GumboBC

It seems that McCarthy is going to be the scape-goat this year. But, I think the failures on offense had VERY LITTLE to do with McCarthy.

First of all, McCarthy didn't commit all the penalties. And McCarthy had nothing to do with the last ranked defense we had.

And McCarthy wasn't responsible for us having an awful offensive line that couldn't block.

But here's something else McCarthy wasn't responsible for that I hear hardly anyone talking about!!


And that Deuce. It's no secret that Deuce has been our work-horse for the last couple of years. And its no secret Deuce was being counted on to carry a heavy load this year.

Before I go any further, let me make a statement:

I'm not suggesting in any way that Deuce is at fault here. There were way more problems with our running game than Deuce. But, the bottom line is, our running game was totally ineffective for MANY games.

Because of injuries to Deuce and a terrible offensive line, we couldn't get it done on the ground and were FORCED to go to the passing game in MANY games this year.

Here are those games:


vs. Seattle 16 carries for 57yds. Avg=3.6 yds
vs. 49'ers: 3 carries for 1 yd. Avg=0.3 yds
vs. St. Louis: DID NOT PLAY
vs. Arizona: DID NOT PLAY

vs. Raiders: 24 carries for 42 yds. Avg = 1.8 yds.
vs. Chargers: 16 carries for 63 yds. Avg= 3.9 yds.
vs. Denver:13 carries for 42 yds. Avg = 3.2 yds
vs. Panthers: 7 carries for 22 yds. Avg =3.1

As you can see, Deuce missed 2 games totally. Only had 1 carry against the 49'ers because of an injury. And was totally ineffective against the Raiders, Chargers, Broncos, and Panthers.

That's 8 games in which we got very little production out of the running game.

It's hard to win in this league when you can't run.

And the bottom line is McCarthy can't be held accountable for all the problems in the running game.

IMHO, it really put McCarthy behind the 8-ball. What was he suppose to do? Keep running the ball?

Then I think it really affected our passing games. Teams knew, most of the time, that we HAD to pass the ball.

Between the terrible defense and the lack of production from the running game it really killed McCarthy.

Once Deuce got healthy and the defense stepped up, we never lost a game.

Is that just conincidence?

You be the judge.