Marcus Spears to step up and become a factor in these new 3-4 defensive schemes. Another #1 draft pick that is under-achievig for unknown reasons. I saw little change in his play and didn't see him be a factor in the pass rush and was even subbed for as the season wore on in passing situations.
This again is hard to figure out. Spears at LSU was a dominate DL. He's been in the NFL now for going on 3 years and he's just a role player. I still think the coaches have to change this in a hurry if this team is going to improve on defense.
Teams are throwing almost exclusively on us in 1st and 2nd downs knowing we don't have our pass rush players on the field and therefore we have to get more of a pass rush from Spears in this defense in addition to his run play ability.
I didn't think Phillips and his coaches did much with getting Spears more involved. Another negative with another former #1 we need to excell given the investment.
3) Roy Williams. I won't go into that as it's abundant in other threads. The change to the Phillips 3-4didn't do anything to use RW's strengths and only further maximized his deficiencies in the eyes of many as the coaches continued to struggle to get Williams into positions that would let him make plays.
This to me is on the coaches but there is some shared problems the player has to work on, too.
But again,
the buck stops with the coaches to get the most from the players they have. On that basis, I think it was a failure, despite the fact he went to the Pro Bowl again. It wasn't as good as it needs to be.
4) Obviously, without a doubt. Julius Jones. He's gone and I'll not beat a dead horse, but I thought the coaches failed to get him back to playing and they have that responsibility to get it done.
It didn't come close to happening in the case of JuJo and he actually regressed.
So now we start over with Felix Jones.
So these 4 players, all of which were undercheivers and players coming out of the BP Era, in which significant investments have been made in their acquisitions, either didn't improve under Phillips or even imploded as in the Julius Jones case.
So to me, until these 3 guys left on the team after the Jones departure to Seattle, are brought up to speed and added to the talent levels already peaking, we are still into some problems until they are all resolved to the positive for the team and contributing to expected levels.
This is one of the major changes that still must be seen in the months ahead. And all three significant deficiencies are on the defense, which is supposed to be the Phillips specialty.
We really can't afford to just jetison them and it's now Phillip's watch to get it corrected.
So I agree with you, the coaches have to take responsibility and make the changes in the player's roles or the schemes to get the value from them as players and not just sit back and say it's the player's fault or they are not motivated or whatever.
We can't afford to just keep re-drafting #1 and #2 picks to replace the screwups. We need the #1 and #2 picks we have already on the team to perform now, heck or high water.
Let's go coaches and take responsibility and stop making excuses.
My 2 cents.
:starspin ReDBaLL ExPreSS :starspin
