Men of Steele: A Coach's Story

[trekfan]

Ch. 5

Coach’s Log, Week 4, 2019:

Week 4 saw us back in Miami with a matchup against the Chargers. Sitting at 2-1, just like us, LA was looking to put the league on notice: this year, they wanted it all. They were playing in a tough division but were the cream of the crop there — if they could get past KC, they’d have a shot. Today, they needed to get past us and they did a piss poor job of that.

With Gesicki out, Rosen’s favorite target was gone, but he still had Kenny Stills and Dwayne Allen — and the veteran Allen was eager to show his worth. We had signed him to be the second TE, to still give us the ability to run those same routes if Gesicki needed a breather, and big Dwayne showed out.

He put his body on the line out there, going high and grabbing passes that, by all rights, should have sailed over his head. But we were in the 1970s throwbacks and the player were playing throwback football.

They were also fumbling the ball like it had been slicked with butter prior to the game. It was a problem, it was still a problem, and it nearly cost us — the Chargers repeatedly caused fumbles on big hits, lighting up our receivers and ball carriers like practice dummies on a bad day. The refs kept their flags in their back pockets and we turned the ball over 4 times.

Yet, we still won. Why? Dominant balance. Our ground game was humming, particularly Ballage who put up 143 yards. Walton was given the start as the second back over Gaskin, and he put up 75. There wasn’t any doubt in my mind that Ballage saw Drake’s injury as a green light to show us he was ready for a starting role.

Rosen also had another good day — he was doing exactly what I wanted, being the general, going out there and directing the troops. Was he tossing up 300 yard games every week? No, but he was close. He batting a 13 TD to 1 INT ratio, he was taking care of the ball, making good decisions, and leading the league and TD passes. He was willing to use any of his receivers, no matter their spots on the depth chart, and that boded well.

We won the game rather easily as our defense, for the first time all year, actually got some real stops. We didn’t choke this one away like we did against the Ravens — we controlled the ball, the tempo, and our selves. We only failed to to control our turnovers, but heading into our bye, that would be emphasized heavily. Turnovers kill teams.

If we were going to be more than an early-season feel good story, we had to kill those turnovers before they killed us.

[trekfan]

Ch. 6

Coach’s Log, Week 5 BYE, 2019:

By the end of the bye week, I was happy where we were at in terms of our fumbling. We’d hit the practice field all week and the staff had preached security, more than anything. Did we get some additional rest? Absolutely. I didn’t run guys into the ground, no point in adding to the injury report.

A situation was developing with Kiko Alonzo — he wanted out. Signing Nick Perry had bumped him to a backup role and I had asked him to switch to safety to provide us some needed depth there. He had agreed, thinking he’d get more play time, but he wasn’t really excelling there. He had asked for a trade to a team that would actually start him.

His contract was ugly as *uck.

He had 2 years left, making between 8-10M on both years. We’d have to eat a decent cap penalty to move him, but we had plenty of space, so it wasn’t a huge issue from a salary front. He wanted out, so I sent him away.

Dallas was in desperate need of a better SS than Jeff Heath — Alonzo was an upgrade, even if only a small one, but enough of one that Dallas was willing to give up some draft capital to make the deal. I had high hopes for this draft and acquiring another 4th round pick to add to our stockpile was a win in my book. We needed talent everywhere and the more picks we had, the more talent we could get.

Across the league, the teams that were in the hunt and weren’t in the hunt were very, very clear.

At the top, to no one’s surprise, were the Chiefs and Saints. Two dominant offenses led by dominant QBs. Buffalo was out of left field — Josh Allen was having a good year and had found his receiver in Cole Beasley, which looked like a genius signing at this point. The Redskins were thriving behind Case Keenum, but Haskins was assumed to be the future there.

In the second tier of teams, we were there with the 49ers. The media questioned whether either of us were real — both of our teams had holes in places, us moreso than San Francisco, but we were threatening. With only 12 playoff spots up for grabs, being this good this early was a good sign … but didn’t guarantee us anything.

Minnesota and Green Bay were both jostling for position, neither very poor or very good, just slightly average.

In the third tier sat the dark horses — the Colts, Chargers, Texans, Jaguars — teams that people had high hopes for that, so far, weren’t living up to them. The Cardinals were surprisingly competitive with Murray manning the QB spot, but I knew for a fact that Rosen wanted to be better than Arizona every year for the rest of his career for what they did to him: the fire burned bright in that kid.

In tier four sat the serious disappointments — the Cowboys among them. Dallas’ defensive woes might have been solved by my trade, but we wouldn’t know for weeks. The Seahawks, Patriots, and Browns were all at the bottom of their respective divisions for different reasons: Seattle had lost KJ Wright for most of the year, he’d be back maybe in Week 12, which had taken their shaky defense and sent it spiraling. New England was dealing with life after Gronk — Brady just couldn’t find a receiver he liked as much — and the Browns had no injury issues, it was just a matter of chemistry.

The fifth and final tier were the teams that were in total dumpster fire mode — the Bears were that team. Chicago’s defense was doing work, but the offense was falling apart as Mich Trubisky was throwing INTs like his name was Rex Grossman; 5 TDs to 11 INTs on the year and the Matt Nagy magic looked to be over.

I was happy where we were — we could have been a dumpster fire, but so far the team was operating well. The schedule would only get tougher as we faced the Redskins in Week 6.

[trekfan]

Ch. 7

Coach’s Log, Week 6, 2019:

We were down by 14 early in the second quarter and looked dead in the water — early in the first we had driven down the field and stalled out in the redzone, so we had to settle for a field goal, which we shanked from 22 yards out. The Redskins and Keenum pounced on the opportunity, our defense couldn’t do enough to stop them.

Early in the second, we were stuck in 3rd and 17 after a bad sack and in danger of going three and out again.

Rosen didn’t let it happen. He stood in the pocket, delivered a strike to Kenny Stills, who took that ball and ran it way upfield.

From that point, we went no-huddle. Given time, the Redskins were eating our offensive line, so we didn’t give them time. I let Rosen call his shots and we put up 10 points in the second.

We needed the defense to step it up in the second half, we had to get pressure on Keenum, we had to stymie that passing game. It was Case *ucking Keenum, a journey man QB replaced by Kirk Cousins and then Joe Flacco — he wasn’t anything special.

The defense stepped up. They held the Redskins to only 3 points in the second. Offensively, we had trouble scoring in the redzone all day, having to live off field goals (which our kicker thankfully hit). We were ineffective in scoring situations — passing wise, we just couldn’t get the yards we needed, but we didn’t make any terrible mistakes, pulling away in the final quarter.

Drake being out wasn’t slowing down our running game — we were still getting yards, but getting into the endzone was harder. I still wasn’t sure what Drake’s value was to our team, but with the way Ballage, Walton, and Gaskin were playing, I was willing to run a committee backfield and save the money for free agency. We were projected to have a lot of cap room — with the way we were playing, if we could finish the season strong, we had a chance to add some real talent in the draft and free agency.

We just had to stay focused.

[trekfan]

Ch. 8

Coach’s Log, Week 7, 2019:

We were on the road, facing the 4-1 Bills — a share of the division lead was on the line. New England was still struggling, the Jets were busy crashing and burning with Adam Gase, and for the first time in what felt like decades we were the two best teams in the AFC East.

This was the time to prove we could get the big win on the road, and we proved it in spades. Once more, we achieved a balanced attack — Rosen tossed over 250 yards through the air, the ground game gave us over 200 yards pounding the rock, and we spread the wealth on offense. Touches went to many players, especially at receiver, where we saw Kenny Stills go off early…

Until he was laid out by Michah Hyde. Stills would have to call it a day after only the first half, meaning we had to rely on our depth to get us through — Trent Taylor stepped up for the first time all year, as passes came his way. Jakeem Grant slithered his way through the defense for RAC yards and Dwayne Allen was his usual self, admirably filling in for Gesicki.

Defensively, Josh Allen and the Bills had no shot. They were neutralized over and over, their running game was held to a pathetic amount of yards as our defense feasted.

Rosen lit up the scoreboard — 5 TDs to just 1 INT, finding Taylor twice, Allen once, Stills once, and Nick O’Leary — third string TE — once as well. It was a clinic as he diced up the Bills.

He was growing in confidence. He was growing in skill. He looked, at the very least, like a solid starter at the QB position. We had a lot of draft picks in the next two drafts, so it was on Rosen to prove that he could excel or he’d have to be replaced, but so far he was looking every bit the intelligent passer he was in college.

It was a big division win — and probably our easiest win of the year. Next week, we traveled to Pittsburgh.

That wouldn’t be easy, period.

[trekfan]

Ch. 9



Coach’s Log, Week 8, 2019:



Heinz Field in Pittsburgh might as well have been coated in ketchup with how poorly the team took care of the ball. It was a rain drenched, soaked night, the kind of game that made your jerseys reek for a week with how much field, sweat, and blood was on it.



We had a chance at the end, but the game got away from us early. Fumbles by our receivers, two INTs from Rosen (one was not his fault as Allen slipped on his route and Bud Dupree was there to snag the ball), but even with all that going wrong, we nearly came back and won it. In the fourth quarter we were down by a touchdown, with 1:35 to play and at our own 29 yard line.



We had to go wide. We had to pass. We had to convert. And, surprisingly, we did as Rosen showed off a piece of his game that wasn’t really his strength — his wheels. Josh Rosen will never be confused for Mike Vick, but when given a lane, the kid is bold enough and smart enough to take off. And he’s not a suicidal hero, trying to run it up the gut against the Steelers’ defense — he smartly ran towards the sidelines, and twice on that final drive he took off, stayed in bounds, picked up big chunk yards, and got out of bounds.



It was good enough to get us all the way down to the 11 yard line, where Rosen found Jakeem Grant for a big score, tying up the game after the PAT.







55 seconds were left. We just needed the defense to hold.



They fell apart like soaked toilet paper.



They allowed Big Ben to whip off two big passes, putting the Steelers in filed goal range, where they calmly nailed the winning score as time expired. Game over.










We didn’t have much of a run game if you subtracted Rosen’s scrambles. We didn’t do a good job of taking care of the ball. Despite all that, we came within a few plays of winning the damned thing on the road. Most coaches don’t believe in good losses, but every game matters — even the ones you lose — and we fell to 5-2, losing to AFC North opponents.



It wasn’t the best thing — we were still on track to make the playoffs, we still led the division — but it gave me confidence that we could develop into a really good squad if we could just manage to hold onto to the damn ball. We had guys who wanted to do too much, who wanted to make too many plays, and we needed to get that under control. A regular season game like this was bad enough, but in the playoffs we’d have lost by double-digits.



Its a different beast there and, with the way our season was going, I knew we’d have to face that beast sooner than anyone anticipated.

[rybrady732]

The boys are rolling! Some nice wins there, squeaking by Pit and blowing out your division rival. Getting to the dog days, hope you guys can keep it up!

[trekfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by rybrady732

The boys are rolling! Some nice wins there, squeaking by Pit and blowing out your division rival. Getting to the dog days, hope you guys can keep it up!

Actually, Pittsburgh got by us -- that team is TOUGH to play against. We've lost to the Ravens and Steelers from the AFC North, which isn't terrible by any means, as both those teams have more experience and a more stable foundation than the Dolphins over the last 20 years.



The rest of the season ahead of us will determine our fate. We're looking good right now though.

[trekfan]

Ch. 10



Coach’s Log, Week 9, 2019:



Home again versus the Jets. There’s nothing quite so good as facing a cellar-dwelling rival and the Jets were, as many expected, dysfunctional. Le’Veon Bell was a special talent but he had passed on Super Bowl hopes for money — for a running back, not a terrible trade off as money would likely be better for him long-term.



But the Jets having the gall to hire the former head coach of the Dolphins in Gase? That was insulting on multiple levels. Gase wasn’t an offensive savant anymore and the truth was he never earned that tag. He made Jay Cutler look good — okay, points to him for that — but he wasn’t a good head coach. The men in the locker room still left from his tenure, to a T, weren’t fans of his.



He was just oft-putting. He wasn’t a guy players could get behind and he wasn’t smart enough to stay out of his own way.



I didn’t much like him and wanted to see him get an L back in Miami. The fans equally hated him, loudly booing him as he stepped onto the field and anytime the stadium AV crew put his mug on the billboard.



It was another sloppy, rainy day — and yet again, we started off the game poorly. An opening drive pick, followed up by another drive ended in the redzone with a fumble, and the Jets had the turnovers to make us pay. Unfortunately, the Jets didn’t have any actual ability to do really anything except look done with the year.



They were 1-6, we were 5-2, and they looked every bit as bad as their record indicated. Offensively they were bad most of the game, and we were solid — we weren’t spectacular and we did hurt ourselves early, but we recovered and recovered well.



The final score was closer than it appeared, largely because I wanted to make sure we ran the clock out in the fourth — so a lot of running plays were called.










Our running game was electric with Gaskin getting big yards on a decent amount of snaps. Ballage saw some action, though not as much as I would have liked — we tried our best to put Drake into a good position, but he came away with *hit. He was awful and Rosen, a non-running QB, was better than him really.



This game nearly had me convinced Drake wasn’t the future. Gaskin and Ballage were both showing me the ability to make yards from limited snaps. Drake wasn’t doing the same with many, many more snaps.



After the game some of the Jets players sought out Rosen for a photo-op.







This told me everything I needed to know about the Jets — as their own QB trotted off the field, they had players on their team getting pics with the opposing QB. Gase hadn’t been there a year and already his locker room looked lost.



We looked like we had found our way. We went on the road to face the Colts next. It was going to be a big game.