...and its STILL all of those things.
During the last regime (Koetter et al), there was a significant percentage of our fanbase and of our media who were so confident that Koetter's leadership, Koetter's management, Koetter's play-calling, Koetter's coaches were causal for our lack of winning (2 out of his 3 years).
They were confident that this was a playoff-worthy roster and it just needed an influx of leadership, management, play-calling, and positional coaching for our losing-beleaguered roster to ascend to reach their individual and collective potential.
We are now decisively at the death of that narrative.
It was wrong when it was posited and has now clearly been proven wrong.
This is not an NFL-competitive roster. Its not even close. And it hasn't ascended individually (overall) and certainly not collectively since this new regime has taken over.
But we don't just have a bad roster.
We have coaches that don't make the most of opportunities in games...in fact, they snatch defeat from the jaws of victory just as well as any of our players failing to make a play or avoid calamity in the 4th quarter. And then they don't accept responsibility for it (and somehow expect locker-room accountability to coalesce despite that example).
I've said it many times. Losing is a disease. Its infectious and murderous...and it quickly claims the new "cavalry" every time they show up...year after year. Guys don't believe because you tell them to believe. They believe because they see the cornerstones of their team routinely making plays to win games. They believe because the formula bears out game-winning play by all parties (including coaches) early and often. They believe because after their cornerstones and their formula has seen them through the worst of it, they suddenly are making the plays to win themselves. Its a positive feedback loop that at some point becomes self-perpetuating.
But you need the cornerstones (in particular at the key places), you need the formula, you need correct coaching in crucial situations, and you need high football IQ role-players who are assignment sound and capable enough of doing their job over and over to an adequate level.
We fundamentally have none of that.
Because we have top-down systemic ineptitude. Wrong hires, wrong retention, lack of vision, lack of foresight, and worst of all...lack of learning, lack of self-awareness, and a lack of understanding about all of those prior lacking things. Speaking of positive feedback loops...this systemic ineptitude creates a positive feedback loop of hopelessness and consistent performance south (sometimes well south) of mediocrity.
Utterly_unacceptable.
The fans have bailed on this franchise. They've bailed not just due to the lack of winning. They've bailed because of that UNDENIABLE positive feedback loop of utter hopelessness and all of its constituent elements.
