AZ54

That game is what it’s like when you watch the good teams. Dennis Allen gets a ton of credit for that defensive effort because early on it looked ugly but he adjusted. Caleb looked good but hasn’t even reached his ceiling yet.

Sounds more like a hernia than a groin injury.

You said very effectively what I'm thinking. This is a process not a switch to flip. Do we have the right guy to lead that process? I think so because I see and hear the accountability, and the challenges to the players. I also think that schematically he knows what needs to be done on the field even if his players aren't yet able to execute that. The growth isn't everywhere on the roster for sure but the improvement I saw from Caleb and Rome between Wk 1 to Wk 2 makes me think it is starting to get better.

I liked Ben's press conference today. He's not afraid to call out players, or coaches for that matter. Yet he does it in way without degrading players. Nobody is getting compliments from Ben unless they've earned it. His comment on Wed that this team had yet to have a single championship caliber practice seems to have made the rounds of Halas Hall. Today he was much more complimentary of the practice effort and focus even if it was still short of championship caliber. You won't win games just because Ben Johnson is your coach. You win them because you put in the work. At the same time Ben is well aware that it will be a journey to get back to playing winning football. Although his pained facial expressions make it blatantly obvious he doesn't want this to be a long trip. Hopefully this team has more fight in them this weekend when things go wrong.

+1

That is not happening.

Much is made of leg strength but I wonder if it's not core strength that really matters. Core strength keeps your body from twisting on impact and allows you to transfer force from the lower body.

I understand the whole synergy thing but no matter what job we’re talking about there is a basic level of competency needed from the individuals in that team to reap those benefits.

Play calling does not help improve 1v1 blocking. It can be used to mask deficiencies but doing that hinders offensive production. Caleb getting the ball out on time will reduce sacks but I also don’t want him thinking the ball has to be out within 2 sec on every play.

On Wed Ben said the lack of TE usage is on him. He said he’ll work on changing that. I still think our play sheet is limited as the players are getting comfortable with the offense. It’s easier to add more for a home game because they don’t have to deal with crowd noise. We’ll see how it goes this week.

Stephon Gilmore

It’s worth noting that Ben was part of the turnaround in Detroit. He saw how Dan Campbell handled all the early losses. IMO that’s why you saw him tell the team he still has confidence in them.

I agree overall. For all the vitriol regarding our crappy offense we still put up 21pts on the road against a playoff team. I’m so old I remember when our kicker was the leading scorer. There were lots of stupid mistakes but seeing this offense put up 28pts or more isn’t hard to see in the future. I like the detailed answers Ben gave yesterday in his press conference. Even regarding the defense he was clear that he understands the calls and assignments. I remain optimistic. One thing this teams need is leadership and attitude on the field. Both on offense and defense there were too many heads hanging low in the second half.

Caleb continues to progress. That’s job 1. As things slow down for him the playbook starts to expand.

Changing a culture is the hardest thing to do. That has shown up in both games this season. I believe with this stress it will happen just don’t know when.

I’m old enough to remember Jimmy Johnson doing this kind of stuff with his roster in Dallas. This is nothing like last year and the message was sent to the entire team.

Gotcha

No good reason? His career dream job as NFL HC and $13M per year guaranteed. Turn around a bad Bears franchise and NFL legend status awaits him.

There is plenty of blame to go around but nothing bothered me more than a very expensive IOL missing blocks.

That is correct.

Well that felt…. The same minus a few hundred million.

Hutchinson is simply not the same player. He has no lateral quickness. It will come back to him but it’s going to take time. Detroits IOL was not on par with last year overall. Lots of new parts there so it might just take some time but I do wonder if Ben Johnson’s obsession with details is the real missing piece. I’ll find out tomorrow.

I've been critical of the need to keep Case Keenum on the 53 as I don't really see the need for that. In light of all this chatter about Caleb's need to learn how to be a professional QB maybe that is the need. Poles obviously saw what was going on last year and there's no doubt he consulted with Ben Johnson about that. They knew what they wanted and recruited Keenum out of retirement so it wasn't just finding another QB to compete for the backup role. I know everyone talks about how having a vet presence can help Caleb but I'm saying that was the sole reason he was hired and put on the 53.

Saquon was the only player who stood out to me on both sides of the field. I can say now I regret passing on him in FA because this offense with him and Ben Johnson would be elite. He's one of those rare players that is just fun to watch. Prescott looked lost after his first read on most plays. Hurts looked the same, constantly pulling the ball back down and staggering around the pocket before deciding to run. It is just week 1 so a lot of that is normal but after the game Jerry Jones said he was very encouraged by the Cowboys performance and thought it was one of the best games he'd seen from Prescott. He is clearly in damage control mode after the Parsons trade. They have a lot of good players but I'm not overly concerned about playing them in Wk 3.

I’m watching the Cowboys Eagles game and I just realized that Eberflus took the Dallas DC job expecting to have Micah Parsons but instead has to replace him with Jack Sanborn.