Let's Attack Zac
Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2022 1:19 pm
The blame for yesterday's debacle can largely be laid at the feet of one man.....Zac Taylor.
He's now headed into his fourth year as head coach and he's still making egregious rookie mistakes. I think its fair to wonder if this
is simply as good as he'll ever be. Lets go over the list of errors he made in yesterday's game....
Not challenging the Chase TD: Zac claimed in his post game press conference that he simply didn't have a good angle on the play from where he was standing on the side line. That may be true but there's suppose to be a coach in the sky box who's job it is to watch these things and call down to the head coach and let him know if it merits challenging. Who was it and why hasn't he been chastised...? A red flag thrown on this one play would almost certainly have won us the game. It didn't happen and we deserve a better explanation than some weak excuse about not having a good angle.
Punting in OT with 15 seconds remaining on the play clock: Zac offered up the excuse in his post game presser that he was more worried about the snap than the remaining time and just wanted to make sure it came off without a hitch. That makes no sense. How does waiting another 14 seconds make the snap more likely to be bad exactly....? If the snap was going to go wrong it was going to go wrong no matter when it occurred, waiting another 14 seconds and punting wouldn't have changed that aspect of the play in any way shape or form. There's about a 99% chance that taking those precious seconds from the Steelers would have taken at least 2-3 additional plays away from them on their game winning drive and would have secured a tie rather than another gut wrenching, humiliating loss. He seemed to be genuinely sorry about this mistake afterward but it would have been nice to actually hear him admit it and take the responsibility like a leader rather than Marvin his way out of it with a lame excuse.
Not playing any starters in the pre-season: This is the most egregious mistake of all imo. Spending tens of millions of dollars in the off-season to rebuild the weakest link on the team and then not playing any of the new starters for fear of losing them to injury was a costly misjudgment. La'el Collins suffered what Zac claimed was a minor back strain early in camp so he didn't want to risk further aggravating it by playing him in the pre-season. Either Zac was lying and the injury was more substantial than he let on or he's just making another lame excuse. Each of our new O-linemen were experienced veterans but none of them had ever played together before. Giving them actual reps in a game situation was crucial to allowing them to mesh as a unit. Communication among the O-line is crucial and not giving them any pre-season reps in game conditions caused numerous errors and mistakes along the line throughout the game. Its true that Burrow held onto the ball too long in some cases but in many instances, especially in the first half, non-familiarity amongst the O-line resulted in sacks, hurries and Burrow having to run for his life. What if Zac's unwillingness to play his new linemen had resulted in another season ending injury to Burrow's knee...? Would it still have been worth it...?
If not playing any of your veteran starters is such a great idea why don't all head coaches do it...? Does Zac think he's just that much smarter than everybody else...? Once again in his post-game presser he denied that playing our starters was in any way responsible for the debacle that occurred out on the field. I follow numerous sports writers on Twitter and within minutes of the game starting each made a comment about how the O-line was failing in its assignments due to not being prepared properly. It was that obvious to everyone. Look at the comments on other boards and PFT. Condemnation of this strategy is almost universal. Once again it seems Zac is certain he's smarter than everyone else here.
I agree with Hits, its obvious now that we won last year despite Zac Taylor and not because of him. Am I calling for his firing? No, not at this time. Not after one game no matter how embarrassing the loss. But if these mistakes keep occurring throughout the season than yeah, I think a reassessment of Zac's future with the club is essential.
Thoughts....?
He's now headed into his fourth year as head coach and he's still making egregious rookie mistakes. I think its fair to wonder if this
is simply as good as he'll ever be. Lets go over the list of errors he made in yesterday's game....
Not challenging the Chase TD: Zac claimed in his post game press conference that he simply didn't have a good angle on the play from where he was standing on the side line. That may be true but there's suppose to be a coach in the sky box who's job it is to watch these things and call down to the head coach and let him know if it merits challenging. Who was it and why hasn't he been chastised...? A red flag thrown on this one play would almost certainly have won us the game. It didn't happen and we deserve a better explanation than some weak excuse about not having a good angle.
Punting in OT with 15 seconds remaining on the play clock: Zac offered up the excuse in his post game presser that he was more worried about the snap than the remaining time and just wanted to make sure it came off without a hitch. That makes no sense. How does waiting another 14 seconds make the snap more likely to be bad exactly....? If the snap was going to go wrong it was going to go wrong no matter when it occurred, waiting another 14 seconds and punting wouldn't have changed that aspect of the play in any way shape or form. There's about a 99% chance that taking those precious seconds from the Steelers would have taken at least 2-3 additional plays away from them on their game winning drive and would have secured a tie rather than another gut wrenching, humiliating loss. He seemed to be genuinely sorry about this mistake afterward but it would have been nice to actually hear him admit it and take the responsibility like a leader rather than Marvin his way out of it with a lame excuse.
Not playing any starters in the pre-season: This is the most egregious mistake of all imo. Spending tens of millions of dollars in the off-season to rebuild the weakest link on the team and then not playing any of the new starters for fear of losing them to injury was a costly misjudgment. La'el Collins suffered what Zac claimed was a minor back strain early in camp so he didn't want to risk further aggravating it by playing him in the pre-season. Either Zac was lying and the injury was more substantial than he let on or he's just making another lame excuse. Each of our new O-linemen were experienced veterans but none of them had ever played together before. Giving them actual reps in a game situation was crucial to allowing them to mesh as a unit. Communication among the O-line is crucial and not giving them any pre-season reps in game conditions caused numerous errors and mistakes along the line throughout the game. Its true that Burrow held onto the ball too long in some cases but in many instances, especially in the first half, non-familiarity amongst the O-line resulted in sacks, hurries and Burrow having to run for his life. What if Zac's unwillingness to play his new linemen had resulted in another season ending injury to Burrow's knee...? Would it still have been worth it...?
If not playing any of your veteran starters is such a great idea why don't all head coaches do it...? Does Zac think he's just that much smarter than everybody else...? Once again in his post-game presser he denied that playing our starters was in any way responsible for the debacle that occurred out on the field. I follow numerous sports writers on Twitter and within minutes of the game starting each made a comment about how the O-line was failing in its assignments due to not being prepared properly. It was that obvious to everyone. Look at the comments on other boards and PFT. Condemnation of this strategy is almost universal. Once again it seems Zac is certain he's smarter than everyone else here.
I agree with Hits, its obvious now that we won last year despite Zac Taylor and not because of him. Am I calling for his firing? No, not at this time. Not after one game no matter how embarrassing the loss. But if these mistakes keep occurring throughout the season than yeah, I think a reassessment of Zac's future with the club is essential.
Thoughts....?