BGO Blind Pig: Week 13 vs. Dolphins

Boone

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On this week's episode the guys talk turkey leg disses, 4th quarter beatdowns, Del Rio's exit, Ron's DC debut, and alpha male shortages in the Nation's Capital. Oh - and the most explosive offense in football coming to visit Sunday.

 
My hope is that Rivera shows up in full "F it" mode and calls the defensive game of his life, my expectations are we play slightly better. I think Del Rio had lost the defense before the season started as many of the players they didn't seem motivated from day one and the ones that are motivated became "tired of this shit" and I wager that might've been Del Rio himself. As far as a potential new HC goes, hell I don't know not even a clue which direction I'd go. Yes the league appears to be moving to younger HC's but it seems to be they either excel or total bust there's no in between margin of error for "ok" or "sustainable" it seems. I do NOT want someone from the college ranks and that includes douche nozzle Harbaugh.

My prediction: 21-3 at half time, weather gets worse and it's a 30-17 Miami.
 
Miami will win but I think Howell will have a good game here against the Dolphins defense.

30-27.

Del Rio didn't enforce any kind of discipline on the defense. Chase Young and Jamin Davis were out of position repeatedly and yet they never were taken off the field and made to sit - Young because he was selling out the scheme and run defense to get sacks and get paid while Davis was IMO simply clueless and a guy that made mental mistakes.

The secondary missed open field tackles that lead to big gainers and yet the same guy came out the next week to start.

There were no consequences to playing poorly.

When you are giving up 30-35 points a game over a stretch of games there should be no sacred cows.
 
I don’t understand why anyone would be opposed to Jim Harbaugh? Yeah - he’s aggressive, but one would think that would be a refreshing change from passive Rivera.

All he’s done is excel. He’s been a Pro Bowl QB, a College HC of the Year, the NFL HC of the Year, and in his only NFL stint immediately won and took them to the playoffs and a SB. The 49ers before Harbaugh hadn’t had a winning season or been to the playoffs in almost a decade.

I think the big thing would be the GM would have to be very strong to keep Harbaugh in his lane. But if you want to win, Harbaugh is a proven winner. He wants to come back to the NFL as he interviewed for the Vikings job in 2022 and was also interested in the Las Vegas job.
 
I think Harbaugh is on the radar screen and I would think unofficial feelers have been put out there already by the Harris group.

Just a guess.

I would seriously doubt Harris is going to give up a #1 or #2 pick to the Patriots to trade for a 71 year old Belichick whose team is 2-9.
 
I’m not specifically against Jim Harbaugh but I do have questions-

Would he be interested in only being the Head Coach or would he also want total control?

Does his ’style’ lend itself more to college players than to pro players? Yes, he has succeeded in the pros previously but were there not concerns of that nature in San Fran?
 
My understanding is that the primary reason he left San Fran was because he and the GM weren’t getting along. Supposedly Harbaugh wanted more control? That could be a signal he’d want an Andy Reid type role which I would be a lot less enthusiastic about.

I don’t know how players felt about him although there is probably stuff out there around the time he left that might answer that question.

I tend to agree with others that ideally you find a young HC who has no interest in being more than that and is a great future talent. But you have to at least consider Harbaugh because he’s already proven he knows how to win.
 
Yep, lots to work out. I would doubt Harris gives any coach total control over all football operations, he seems to be an owner that likes to have multiple points of view in the room and a dispersed team working for him, at least that's how the 76ers and Devils operate.

If you look at the Devils they brought in Tom Fitzgerald as GM. He had been the director of player development and then Assistant GM for the Penguins earlier in his career and was part of their 2009 Stanley Cup winner.

He was hired by the Devils as Assistant GM and became GM in 2020 at age 52.

So, it may be a GM first sequence here in DC.

The Devils have a veteran head coach who has been to the Stanley Cup finals and conference finals a number of times with other teams, but Fitzgerald retains decision-making on player personnel.
 
I agree with the others on the pod that it is extremely likely that Harris goes with a strong GM hire and lets him/her flesh out the Front Office and HC staff.
 
I really liked the thought that was shared last night (by Neo?) about the potential danger of bringing in a defensive-minded HC and then possibly losing his OC if he sets the world on fire. I tend to believe that finding a strong DC is easier than finding a cutting edge offensive mind. Plus the state of the game lends itself to offense being the more important aspect for success.
 
I think Om asked if there has been any research done on whether HCs with either offensive or defensive backgrounds have a higher success rate. I do think folks have looked at that and offensive-minded coach had higher winning percentages but I’ll have to see if I can track it down…
 
BGO Oracle says:

“Head Coaches with a Defensive background who have won the Super Bowl - 15:
Vince Lombardi, Don Shula, Chuck Noll, Tom Landry, Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs, Bill Parcells, George Seifert, Bill Belichick, Tony Dungy, Tom Coughlin, Mike Tomlin, Pete Carroll, and John Harbaugh.

Head Coaches with an Offensive Background that have won the Super Bowl - 22:
John Madden, Bud Grant, Bill Walsh, Joe Gibbs, Mike Ditka, Bill Parcells, George Seifert, Jimmy Johnson, Mike Holmgren, Dick Vermeil, Bill Belichick, Jon Gruden, Bill Cowher, Tony Dungy, Sean Payton, Mike Tomlin, Mike McCarthy, Jim Harbaugh, Pete Carroll, Gary Kubiak, Doug Pederson, and Andy Reid.

Note that some coaches like Bill Belichick, Bill Walsh, and Joe Gibbs are mentioned in both categories due to their diverse coaching background, having significant experience and impact on both sides of the ball.

Also, please note that the list above includes coaches who've won multiple Super Bowls, so the total count of Super Bowl victories is more than the number of individual coaches listed.”

When you look at the names, in more recent decades the SB winner was mostly led by offensive-minded HCs (only Harbaugh, Belichick, and Pete Carroll have done it recently).
 
Some good stuff in this Hoffman/Paulson episode ... and I highly recommend the segment with Mark Schlereth (starts @ 20:26). Some fresh and insightful takes that echo--make that amplify--some things we talked about on our own pod, plus some I wish we had.

 
Gents: being a glutton for punishment - I just binged the last two episodes. For a longtime fan, I find these episodes both healing and reflect many of my thoughts. Thanks for weathering the “storms” AND I do believe there’s a better future for all of us fans………

Chris - during the Dallas episode, I heard your thoughts about Sean Taylor. If you (or anyone else) want a great book about him - this book was a fantastic read and I highly recommend it. I actually connected with its author Steven M. Rosenberg on “X”.

IMG_3332.jpeg
 
I don’t understand why anyone would be opposed to Jim Harbaugh? Yeah - he’s aggressive, but one would think that would be a refreshing change from passive Rivera.

All he’s done is excel. He’s been a Pro Bowl QB, a College HC of the Year, the NFL HC of the Year, and in his only NFL stint immediately won and took them to the playoffs and a SB. The 49ers before Harbaugh hadn’t had a winning season or been to the playoffs in almost a decade.

I think the big thing would be the GM would have to be very strong to keep Harbaugh in his lane. But if you want to win, Harbaugh is a proven winner. He wants to come back to the NFL as he interviewed for the Vikings job in 2022 and was also interested in the Las Vegas job.
This is where I am personally at as well. I think Harbaugh is the type of kick in the behind this roster and organization needs. His teams play with a mean streak and plenty of physicality - things that have desperately been lacking in Washington for a long while. We have been searching for an identity and nobody has really been able to define who Washington is as a football team. With Harbaugh, you will clearly know what you are getting in terms of your team's football identity.

I can't personally see EB surviving or staying on board with Harbaugh in town, but if you are rolling with Howell, while there will be a transition for him, I still think Harbaugh is a good person to have aboard to navigate the ship and help Sam move forward in his development. Harbaugh is a former QB himself, was Peyton Manning's QB coach for a few seasons, recruited Andrew Luck to Stanford, and had success with both Alex Smith and Colin Kaepernick during the 49ers' run of success while he was in town. Hell, even his current QB, JJ McCarthy is currently projected to be a first round NFL QB if he declares for April's draft.

As Boone mentioned, all Harbaugh does is win. Over and above that, he turns programs around quickly. He did so in Stanford, he did so in San Fran leading them to three straight NFC Championship games (what Washington fan wouldn't kill for that), and he did so at Michigan and has them on the verge of capturing three straight Big Ten Championships. Oh, and he finds ways to get his team to repeatedly beat Ohio State in the biggest of moments. Meanwhile, in Washington, we have amassed an 0-5 record against our rival NFC East foes this year, and are 2-9 against the East combined the last two years so far.

Other Notes:

a) Frank Gore amassed 1100 yards or more rushing per season with Harbaugh in town. In three separate years, he had eight or more rushing TDs.

b) Gore had no fewer than 255 attempts per year with Harbaugh in town. I am intrigued to see a steady dose of Brian Robinson Jr. in a Harbaugh offense and how that impacts and potentially helps to insulate Howell a bit more.

c) Harbaugh had Pro Bowl OL in Joe Staley and Mike Iupati play for him during his 49er tenure. I am quite confident in thinking that OL would become a huge priority for him if hired. The same goes for LB, where he had Navarro Bowman and Patrick Willis play at a Pro Bowl level for him. I highly doubt those hugely important positions would be ignored like they have repeatedly under Rivera.

Hire Harbaugh.
 
My apprehension is that I feel Harbaugh is going to want total control, and I am hesitant to do that. As far as Harbaugh as a coach... I have no real argument... i just have my concerns about ANYONE as a HC / GM combo.

I do think the offense Michigan currently runs CAN translate to the NFL....
 
Considering his tenure in San Francisco, I would doubt he would accept an NFL job that does not give him final say on player personnel decisions. If not true and he would only coach and, of course, have ‘input’, then I’d be for it.

That theme of Harbaugh butting heads with the front office is one that came up numerous times while he was in San Francisco, with various reports stating at different times this season that there was friction in the relationship between Harbaugh and general manager Trent Baalke. In the end, the relatonship was no longer workable for any of the parties involved, and they agreed to go their separate ways.
 
When we were talking ‘defensive vs. offensive HCs’ I specifically had Harbaugh in mind. While I’m with you guys that a GM who has absolute control is probably the way to go, there are HC/GMs who have been successful and it is probably something Harris would at least consider if it’s someone with Hatbaughs track record.

The other thing we don’t know, assuming he’s done at Michigan, is what the demand for him is. Who knows, maybe he doesn’t have to have full control?

Odds are, we’ll end up with guys none of us saw coming anyway…
 

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