Skins v Bengals week 3 preseason thread

[JoeRedskin]

Agreed about the value of preseason. However, throughout the Gruden regime, this team has been a slow starter and nothing I have seen this preseason gives me hope that this has changed.

While I fully understand and completely accept that preseason play is absolutely not a reliable way to predict a team's in-season success, and, in fact, it can be incredibly misleading about the same, it is disconcerting to see the lack of crispness in any aspect of the team, particularly as they come out of the gate.

If they had been sharp in the opening series, gotten a first down, maybe hit a nice pass downfield ... sure, preseason is preseason, so, as a starter, you hit a good play, clock it internally as, "okay, got this. Now not going to get injured," and take the rest of the game easy. But ... the starters weren't crisp out of the gate or at any point in the first quarter. In fact, the offense didn't get things together late in the 2nd half when most of the Bengals were probably "don't get hurt" mode.

IMHO, under Gruden, this team rarely comes out of the gate strong and focused. Whether for a single game or the start of the season. It's a disturbing trend and this preseason has done nothing to allay my concern on that particular issue.

I like Gruden. I don't think he's a bad coach. I don't think he coddles players or otherwise refuses to hold them to account. At the same time, I just don't see evidence that he has the "it" factor either. While the players apparently generally like and respect him, I am not impressed by him as a motivator.

In an admittedly unfair comparison (different eras, salary cap, etc.), I think Gruden is on a par with Gibbs as an X's and O's guy. Yes, Gibbs' was an innovator, etc. and has the edge, of course, but Gruden is not a slouch in that department, runs very good schemes, and can come up with creative ways to attack opposing offenses. However, when it comes to adaptability and motivation, and based on what I have seen, Gruden has not shown himself to be in the same class at the very good/great coaches.

Almost from the first game, Gibbs demonstrated an ability to scrap a failing game plan and come up with something on the fly that countered the opposing team's counter to his original plan. Hell, when Gibbs came to the Skins, he was the offensive mind behind Air Coryell and looked to install that offense here. Five games in, he scraps that and becomes a run-first coach behind Riggins. He literally abandoned his offensive philosophy to create a new way of winning with the tools at hand. Throughout his career, he was famous for his halftime adjustments. There are tons of anecdotes of him creating new game plans / counters on the sideline.

I just have never seen that kind of in-game creativity from Gruden.

Then, and more importantly to the slow starts, there was Gibbs the motivator. Players didn't just like and respect Gibbs, they would run through brick walls for him. He KNEW how to make players play their best from the first play to the last.

Again, I just don't see this kind of inspired leadership from Gruden.

He's a solid coach and he has been a winner. It's only year three, so I remain hopeful he will turn the corner on these two skills. Preseason is useless as to judging the first (adaptability) and a limited predictor of the second (motivator), but I just am not seeing anything that makes me confident that improvement is occurring on either front.