That is what I am also leaning towards. It's not just one simple thing or it would have been diagnosed and corrected by now.
I think BB has to be credited for being patient and maintaining course rather than trying to force things. That is a testament to his 35 years of experience in football. He probably has much more patience and foresight than 99% of us when it comes to waiting for an offense to click (and defense).
In all sincerity, I really don't think this is our year- it's basically a rebuilding year and should be one anyway because we've been languishing for a few years now and the dramatic offensive output we had in '07 disguised a lot of problems that have been exposed now, also we excused quite a few things last year because Cassel was the focus most of the time and the fall guy as well.
This is not to rule out that we could accomplish anything this year, because with Brady, it's always "never say never." That's the perk of having Brady and BB, because as along as we have those two, we are always in a position to contend.
The dynamic duo has served us well. But how lone can you lean on two people. We used to have a depth in both the field and the front office. Now, the cupboard is a little bare. The team is pulling a little extra hard on the talents of these two. Maybe this is our period of rebuilding and finding new contributors.
On the D-Line, you have Myron Pryor and Mike Wright stepping up big time. But no one, even Mayo, is making crucial plays. In the secondary, we have Leigh Bodden and Meriweather. But both have been inconsistent. More importantly, Bodden most likely won't be here next year. He wants big money, and we've seen how that plays out. Whealtley has been terrible and Whilite at least looks serviceable. At least Chung and McGowan are both young and rising.
On offense, Volmer has been a huge surprise. Koppen and Kaczur have been less than surprising. I'm not saying that Koppen is bad, but he never seems to really step up in big games. Instead of dominating, he usually gets dominated against teams such as the Jets and Chargers. I don't think I even have to say anything about Kaczur.
But there is something about our receiving game that does need saying. We have become predictable when we pass the ball. Brady is more effective out of the shotgun because he can see the field. He is also more vulnerable out of that formation. Defenses almost always play the pass when we are in the formation. The reason is because rarely get more than 15 yards out of a running play in the shotgun formation. More importantly, many of those runs are by Kevin Faulk. Maroney usually gets hit touches when Brady is under center. These little tendencies usually give defensive linemen and linebackers the little edge that they may need to make big plays: especially when there are only three of them rushing the passer.
Just to stay on topic, the passing game that was once our strength, is sputtering. We can't rely on it to close out games. It has become predictable. Defenders have tons of game tape on us and have an idea of where we like to go with the ball. That is the major difference between this year and 07: the surprise is gone. People know what we like and have seen how to stop it.
One way to better protect ourselves from that is to stop relying so much on our wide receivers to make plays. We are better suited as a running team because we have better depth at running back and tight end than we do at wide receiver. If we can relearn to pass the ball out of running formations, we can give ourselves an edge that we used to have.
That is what we used to do. We didn't always have the best talent at receiver, but we made up for that by not over relying on that. Givens, Branch, and Patton haven't done much since they left here. Patton may have had one decent season, but that was with Drew Brees throwing him the ball. That lack of production shows us how little talent that receiving core had. To compensate for that, we incorporated other players into the passing game. We used tight ends, running backs, and occasionally line backers. These options weren't exercised frequently, but they were sprinkled in to give defenders the illusion of balance.
Now flash forward to today. We're usually in pass heavy formations. Sometimes in critical short yardage situations, we don't even sell the run: such as the failed fourth down conversion against the Colts. I'm not saying that we have to make drastic changes, but if we utilize Watson, Baker, and Maroney in the passing game more often, we may create some favorable mismatches down the line for Welker and Moss.
