Sigh. Or course execution plays an important role, Zeb. However, no team in the history of the league has ever come close to sniffing perfect execution. You know what perfect execution actually is? Scoring a touchdown on the very first play of every single drive, all game long. It's a mirage; a fantasy. It'll never even come close to happening. Good execution is considered what, having only a couple penalties and scoring touchdowns on 50% of your drives?
Always blaming failed drives on poor execution is oversimplifying the problem. If you could actually have reliable execution of plays, you'd never see 3rd downs. Execution of plays is a problem every team in the league has on almost every single play, and it's a copout to just blame offensive woes on poor execution. Every single play in the playbook is designed to be wildly successful if executed perfectly, but that's not something that ever can or will happen.
I'm tired of people just blaming execution as a means to avoid culpability for bad sets of play calls. I've never said, and I don't think, that Bevell is the only problem. Of course we screw up execution of plays regularly. Name an offense that doesn't. The whole point is to find plays that work against your opponent. Bevell did do that after a while in the two playoff games last year, but not quickly enough in the second one. You can't be predictable in this league, and he has a habit of being predictable for too long. Not in every game, but certainly in too many on a regular basis.
Most people hoped we could simply maintain our defense this year after Bradley went to Jacksonville after last season. Some, myself included, thought we'd improve almost regardless of who we hired. Yeah, we signed some pass rushers and they're doing a great job, and that helps regardless; but look at how many end-of-the-4th-quarter defensive collapses lost us games last year, primarily due to soft zone coverage and compare it to this year. There is a marked contrast.
Similarly, I believe if we replace Bevell with someone else this off-season, it'll almost certainly be an upgrade. Bookmark this post, or screenshot it, or whatever. If I'm wrong, I will admit it.
I'd also like to clarify that I don't think Bevell sucks. I just don't think he's very good, and that we can do better.