I've always bitched about how Mike's teams only show up for 30 minutes and are constantly on the verge of going into a "lull." And there's truth to that.
However this current situation just seems as if MULTIPLE players suddenly went into a very uncharacteristic lull AT THE SAME TIME.
Pardon my paranoia, but is that strange? You've got Aaron, who granted does have stat whoring tendencies, but now he's suddenly clenching with fear with the game on the line? THAT is uncharacteristic. Like the rest of the offense, he often shows up emotionless and shit's himself for a quarter or two, but it's never for 7 consecutive quarters and it's never in a clutch situation like that. Aaron's the type of guy who has ice in his veins, and that goes back to his college career.
Then there's Eddie Lacy. He hasn't been right either. Shying away from contact? EDDIE LACY? There's something strange going on here.
Then you've got this Oline. Granted the Ts are in question. They're the weak spots and both seem to have sore knees this year. But the interior? Those guys are studs. Yet SUDDENLY, at the same time Aaron and Eddie are suddenly uncharacteristically timid, these guys start playing all confused, missing blocking assignments, giving up sacks.
I mean yeah. Aaron holds the ball for 8 seconds. But that never caused them to stand up and let one guy go right past them while they just block someone else. Something's going wrong, and I don't know what it is.
Did Mike make some radical changes, causing them to all start thinking too much and over analyzing on the field? Are they being doped with estrogen?
I just find it very odd that all these things with all these different players would start to happen simultaneously. I won't even get into the defense going from domination/sack leading to 500 yards per game, ALSO at the exact same time.
“Winning is not a sometime thing, it is an all the time thing. You don't do things right once in a while…you do them right all the time.”