What is your ideal (realistic) playoff scenario

Perfect.. since they're out and about they could do a little protesting for the cause

 

While Mariota hasn't played well at all, he's far from the only thing keeping this team from blowing up. Nothing the entire offense is doing says that the few bad throws a game from Mariota are the problem. I.E. run blocking/running in general, no separation from recievers... The OLine has been getting pushed around a lot. Play calling is trash most of the time.

Mariota has been making bad throws and decisions at times, but he isn't the only one to blame for the awful offense.

 

but if we lost to the rams in the SB again.....

 

We're saving all the good stuff for the SB run. Even Dodd will start.

 

Our offense was fire last year.

Play calling is the exact same.

Player execution is worse.

We brought in the #5 overall pick WR to create separation along with what many of you thought of Taywan as being the most explosive WR in the draft, yet they can't separate?

Mariflota looks pedestrian, it doesn't hurt his feelings, even he knows he's not playing as good as 2nd half last year.

Keep blaming Mularkey/Robiskie

 

I agree with your scenario.

I want to be the 3 seed and play either Baltimore or buffalo. Preferably Baltimore. They stink.

We ain't making it past that tho. And I'm ok with that. Growth every year.

 

You repeated what I said but blamed it all on Mariota. Players aren't executing, not just Mariota. I even acknowledge that Mariota has been off... But there's a lot more bad going on than just Mariotas play.

 

The biggest difference between this year and last year is the running game. Murray has looked like straight ass, and the blocking hasn't looked as good either.

Now in a Mularkey offense, this is a big problem because the design of the entire offense is predicated on having a good run game. Everything is built off of establishing the run, and setting up other plays off of it later ... but when the run game isn't working, this offense just doesn't work well. And they haven't adjusted the offense very well to mask the running deficiency either. They just stubbornly keep running DM.

So the question is, why has the run game stopped working?

Well the most obvious reason is that 2017 DM just isn't the same guy. Whether it's injury or age, DM has fallen off a cliff.

The other is or lack of blocking TEs. Last year we had some of the top blocking TEs in the game, and we used them a lot in the running game. This year we don't really have any blocking TEs.

If the run game were there, then this offense would probably be clicking like last year.

As for MM, his stats aren't where we hoped they would be, but he has played solid. People jump all over him for a few bad passes a game, but every QB is gonna have some bad passes. The vast majority of his passes are on target.

And half of his ints have come in 2 games. So yeah, he had a rough 2 game stretch int-wise. **** happens. Thats hardly enough to say there is a trend, or a regression in that dept.

 

From NFL.com....
The current seeding order of playoff hopefuls with QB issues: 3) Tennessee (Marcus Mariota), 4) Kansas City (Alex Smith), 5) Jacksonville (Blake Bortles), 6) Baltimore (Joe Flacco), 7) Buffalo (Tyrod Taylor) and 8) Cincinnati (Andy Dalton).
None of those teams' quarterbacks have played particularly well of late, which is a significant reason why they're all lumped together within just a game or two in the standings. If one of the signal callers can get hot (most have Mariota being that guy), a wild-card game -- or, if your name is Mariota, Smith or Bortles, a home wild-card game -- is well within reach.
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I agree Mariota hasn't played well and he knows it, seems like a guy that takes the blame and he will compete...but he's also not the one dropping passes and running up the middle for 2 yards on 3rd and long.

I feel it will take that one game and he'll be back.... we're still in it despite looking like crap on a weekly basis.