heres a thought......

maybe we dont have a playing o the road problem, we just underestimate inferior teams. this would not be uncommon for a young team like ours. We have won all of our high stakes games (except whiners). Maybe our team is geared to play better against he big boys, which would b fine with me because we'll be playing those kind of teams in the playoffs.

If that were true, then that's a major flaw in our teams ability to coach effectively. But I don't see it that way.

First two road losses = Tight reigns on a rookie QB + Dropped passes in the endzone + 19 Special Teams points by the Rams including a trick play when Pete was trying to call timeout.

SF Loss = Ungodly dropped passes, 5 in total, when we had only 5 dropped passes at that point all season, 3 in AZ in the opener.

Det Loss = Badass Russell Wilson 4th quarter comeback foiled by an uncharacteristic last defensive stand.

The way they play on the road this year is clearly the players not stepping it up in the clutch moments. Being close is one thing, but PC has them ready to go, it's the players catching the ball in the last drive. It's the D being brutal on 3rd down on the road. Gotta fix it

SacHawk2.0":3i7odcdn said:

If that were true, then that's a major flaw in our teams ability to coach effectively. But I don't see it that way.

First two road losses = Tight reigns on a rookie QB + Dropped passes in the endzone + 19 Special Teams points by the Rams including a trick play when Pete was trying to call timeout.

SF Loss = Ungodly dropped passes, 5 in total, when we had only 5 dropped passes at that point all season, 3 in AZ in the opener.

Det Loss = Badass Russell Wilson 4th quarter comeback foiled by an uncharacteristic last defensive stand.

Click to expand...

I approve this message. :th2thumbs:

SacHawk2.0":6ajudbkr said:

If that were true, then that's a major flaw in our teams ability to coach effectively. But I don't see it that way.

First two road losses = Tight reigns on a rookie QB + Dropped passes in the endzone + 19 Special Teams points by the Rams including a trick play when Pete was trying to call timeout.

SF Loss = Ungodly dropped passes, 5 in total, when we had only 5 dropped passes at that point all season, 3 in AZ in the opener.

Det Loss = Badass Russell Wilson 4th quarter comeback foiled by an uncharacteristic last defensive stand.

Click to expand...

:13:

It's nothing more than a young team being just a hair below were it needs to be to win these sorts of games. It's not the team playing terrible on the road (because it hasn't), and it's not a matter of underestimating teams (because the Hawks are able to handle the same teams and better at home). It's just a young team not quite being at the place just yet where it can take winnable games in slightly less than friendly environments. And for the record, a good portion of these games we're referring to were early on in the season. The offense has improved a good deal since then. And that's the facet of the game that was lacking early on with those close road losses (sans Detroit).

SacHawk2.0":26kiz7ut said:

SF Loss = Ungodly dropped passes, 5 in total, when we had only 5 dropped passes at that point all season, 3 in AZ in the opener.

Click to expand...

Braylon at Ariz and Turbin at SF were guaranteed TD's and were inexplicably dropped.

I'll go with the youthful inconsistency theory here.

Early in the season, our defense played well enough to win those games. Lately, our offense has improved, but the D let us down a bit in Detroit. If we play both sides of the ball well, and ST, of course, we can certainly beat Miami and Buffalo, and maybe even Chicago.

I'm not worrying and over diagnosing the 'problem.' Maybe I'll think differently on Monday, but I doubt it.

But you have to beat the not so good teams to make it in the playoffs.

Road woes being discussed here.

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