[30gut]

The conspiracy theory talk is annoying.

Its annoying because it renders real questions about coaching mistakes void. I have no idea what the reasons are for some the decisions or mistakes. But I can see and discuss what is happening on the field, I can see the football results. Furthermore I'm insulted as a fan to hear from Cooley and others create a straw man (maybe unintentional) about the differences in playcalling. I submit that anyone that has been watching the preseasons games and thinks the plays/playcalling was the same is either blind or dishonest. NOW let me be clear observing different plays/playcalling IS NOT THE SAME THING AS SAYING GRUDEN IS RUNNING A DIFFERENT OFFENSE. AND there are logical, plausible reasons for the differences in playcalling BUT there are clear differences. Cooley and McVay are friends and Cooley has admitted that he and Scott talk. Imho its not out of the realm to think Cooley asked Scott about what he thinks happened and of course Scott is gonna defend the coaching. Cooley makes it seems that the pass protection was adequate/normal and that all Griffin had to do was step this way and step that way or made this check. By that logic we don't need to sign Trent all a QB has to do is avoid any pressure that occurs when an OL gets beat at the snap. For that matter I'm not sure why any team even spends money on the OL when your QB is supposed to evade any pressure whenever an OL gets beat. Jokes aside they made a mistake thinking Willie Smith was ready to start and provide adequate protection without help, that was a coaching mistake.

Now more differences in plays/playcalling. Cooley said that you can't bootleg the Lions because of their 43 defense but Colt&Kirk ran multiple bootlegs but with Griffin none? This directly disputes Cooley's claim that you can't boot against the Lions, maybe he forgot but the other QBs did boot. There has also been read-option (and please don't give me the Griffin doesn't want to do it, lest I show youtube video of Griffin less then 8 months removed from knee surgery running read-option in the 2013 season). There has also been formation variation i.e. using spread shotgun on 1st down and running from it etc. Those are distinct, obvious, clear differences in playcalling. And I'm certain there are/were good reasons in the coaches eyes for those differences..e.g. field position, personnel, wanting to work on something specific with different personnel etc. Noticing different playcalling is not the same as claiming Gruden is 'running a different offense' in an attempt to sabotage. That is nothing more then a semantics bait and switch tactic. Sorry had to get that off my chest.

Jay in his most recent press conferences seems to have recognized that yes there were playcalling/coaching, pass protection issues/mistakes with the 1st unit offense. (They might want to start by never, ever, ever thinking that you Willie Smith can just sub-in for Trent without changes to the offense even in preseason). Maybe Jay is just blowing smoke but product on the field matches with his comments.


But, lets address the whole 'sabotage' issue in a larger scope.

Is reluctance or inability on a coaches part to adapt or cater their scheme sabotage or just poor coaching?

Does it look to you like Jay is adapting his scheme?

Also, lets be real for a second. We've heard Jay's comments about Griffin last year? We know from reports and insiders that Jay going back to last training camp didn't believe in/want Griffin to be his QB. We heard that Jay, the HC, lobbied to bench 'his' QB by showing film to the owner.

As far as I can see this preseason has shown a combination of reluctance/inability on the coaching staff to adapt their system to their starter ostensible start QB mixed with poor playing with the 1st unit and one tragic personnel decision (Willie Smith starting at LT).