It doesn't really make me go 'hmm,' because I think the problems have been pretty obvious from game to game, and I don't think there's one broad and easy solution to fixing the problem, unfortunately. Today's game, for example, could have been won through more effective third down QB play. Last week's game we needed to be lined up better on the defensive snaps in most of the second half as our gap control was getting us killed. ATL was a gap control problem, too, though that was primarily with one player who wasn't ready to play.
The streak isn't as important to me in terms of diagnosing the problem as it clearly is to you. Don't get me wrong, it matters very much in that it's going to knock us out of the playoffs in a year where we have an otherwise good team. But in terms of identifying the things that are contributing to the losses, the streak itself is irrelevant. That includes the 55 years thing.
I want to identify what's causing the losses and change that. I think some of that is personnel (QB, mostly, but also S and LB). I think some of it has been ST play (which is partly personnel, but in my opinion mostly a coaching limitation because we haven't added personnel to the protection teams who can give our returns room to return kicks, and we've had guys out of their lanes way too often for it to not to have been corrected yet in coverage). We've had issues getting sufficient pressure along the DL, which I don't understand at all, honestly.
In short, it's been a number of factors. Some of them relate to coaching. Some do not. But changing coaching staffs is a huge undertaking. It means starting a 2-3 year change of direction, at a minimum. That's a huge investment of time and resources that I'm just not willing to make just because the team is losing. If we were losing because we were unprepared, or because we were making unforgivable game day mistakes, or because our schemes were really as elementary as some here want to pretend they are, then that would be one thing. But I'm not seeing that at all. I see a team that's still bought in, that's still playing hard, and that's somehow finding increasingly less believable ways to lose games week after week. I think we're looking at a lot of tweaks and not a complete and dramatic overhaul to go from 'almost good enough' to 'good enough.' I know I'm pretty much alone in that regard as fans on a message board go right now, and that's perfectly ok with me. I think you guys are on a witch hunt because you're not happy with results. I understand the impulse. I just disagree with your assessment.
