The Dude

I was positive about the season early on, and we sure did look like front runners in the offseason. Made some good moves, got some youth, made one decent draft pick. In spite of it though the season did not completely off guard.

After reading about the tardiness to meetings and flights, it solidified my belief that a big problem with this team was not only discipline but mental toughness.
I think they missed some of the veterans a lot more than they expected. Not because of their play but because of their veteran locker room attributes. They didnt have as much of a veteran presence to hold the young guys accountable for their actions. Yes coaching is a BIG part of that, but sometimes getting ribbed by your peers hits a lot closer to home than by a figure of authority.
I think it was also foolish to think we would pick up where we left off last year on defense. Going from worst ever to overall number 4 just doesn't happen. Yes, I did think we would be in the middle somewhere but again I wasn't totally surprised.
Many of the games we lost we lost late in the 4th and could have easily gone our way, we just couldn't finish. Again veteran presence could have helped here. And finally and maybe most importantly, we gave up. Mid way through the season we were basically done. The fire was out. It is hard to stay positive and overcome the diversity of losing, and losing hard like the way we did. Again veterans were missed.
We had to get rid of them, I don't fault the team for that, most weren't worth their production. I just hope Payton finds a way to inject some accountablilty, discipline, and mental toughness in the offseason. I have a feeling its going to be a very interesting one.