We're almost there

I really honestly did not want to make this into it's own thread because I know it will more than likely turn into a Mariota bash thread but just hear me out.

We have been competitive in every single game that we have played so far. We just don't know how to FINISH sometimes. Now is that coaching? QB play? Too young of a team to know how to win properly? Either way you look at it, there has not been a SINGLE game so far on our schedule where the other team came in and just destroyed us from start to finish and we folded like a trash can team would. You HAVE to admit, we have been in every game we've played.

Minnesota? We were shutting them out at halftime. A bad decision by Mariota ultimately lost us that game and we couldn't recover. But that's it though, just a bad decision. He hadn't even played in 16 full games in his career at that point. Rome wasn't built in a day.....

Oakland? We had an opportunity to win that game at the end, but our receivers just weren't good enough to get the job done. We were missing Delanie Walker and still only lost by one possession against a team that is currently 6-2 and looks to be at least a small contender at the end of the year.

Houston? Another case of just letting a team off the hook. We fought back and had the game tied up but gave up a CRUCIAL punt return and lost. Again. SO CLOSE you could almost taste it. One possession loss to a team I KNOW we can beat.

Indianapolis? Again, we had that game in our fingertips and we let it slip. Andrew Luck was on fire that game (as per the usual against us) but we STILL were able to fight our way back and we had a very good chance to WIN on the final drive but of course, we fumbled that game away.

Now I understand we aren't a contending team just yet. But all of our problems CAN BE and WILL BE solved if our organization has ANY football knowledge. These shortcomings that keep happening this year are completely fixable and I honestly believe we are a wide receiver we can trust, and a true #1 corner away from finally getting out of this horrible "funk" we have been in since our last good season in 2008. We have a SUPER young quarterback who just turned 23 years old that makes mistakes, and look I understand, sometimes the kid just looks awful on throws and he can't hang onto the ball but cut him some slack. Just a little bit. His touchdown to interception ratio this year is looking great, even though we HONESTLY have horrible wide receivers. I get that some people love Kendall Wright but at the end of the day, he is no more than a WR2 or WR3(slot). He makes some great plays from time to time but we need a TRUE WR1 that we can rely on to run crisp routes and catch the ball in critical moments. We need a CB1 to play alongside J-Mac who won't play 15 yards off and allow quick curl routes all game like the Colts were throwing to TY Hilton. Unacceptable.. Still makes me mad that we wouldn't change up the coverage on him.

I know this is all a wall of text but we have TWO first round draft picks and if we make the correct choices, we get a coach who can actually use Mariota the way he is meant to be used and get rid of the pre-school play caller we have at OC, we will turn the corner and stop being the laughing stock of the NFL that we have been for the past almost DECADE.

I truly believe we are ALMOST THERE!