Go With the Kid

Colt McCoy has now faced two of the best, and most complicated, defenses in the NFL and done well. Quit presenting it as a choice between developing a young quarterback or winning. That's a massive ass umption which ignores the young guy's actual, real, measurable performance.

I do like Seneca Wallace a lot, and he's obviously proven something. I was disappointed with Jake, but when healthy I defer to Holmgren on him. I don't deny that all rookies will make mistakes.

You've seen Jake, Seneca, and McCoy. Are you trying to tell me that the older guys are really better? They're NOT!

There we go with the preconceptions again. You had it in your head that McCoy wasn't ready, and now you're ignoring what you see with your own eyes. McCoy isn't as good as he will be, but he's already on a par with the veterans. It's real.

I see that thinking on the boards all the time, like this guy who passionately hates Mangini. Do you hear that screaming? That's his logic.

The game-plan vs. the Saints? No doubt Holmgren or Fujita's idea. The best special teams in the NFL? Of course--that's because Mangini only gets special teamers. If you try hard enough, and squint your eyes, and put your blinders on, and only look in certain places, you can manage to see what you need to see to confirm what you've made up your mind about.

McCoy is good enough to start and win right now. The fact that he needs experience is only the tie-breaker.

You wouldn't think that with these wide recievers it's a good environment for a young guy, but actually it is. This team can run even against stacked fronts, and has an abundance of tight ends and backs who can catch. It's a good offensive line, which is getting healthier in the bye-week.

By the way, in re MCoy's "lack of production" vs. the Saints? When you're up by seventeen points at halftime, you run the ball. DUH.

What are you numbskulls voting for Wright as the goat for? Still seeing what you expect to see (I mean hallucinating)? He covered well. AGAIN. Like he did before and after the Ravens game. I guess NOW he has to be Darryl Revis to clear where you've set the bar. I guess he has to shut guys down completely AND cover for Haden and Brown too! Gimme a break.

And when Haden comes in as the third cornerback, Wright covers the slot guy. So quit talking about Haden's challenge facing Wes Welker. Wright will be on Welker, and rightfully so. He's among the fastest players in the NFL. Welker might make some catches, but he won't outrun Wright.

Doctor Evil up there in New England will no doubt have all sorts of interesting stuff prepared for McCoy (and if it's not him, I'll bring the rope). He's got two games worth of tapes on him, too.

But what weakness will he see? McCoy hasn't shown any. Even the interception that one normally very good analyst said "He wishes he could take back" should have been caught. And I'll bet he'd do it again.

At any rate, Bill has to first and foremost stop the run. And as smart as he is, good luck with that. Nor is it just "the run" that you can blitze to try and blow up in the backfield. It's also the little dump-offs that wreck that strategy. The blitzer is out of the play inside and behind Hillis. Sometimes they don't even bother blocking him.

I don't think even Bill can shut that stuff down completely. He can stifle it somewhat to create some second and third-and-longs. He can flood the short zones to make it hard to catch anything inside.

But this is a hard offense for insideously diabolical defensive evil geniuses to stop, because the running/dumpoff game is one of brute force, and so far the Browns have simply been stronger. Defenses did everything right, but it didn't matter.

The Browns have a chance.

I'm revising my win/loss prediction to 11-5. I will update it next monday after I get more information.