Men of Steele: A Coach's Story

[JasonForTheWin]

Nice win! What's up with Ballage? I always liked him, but he seems stuck at the bottom of the depth chart.

[trekfan]

Quote: Originally Posted by JasonForTheWin

Nice win! What's up with Ballage? I always liked him, but he seems stuck at the bottom of the depth chart.

I like him too, he got knocked out of that game with a bruised sternum -- he gets more play as the season goes on.

[trekfan]

Ch. 15

Coach’s Log, Week 14, 2019:

New York played like an actual football team at home as opposed to on the road. I came into the game superbly confident that we could crush the Jets, but New York played angry. All game their defense punished our players anytime they ran the ball or caught it — they hit hard, harder than I expected considering they only had three wins, and were absolutely locked in on offense.

Le’Veon Bell tore us a new one. In fact, he tore us two or three new ones. Bell danced all over the field, ran through and around tackles, and made our defense look like they were a JV squad. The Jets scored first and controlled the game all day — we just couldn’t convert third downs, struggling to complete the passes and getting no traction on the ground.

We lost Ballage and Trent Taylor to injuries in the game, forcing us to play Walton and Drake heavy minutes, while rotating in Isaiah Ford and Sherrfield. Heading into the fourth, we were down a touchdown and looking impotent — so I dialed up Gesicki. He was back, finally, after another injury and I tried to keep his touches light to avoid another injury.

We were playoff bound, I wanted to keep guys as healthy as possible, and losing Taylor and Ballage had put the fear of god in me. But I wanted this win — the defense had struggled mightily and we were letting them down. We had to come through. So, Gesicki became the focal point of the offense and the connection between him and Rosen was a thing of beauty.

Streaks. Comebacks. Slants. Outs. Drags. Post. Any route I dialed up, Rosen found Gesicki for, and we marched down the field and delivered a score to give us a 28-24 lead with 4:20 left.

The Jets tried to mount a comeback drive but we intercepted Darnold at our 35, putting the game away.

Statistically, we had a solid game but it wasn’t a great performance. It was a good performance, good enough, and I was happy about that. I wasn’t happen about the injuries.

Taylor was gone for the season and Ballage was out for the rest of the year too — Taylor was a free agent and I wouldn’t be bringing him back with that injury. Ballage going out hurt, and we were in desperate need of bodies at both HB and WR.

I went into free agency and brought in veteran Alfred Morris to act as our emergency back and a solid presence in the backfield — I needed someone tough and someone who could give as good as he got; Morris was that man. I signed a wideout off the Colts practice squad, Deon Cain, and he was on the roster.

We were limping around but had survived one game against one New York team. The Giants were next, fighting for their division, and wouldn’t go down easily.

I was just hoping we could get out of the game alive.

[trekfan]

Ch. 16

Coach’s Log, Week 15, 2019:

Mark Walton JR was earning himself play time and a new contract. The former Miami running back was huge in our game against the Giants. We started the game in poor field position — special teams got pinned back early and we had to start our first drive at the 9 yard line thanks to a penalty. Our first play of the game, Walton broke off a 91 yard run — TD.

The tone was set. New York went down the field on a long drive but had to settle for a field goal, but we weren’t much better as we had a drive die out at our 49 and settled for a punt.

In the second, though, we poured it on. Kenny Stills tore the Giants apart, just beautifully running routes and getting open. Rosen fed him and Gesicki often, then found Sherfield when they were covered.

New York tried to mount a second half comeback, but we kept Barkley sewed in — we were going to make Eli beat us and, spoiler, Eli definitely couldn’t beat us; he wasn’t good enough anymore, not to win against a team as hungry as ours.

Rosen was incredible — another 300 yard game, another multi-touchdown game, and he was inching closer to breaking the single season TD record set by Peyton Manning of 55. It would take a few more big games to do it and there were only two left — I wanted him to get that record and I wanted him to do it in Miami, in front of that home crowd, to give those fans a memory they could hold for a long time.

[trekfan]

Ch. 17

Coach’s Log, Week 16, 2019:

Josh Rosen was established as the leader of the locker room now — there was no doubt about it. The second year player had arrived from Arizona as damaged goods with the perception as being too smart, too cerebral, to be a good football player. He thought independently. He didn’t mindlessly do as he was told. He questioned orders.

He had the mindset of all the great ones — Manning, Favre, Brady, Rodgers — he was going to ask questions and that’s what I wanted. I didn’t need a subservient QB, I needed a leader and that’s what Josh Rosen was.

The Bengals were not in the playoffs and they weren’t going to be — they were, however, playing for the future and trying to show their fans that the future was bright. We started the game off with the ball but our first quarter was awful — Gesicki was injured, again, and it took the air right out of the stadium. Thankfully, the trainers said it was only a strain but they held him out as a precaution.

With Gesicki out, Rosen needed to find another connection and he found that one in veteran TE Dwayne Allen. Allen was only a few yards short a 1000 yard season — as the second tight end on the roster mind you, albeit one that had started as the first for half the season due to injuries — and Rosen got him that 1000 yards in the second quarter, down 7-3, he led a drive down the field that he capped off with a TD pass to Allen.

The Bengals went down the field and scored again, we ended the half with a field goal, but we were down 14-13.

But in the second half, we came alive. The defense adjusted and we went through the air — I didn’t play this close to the vest, I knew that we had to get scores and give our defense a chance. More than that, we had to establish a rhythm on offense or else we were cooked.

Defense might have won championships but offenses won games — our defense wasn’t good enough to stop anyone for very long, they were a bunch of gamblers and I loved that about them, but it made some games far too close.

We went for it on fourth and short three times in the second half and got them all. Rosen went into the air for over 400 yards and 3 TDs — he tied Manning’s record and almost broke it in the fourth until Sherfield fumbled a great catch six yards from the endzone.

Sherfield also broke his collarbone on the hit that caused the fumble and now he was out for the rest of the year.

But we won the game — no one else got hurt, thankfully, and we had just enough depth to make through the final horn.

Rosen had 55 TDs on the year, almost 5000 yards for the season. Our running game did just enough to give us some relief and our receivers — Allen, Stills, and Grant — were absolute studs.

We just needed Gesicki to stay healthy and we’d have the biggest weapon in the playoffs.

Our final game was at New England. Rosen wanted the record, the team wanted the record, and the Patriots were playing spoilers. We were 13-2, New England was 4-11 — Brady’s season had been wasted and there was talk he was done. With the draft loaded with top-tier QBs in Justin Herbert and Tua, there was no reason for the Patriots to hang onto Brady for another year.

The Patriots were going to go all out. We had to bring it.

[trekfan]

Ch. 18

Coach’s Log, Week 17, 2019:

Touchdown number 56 for Josh Rosen was the first points on the board and those points were caught by the best tight end in the game of football, in my opinion, Mike Gesicki.

Form that point, the rout was on. New England had no answer for us in the first as we passed, ran, and outplayed them in the opening frame. Brady was his usual self but he got no held from his running game, which was sucked into a black hole, never to be seen again. Our defense took away the run, forced old man Brady to pass, and he did … just not enough.

Rosen went APE — 6 TDs in the game against just a single pick. He found Gesicki over and over, enough that the young tight end went over 1000 yards and tallied 18 TDs for his season, making him 5th all time, behind Randy Moss, Jerry Rice, Mark Clayton, and Sterling Sharpe.

We danced up and down on the Patriots; we embarrassed them, like they had embarrassed multiple teams over their nearly 20 year run. But all things come to an end, good or bad, and we put the final nail in the coffin for that era of New England.

Despite the victory and the joy that came with it, despite finishing 14-2, we were still wounded — our injury list was long.

Thankfully, with the bye week, we’d get Gaskin back for our first playoff game in the divisional round. We had the best record in the NFL and Rosen’s performance had earned him another player of the week award.

We were better than we had any right to be — we were the dark horse team no one saw coming, but the playoffs were a different beast. What we did so well in the regular season we’d have to do even better in the postseason. The field was not going to be kind.

Depending on who came out of the wildcard round, we’d either be seeing the Texans or Browns. I wasn’t looking forward to seeing Cleveland again — after we lit them up on their home turf, they went on a tear and they were aiming for revenge.

Unfortunately for us, the football gods didn’t give us my preferred result.

We watched, as a team, the Browns playoff game and we watched them throttle Houston within an inch of their life. Myles Garrett was a monster and we had escaped him once before. Not a man on our team was 100% sure we could do it again, but we trained all throughout the bye week on protecting against big-time pass rushers — it was either going to be Garrett or JJ Watt anyway. The matchups were set. The stage was ours.

It was time to put up or shut up.