THURSDAY NIGHT FOOSEBALL- INDY COMES TO MILE HIGH!

[Totty]

Y'all okay over here? 👀 @AnAngryAmerican @Cutler06

[BroncoBruin]

3 hours ago, broncosfan_101 said:

Been loving K’Wuan in coverage, but that dude has as much interest in defending the run as I do. 

In general this defense is SO casual making stops in the run game and short passing game. They seem too confident in their ability to create negative plays and forced fumbles  (which they are excellent at) and let RBs and WRs eat up extra yards and slip out of tackles constantly. Come downhill with some thump!

[French Fan]

4 hours ago, Broncofan said:

Absolutely.  But Hackett's compounding the problem in a massive way.   And to turn it around - when Russ was thriving last week, Hackett went away from him.    Then this week after the backlash, he decides to put the ball in Russ' hands when he should have it done it LAST week.

Dude is reactionary.   He's completely outclassed right now.    Doesn't change the fact Russ takes the L tonight - but Hackett can't recognize the times to lean on the pass game (early in the game this week, all of 3Q last week), and then when not to (when we're finally wearing out the IND D, and with with EDGE Paye gone too).     

He's not the biggest problem - but he's not even close to the solution - and he is making the problem worse.    Only 1 solution to that.

Another pathetic comment like this team !!!

The game was in Russ' hands because Javonte Williams was out and Gordon's fumble. You have not a single RB in the roster we can trust to lead the ground !!

This is Hackett fault that Wilson not throw a pass to KJ Hamler on 4th and 1 and WALK yes walk not run in the end zone ???????

You destroyed Drew Lock for less than that but a 10+ all star veteran you accept?

Edited October 7, 2022 by French Fan

[NYRaider]

4 hours ago, Broncofan said:

Frankly, Paton has to ask himself this very serious Q - does he want to ride out the season with Hackett as HC/OC and tie that decision to stick it out onto himself, or does he want to start with a different OC (like Kubiak), and start fresh now?    Does he want to alienate the fanbase and players with a lame duck HC, or just tear the band-aid, and own his very own mistake?   Leaders who own up to their mistakes can survive crises far more than those who ignore them.

It'd be pretty unprecedented to fire the head coach he hired midway through his first season, that'd be the first time it has happened in the modern NFL. And if he did decide to fire Hackett is there really a better solution on your current coaching staff? I think Hackett should give up play calling duties to start so he can focus on being a head coach, McDaniels has had issues trying to manage both for us this year too. 

You guys are currently 2-3 but would literally be 4-1 if you changed the outcome of two plays. I'm not really familiar with your front office but if you guys decide to move on from Hackett I'd bet that you also move on from Paton too. I could see your new ownership group going after someone like Sean Payton and giving him full control of personnel decisions. 

[lomaxgrUK]

Meh, leave me on the fire Hackett stuff. We've made our bed, lie in it for a year. That is just not happening until we're mathematically out of the playoff hunt which will be a little while yet. 

Hackett was brought here for playcalling; he isn't giving that up. Between him and Russell Wilson, they've got to get it sorted and very quick.

What I will say about Hackett - he wasn't the one who threw balls behind receivers all night.

He wasn't the one who (for some reason) lead Jeudy upfield when he'd turned his man around and was running wide open to the sideline on a 40 yard gainer.

He wasn't the one who thought Ty Cleveland vs a former DPOY was  good matchup to go to in a critical 3rd down with 3 points waiting.

He wasn't the one who threw a contender for worst pick of the year by just lobbing a ball up like a Punt.

 

[lomaxgrUK]

Just now, lomaxgrUK said:

He wasn't the one who (for some reason) lead Jeudy upfield when he'd turned his man around and was running wide open to the sideline on a 40 yard gainer.

 

I crucified Drew for this sort of stuff, and Wilson deserves it too. Like, what was he thinking with this throw? Look where the Safety is. He's deep but 10 yards away from Jerry. WHY not just put loads of air under it to the sideline? The only play on the ball he can make is the throw Wilson made - vertical with air on it. So, so bad.

[paul-mac]

36 minutes ago, lomaxgrUK said:

Meh, leave me on the fire Hackett stuff. We've made our bed, lie in it for a year. That is just not happening until we're mathematically out of the playoff hunt which will be a little while yet. 

Hackett was brought here for playcalling; he isn't giving that up. Between him and Russell Wilson, they've got to get it sorted and very quick.

What I will say about Hackett - he wasn't the one who threw balls behind receivers all night.

He wasn't the one who (for some reason) lead Jeudy upfield when he'd turned his man around and was running wide open to the sideline on a 40 yard gainer.

He wasn't the one who thought Ty Cleveland vs a former DPOY was  good matchup to go to in a critical 3rd down with 3 points waiting.

He wasn't the one who threw a contender for worst pick of the year by just lobbing a ball up like a Punt.

 

I think it’s absolutely reasonable to hold Wilson responsible for that loss. For the 4th time in 5 games, the defense held the opposition below 18 points. Even average NFL offenses win like 80%+ of games when their defense makes it that easy for them. You or I could have played pitch and catch with Hamler for that 4th down, but then Hackett makes the following mistakes:

 

- Going for it on 4th and 1. You had 3 minutes left plus 2 timeouts and the warning. Kick the FG and trust your lights out defense to get a quick stop so you can kick another FG to win.

 

- After deciding to go for it, you need to at least go through the charade that you might be running a QB sneak or giving it to Gordon. Going empty backfield just allows them to double up your best WRs and still blitz the QB. 
 

 

The biggest problem of all though is that there’s no panic button to push on Russell Wilson. You can’t get all those draft picks back and you can’t really get out of his contract until 2026. We are 100% stuck with him. Is Hackett the guy we trust to fix him or do we need to go and bring in a guru that’s had success with him in the past? 

[lomaxgrUK]

35 minutes ago, paul-mac said:

- Going for it on 4th and 1. You had 3 minutes left plus 2 timeouts and the warning. Kick the FG and trust your lights out defense to get a quick stop so you can kick another FG to win.

I had no problem with the call at all. You need 1 yard - you cannot risk losing the game by playing scared. Plus, our Defense was starting to fade and I am not sure they'd have stopped the Colts gaining 30 yards on a final drive.

35 minutes ago, paul-mac said:

- After deciding to go for it, you need to at least go through the charade that you might be running a QB sneak or giving it to Gordon. Going empty backfield just allows them to double up your best WRs and still blitz the QB. 

The Colt sent 5 - they would've sent 6 with a RB in the backfield. The playcall worked in that Hamler couldn't possibly have been any more wide open. It was a complete failure by Russell to not look off the single Safety then work back away from Gilmore.

[NYRaider]

1 hour ago, lomaxgrUK said:

Meh, leave me on the fire Hackett stuff. We've made our bed, lie in it for a year. That is just not happening until we're mathematically out of the playoff hunt which will be a little while yet. 

Hackett was brought here for playcalling; he isn't giving that up. Between him and Russell Wilson, they've got to get it sorted and very quick.

What I will say about Hackett - he wasn't the one who threw balls behind receivers all night.

He wasn't the one who (for some reason) lead Jeudy upfield when he'd turned his man around and was running wide open to the sideline on a 40 yard gainer.

He wasn't the one who thought Ty Cleveland vs a former DPOY was  good matchup to go to in a critical 3rd down with 3 points waiting.

He wasn't the one who threw a contender for worst pick of the year by just lobbing a ball up like a Punt.

I personally don't see anyway that Hackett doesn't make it until at least the end of this season. 

Hackett wasn't even the play caller in Green Bay over the last couple of seasons as their offensive coordinator. 

Russell Wilson definitely has struggled this season though.

[NYRaider]

1 hour ago, paul-mac said:

The biggest problem of all though is that there’s no panic button to push on Russell Wilson. You can’t get all those draft picks back and you can’t really get out of his contract until 2026. We are 100% stuck with him. Is Hackett the guy we trust to fix him or do we need to go and bring in a guru that’s had success with him in the past? 

I wouldn't panic just yet, despite your 2-3 record, if you changed two plays you'd be sitting at 4-1. I also can't really remember any team starting extremely strong with a new head coach (especially not a first time HC) and starting QB. If your season does go completely off the rails this year I think you'll probably move on from your GM and Hackett after this season. You're committed to Wilson for the foreseeable future so you have to find a way to make it work. Plus IIRC your new ownership group didn't hire your GM so I could definitely see them wanting to just hit the reset button with all of their own guys. 

If you do move on from Hackett I think that Sean Payton would make a lot of sense. 

[paul-mac]

32 minutes ago, NYRaider said:

I wouldn't panic just yet, despite your 2-3 record, if you changed two plays you'd be sitting at 4-1. I also can't really remember any team starting extremely strong with a new head coach (especially not a first time HC) and starting QB. If your season does go completely off the rails this year I think you'll probably move on from your GM and Hackett after this season. You're committed to Wilson for the foreseeable future so you have to find a way to make it work. Plus IIRC your new ownership group didn't hire your GM so I could definitely see them wanting to just hit the reset button with all of their own guys. 

If you do move on from Hackett I think that Sean Payton would make a lot of sense. 

George Paton isn’t going anywhere. If we did fire him, half the league lines up to hire him as GM. In 2 off-seasons he’s brought us Surtain, Javonte, Meinerz, Browning, Sterns, Randy Gregory, DJ Jones, plus he’s locked up a lot of our young core for years (Simmons, Sutton, Patrick), and even if the Wilson thing turns out to be a mistake I still admire him swinging for the fences at QB after half a decade of every journeyman you could care to name being trotted out year after year.

 

Paton is the single best thing about this franchise and even if Hackett is proven to be a mistake, he should be given an opportunity to correct that mistake and bring in another HC. 

[paul-mac]

Do we think the bridges are burned with Dan Quinn or can we go back to him again? Sean Payton expected to be in Dallas next year so Quinn should be available. 

[NYRaider]

9 minutes ago, paul-mac said:

Do we think the bridges are burned with Dan Quinn or can we go back to him again? Sean Payton expected to be in Dallas next year so Quinn should be available. 

We'll see. The Cowboys are surprisingly staying afloat and I could see them promoting Kellen Moore if they decide to go in a different direction. From an outside perspective, I'd guess with the amount of money you invested into Wilson that you'd probably lean towards an offensive minded coach. And I could see the Broncos job being appealing to Payton because he'd likely have significantly more control over personnel decisions in Denver as opposed to Dallas. 

[NYRaider]

12 minutes ago, paul-mac said:

George Paton isn’t going anywhere. If we did fire him, half the league lines up to hire him as GM. In 2 off-seasons he’s brought us Surtain, Javonte, Meinerz, Browning, Sterns, Randy Gregory, DJ Jones, plus he’s locked up a lot of our young core for years (Simmons, Sutton, Patrick), and even if the Wilson thing turns out to be a mistake I still admire him swinging for the fences at QB after half a decade of every journeyman you could care to name being trotted out year after year.

Paton is the single best thing about this franchise and even if Hackett is proven to be a mistake, he should be given an opportunity to correct that mistake and bring in another HC. 

I'm not too familiar with the situation, I just know that in a lot of situations where a new ownership group or front office takes over an organization they like to get their own guys into the building. 

[paul-mac]

17 minutes ago, NYRaider said:

We'll see. The Cowboys are surprisingly staying afloat and I could see them promoting Kellen Moore if they decide to go in a different direction. From an outside perspective, I'd guess with the amount of money you invested into Wilson that you'd probably lean towards an offensive minded coach. And I could see the Broncos job being appealing to Payton because he'd likely have significantly more control over personnel decisions in Denver as opposed to Dallas. 

The issue with Payton is that we don’t have the draft pick capital to get him. Saints will surely want a Russell Wilson level package in a trade and we already spent next year’s 1st and 2nd. 
 

Hiring the latest hot coordinator has been an unmitigated disaster three times in the past 12 years. Denver hired McDaniels, Joseph and Fangio into their first HC jobs after they all impressed as coordinators. They had a combined 0-7 record at making the playoffs and all were fired after no more than three seasons.

 

Meanwhile, the other two coaches we’ve hired in the same timespan had a 5-1 record at making the playoffs, plus they each made a Super Bowl, with one win and one loss.

 

If the Broncos do move on from Hackett after this season then the new HC must be someone who’s been a HC in this league before and I don’t think it can be Payton given the draft pick capital required to get him in. Dan Quinn is the standout option for me and if we don’t get him, I wouldn’t be opposed for looking towards a no nonsense CEO guy like Jim Caldwell or Brian Flores as the head coach, bring in Bevell or Schottenheimer who’ve had success with Wilson in the past to call the plays and just keep Evero as DC. 

Edited October 7, 2022 by paul-mac