Let's Attack Zac
Let's Attack Zac
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....?
Re: Let's Attack Zac
Woulda....coulda....shoulda.... .
Charlie Goldsmith @CharlieG__
Zac Taylor on game management: "It's pretty clear the areas we could be better. There are situations you'd like to have back that I'd like to have handled better." Taylor specifically mentions the no challenge on the Chase touchdown and the snap at the end of the game on the punt as decisions that stuck with him.
Charlie Goldsmith @CharlieG__
Zac Taylor on game management: "It's pretty clear the areas we could be better. There are situations you'd like to have back that I'd like to have handled better." Taylor specifically mentions the no challenge on the Chase touchdown and the snap at the end of the game on the punt as decisions that stuck with him.
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Re: Let's Attack Zac
To me this is an extension of poor play calling and game mgmt from the Superbowl. So it never really stopped.
To be fair I would shift some of the blame to Burrow. There is simply no excuse for the Pick 6. And that dug us a big hole. Rusty or not, that was a horrible throw.
I saw Jonah let a guy run past him at least twice, on the same drive I think. If Jonah is a tentative weak link, it will only make Volson or Cartman look that much worse.
This game hurts worse than the Superbowl.
To be fair I would shift some of the blame to Burrow. There is simply no excuse for the Pick 6. And that dug us a big hole. Rusty or not, that was a horrible throw.
I saw Jonah let a guy run past him at least twice, on the same drive I think. If Jonah is a tentative weak link, it will only make Volson or Cartman look that much worse.
This game hurts worse than the Superbowl.
Seeking Superbowls
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Re: Let's Attack Zac
It's very easy to sit here the day after and be the arm chair coach and complain because they lost.
Sure bitch away that's what some of you are really good at, however I don't agree that this.
First off I'd say it was mainly Burrow that wasn't very sharp from the start but in the mid 3rd quarter we started to see the Burrow of old. Unfortunately there were 4 INT's up to that point and that is extremely hard to overcome. Also I'd like to add that Burrow more then likely couldn't participate in the pre-season because of his surgery anyway. Secondly I'd like to point out that our guys looked fresh out there in the 4th compared to the steelers. We didn't have serious injuries unlike the injury to Watt, and maybe even Hayward. I would concede the point that it might have been better to see the entire O-line get some game time experience together but we'll see how not getting those reps play out as the season goes on.
As for Volson, he's a 4th round rookie going up against Cam Hayward, what did you honestly expect? Did you really think he'd go out there and grade out in the 80's? If he's the best we have at LG then he's going to have to go out there and take some of these lumps and learn! How he responds to this and how he rebounds is going to be the key.
Lastly even after all that happened and the 5 T.O.'s we still should have won the game if it wasn't for an MA by our FG unit on a standard extra point! So even though we all want to complain Taylor still called a good enough game to win!
Complain all you want and blame whoever makes you feel better at the end of the day.
Sure bitch away that's what some of you are really good at, however I don't agree that this.
First off I'd say it was mainly Burrow that wasn't very sharp from the start but in the mid 3rd quarter we started to see the Burrow of old. Unfortunately there were 4 INT's up to that point and that is extremely hard to overcome. Also I'd like to add that Burrow more then likely couldn't participate in the pre-season because of his surgery anyway. Secondly I'd like to point out that our guys looked fresh out there in the 4th compared to the steelers. We didn't have serious injuries unlike the injury to Watt, and maybe even Hayward. I would concede the point that it might have been better to see the entire O-line get some game time experience together but we'll see how not getting those reps play out as the season goes on.
As for Volson, he's a 4th round rookie going up against Cam Hayward, what did you honestly expect? Did you really think he'd go out there and grade out in the 80's? If he's the best we have at LG then he's going to have to go out there and take some of these lumps and learn! How he responds to this and how he rebounds is going to be the key.
Lastly even after all that happened and the 5 T.O.'s we still should have won the game if it wasn't for an MA by our FG unit on a standard extra point! So even though we all want to complain Taylor still called a good enough game to win!
Complain all you want and blame whoever makes you feel better at the end of the day.
Re: Let's Attack Zac
I never mentioned Volson. If he's the best man for the job so be it. I understand a rookies going to have growing pains.MeatHeadbengal wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 9:22 pmAs for Volson, he's a 4th round rookie going up against Cam Hayward, what did you honestly expect? Did you really think he'd go out there and grade out in the 80's? If he's the best we have at LG then he's going to have to go out there and take some of these lumps and learn! How he responds to this and how he rebounds is going to be the key.
That has nothing to do with any of the egregious mistakes I outlined above.
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Re: Let's Attack Zac
I didn't feel like making separate posts just to raise my post count.I'm not sure when they pulled Vomitson but I saw Cartman in on the final drive of regulation.
Re: Let's Attack Zac
I don't consider playing Volson as part of Zac's mistakes. It's sad that we have to replace our second round pick from last year so quickly but if Volson's the better man so be it.
That's why I didn't list it in my original post office and it puzzled me why you included it in your rambling response...
That's why I didn't list it in my original post office and it puzzled me why you included it in your rambling response...
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Re: Let's Attack Zac
Forgive me for not responding up to your writing standards, however my points are still valid. You don't have to agree with them and I'm ok with that. I have had experience in coaching at a higher level and have some understand how much work goes into every little decision throughout the year, something at which you do not have. I will end this here to make sure I do not continue to ramble on.Bengals1 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 12, 2022 10:19 pmI don't consider playing Volson as part of Zac's mistakes. It's sad that we have to replace our second round pick from last year so quickly but if Volson's the better man so be it.
That's why I didn't list it in my original post office and it puzzled me why you included it in your rambling response...
Re: Let's Attack Zac
Well.....d'uh.
Mike Petraglia @Trags
"Just slow down" Zac Taylor admits the game got away from him a bit on Chase non-TD with 2:48. Biggest game-management lesson learned Sunday.
Mike Petraglia @Trags
"Just slow down" Zac Taylor admits the game got away from him a bit on Chase non-TD with 2:48. Biggest game-management lesson learned Sunday.