Final 8 games

[kbso83432]

 

[Sportster 72]

Yup...if EB is it...lets roll. GM first and make it good!

Who is your horse or if harris asked you who to interview, who is it for GM?

Truth be told, I think we have a good ownership group. I would love to have lunch with harris, magic and rales. They are probably down to earth folks who would be pleasant to be around.

I doubt snyder would ever had lunch with a fan. He would have insisted his goons and button men were hovering everywhere. I doubt one would get a handshake.

Harris and group would probably tell jokes, ask about you, and generally care. I am sure your brother was required to say the snyder pledge whenever he went to work.

I don't have a horse ... sort of like I told you I am happy we have new ownership and I am going to trust their decisions. They'll get their heads chopped off if fans don't agree.

 

[deanpet21]

FWIW, PFF said the line really isn’t much better than it was. The real change has been play calling and the qb improving by not freezing in the pocket and keeping his eyes downfield

True, but I think Larsen is an upgrade over Gates. Yes, play calling is better and Howell seems to be getting the ball out faster. Just growing pains from Howell and Eb first time play caller.

 

[duke1861]

True, but I think Larsen is an upgrade over Gates. Yes, play calling is better and Howell seems to be getting the ball out faster. Just growing pains from Howell and Eb first time play caller.

Then why were you so excited for gates and Wylie?

They have been awful free agent signings.

You mean to tell me that gates is now a backup and that the starter was already on the roster?

This is why we tell you to stop rubber stamping everything the team does.

 

[deanpet21]

Then why were you so excited for gates and Wylie?

They have been awful free agent signings.

You mean to tell me that gates is now a backup and that the starter was already on the roster?

This is why we tell you to stop rubber stamping everything the team does.

I liked wyle b/c he knew the system coming in. Gates b/c he was a veteran center. both are not playing well.

 

[duke1861]

I liked wyle b/c he knew the system coming in. Gates b/c he was a veteran center. both are not playing well.

Both were clearly mistakes but whatever. Neither might be on the roster in 2024.

On to 2024

 

[skinsdad62]

NYG = win
NYJ = win
SEA = loss
SF = loss
MIA = loss
LAR = win
DAL = loss
DAL = win

duke

NYG loss , they have our number
NYJ loss , the team got blown out by the awful bears
SF loss
Mia , loss
LAR win maybe
DAL Loss
DAL loss , if they need the win

 

[duke1861]

NYG = win
NYJ = win
SEA = loss
SF = loss
MIA = loss
LAR = win
DAL = loss
DAL = win

duke

NYG loss , they have our number
NYJ loss , the team got blown out by the awful bears
SF loss
Mia , loss
LAR win maybe
DAL Loss
DAL loss , if they need the win

I can't argue with anything you have said.

What you are saying makes sense to me.

 

[dcrising]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/11/09/ron-rivera-commanders-job-future/

Duke are you Barry Svrluga behind that screenname?

There are eight games remaining in the Washington Commanders’ season. That’s a lot of football to be played. And yet, it is almost impossible to see a path in which Ron Rivera oversees the 2024 roster and Ron Rivera coaches the 2024 team.

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That’s not counting losses before they’re earned. Indeed, a win Sunday in Seattle would pull the Commanders back to .500 and, in theory, could elevate them into the seventh and final playoff position in the NFC.

How could anyone’s professional future be determined with all those games still to come?
“To me, it’s all in front of us,” Rivera said this week. “I really do believe that.”
From where he sits — with a 4-5 team, a developing quarterback and a 9-3 record in November with Washington — it’s a reasonable way to think. But it says here there’s no realistic, reasonably attainable route for Rivera to keep his job. Certainly not as the czar of personnel and roster-building. But not as on-field head coach, either.


That’s not a bet against the Commanders this Sunday against the (equally middling) Seahawks. Nor is it to say that Washington couldn’t string a few wins together, because Rivera’s teams have done that around this time of year more than once.

Rather, it’s a sober assessment of the results Rivera has achieved across his career, an acknowledgment that the club is under new management, and an educated guess that said new management isn’t going to look at the on-field product and say, “We’re clearly headed in the right direction.”
Think about it. Josh Harris’s charge as the (still) new owner of his hometown NFL franchise: Fix the fan experience, sure. But fix the football, too.


Rivera began his first training camp under Harris three-and-a-half months ago by saying, “I’ve got a lot to prove.” Halfway through the season, that remains the case. The problem: The clock has ticked and the calendar has flipped, and he really hasn’t proven anything about why he deserves to stay in 2024 and beyond.

I don’t want to link Harris to “The Process” undertaken by his Philadelphia 76ers and say that means he will employ a dramatic lose-to-win plan here. But it can’t be completely ignored, and it suggests that deciding on leadership in both roster-building and coaching will be a logical, analytical endeavor.
Rivera has roamed the sidelines in Washington for 59 games. He is 26-32-1. His first draft choice here was the second overall pick in 2020, whom he just traded to the San Francisco 49ers for a third-round pick.

Where to hang your hat? If this season represents Rivera’s audition for Harris, what evidence could Rivera bring to his new boss that shows, clearly, he has built a solid foundation, and better days are in both the near and distant future?
“I just think as you look at what we’re doing, and we continue to be competitive, that’s probably the biggest thing right now,” Rivera said. “We’ve had a lot of change, a lot of things that we’re doing differently and just trying to put it together. I mean, for me, the biggest thing is just to continue to play hard and continue to do the best we can, and hopefully win some football games more so than anything else.

“I mean, the truth is, this is about winning. That’s the biggest thing that comes from the audition.”

At least he understands that last part, and clearly.
As always, when it comes to assessing Rivera’s tenure, it’s worth noting the tumultuous times in which he took the job — with a pandemic and a national reckoning on race arriving before he coached his first game here, with Daniel Snyder’s troubles with the NFL and Congress a relentless black cloud over everything the team did. He has navigated so much with dignity.
“First of all, the man that he is,” veteran tight end Logan Thomas said. “He’s straight-up with you. He ain’t gong to sugarcoat anything.”
“He’s extremely transparent with the team in what he expects,” star receiver Terry McLaurin said. “When we come out there, we know what’s expected of us at practice, how we come in the building and team meetings, how we’re supposed to present ourselves.”



That kind of consistency and clarity matters to professional athletes. Good on Rivera.
Now, back to the winning.
By now, we know who Rivera is as a coach. When he was hired before the 2020 season, I focused on Rivera’s high points over the course of nine seasons in Carolina: 12-4 in 2013, 15-1 in 2015 and 11-5 in 2017.
The hiring of a new football czar should inherently bring optimism, but the biggest reason to point to the positive was that those Panthers seasons directly contrasted what had been possible in Washington. Here’s the spot in which we remind everyone that Washington hasn’t posted a season with 11 or more wins since — are you serious? — 1991.

So it wasn’t unreasonable to acknowledge that Washington’s new coach had repeatedly pulled off something Washington hadn’t done for three decades. But in that case, focusing on the highs meant overlooking all the dreck that accompanied them. And by now, midway through his fourth Washington season, it’s not the highs that have been replicated. It’s the dreck.

Any mid-level Rivera-ologist can recite the stats: In his 11 full NFL seasons — not counting this year’s 4-5 and the 5-7 he posted before being fired in Carolina in 2019 — Rivera was 6-10 twice, 7-8-1 once, 7-9 three times, 7-10 once, and 8-8-1 once. Yawn. In his three winning seasons, he is 28 games over .500. In all his other seasons, he is 21 games below .500.
That’s not a small sample size. That’s a pattern, a track record that is established.

This is the season that’s going to force Harris to overlook all that evidence?
Parse Rivera’s argument for keeping himself a little further. “A lot of change, a lot of things that we’re doing differently” is a direct reference to installing Sam Howell as the quarterback to run a new offense installed by first-year coordinator Eric Bieniemy. Recent trends are positive for both.

But asking for more time to maximize the offense is an attempt at obscuring how badly Rivera and his front office — led by Martin Mayhew and Marty Hurney — messed up the offense for the first three seasons. Oh, and the defense? It ranks 29th in yards allowed per play, 30th in points allowed per game and 28th in yards allowed per game.

But Mr. Harris, all we need is more time?
Watch the Commanders on Sunday, and root for them — even if losses would mean better draft picks for whomever will be entrusted with making them in the future. But in pulling for your team, be realistic about that future, too. Nothing in Rivera’s past indicates he is about to put together the final pieces of a résumé that will blow away his new boss. There may be a lot of football ahead, but there’s a lot of football behind, too, and that evidence is damning.

 

[dcrising]

come on @duke1861 i know you saw this

 

[duke1861]

come on @duke1861 i know you saw this

Well done sir...well done.

 

[dcrising]

Well done sir...well done.

i read it and was like.....somewhere duke is standing up with thunderous applause!

 

[duke1861]

i read it and was like.....somewhere duke is standing up with thunderous applause!

It brought tears to my eyes.
It was poetry for the soul brother!

 

[Sportster 72]

I am seeing 6-11. They win both games against NY teams and that is it.

It is a week to week league but if I was asked this is my prediction now.

 

[duke1861]

I am seeing 6-11. They win both games against NY teams and that is it.

It is a week to week league but if I was asked this is my prediction now.

Makes sense.

I think the jets game will be good for howells development.

Agree on beating both NY teams.

I think the Rams are very beatable and the last DAL game depending in if they rest the starters.

6 to 8 wins looks reasonable to me.

 

[skinsdad62]

Makes sense.

I think the jets game will be good for howells development.

Agree on beating both NY teams.

I think the Rams are very beatable and the last DAL game depending in if they rest the starters.

6 to 8 wins looks reasonable to me.

that loud thud is draft position dropping

 

[duke1861]

Sunday will tell alot. I agree

What do we know now that we didn't before?

 

[duke1861]

Just a hunch. I think Geno Smith is beatable. Define good team? We are an average team. Can be a good team if the defense steps up and Howell continues to play well. I think Philly, 49ers, Lions and Dallas are better teams than us.

So geno Smith looked like a elite qb correct?
You can add Seattle, Vikings, and maybe saints as better teams.

We now have the 32nd ranked defense in points allowed this season.
7 games to go.

Still 9 wins?

 

[deanpet21]

So geno Smith looked like a elite qb correct?
You can add Seattle, Vikings, and maybe saints as better teams.

We now have the 32nd ranked defense in points allowed this season.
7 games to go.

Still 9 wins?

very tough, right now. I thought we would win Sunday. What we know now is that we can play with possible playoff teams like Seattle. I was looking at the schedules. Looks like Dallas, Sea, and Vikings are going to be the 3 wildcards.

 

[skinsdad62]

very tough, right now. I thought we would win Sunday. What we know now is that we can play with possible playoff teams like Seattle. I was looking at the schedules. Looks like Dallas, Sea, and Vikings are going to be the 3 wildcards.

we have an uphill battle to get in . i dont see it