I saw an interesting interview with Mark Tausher yesterday where he talked about how no one on the line wanted to be that guy who ended up getting Brett killed, that no one wanted to become enemy number 1.

That leads me to question whether the problems this year have more to do with a mentality than, say, lack of talented depth at T...?

Have our Ts simply gone away from that "no one gets through" mentality they had for the icon Brett, to a more laxed "we are capable of doing it" mentality.

Look at the Bears game, Aaron hardly got touched (1 knock down I think). Same 5 starters. No doubt they came out with a purpose, a point to prove. I think their mentality was similar to "no one gets through on us" than the "we are capable of doing it" one that's prevailed for the most part this year.


Sort of off-topic, but I'm a huge Toronto Raptors basketball fan. Chris Bosh, the teams franchise player, has been playing at an MVP level this year.

Interestingly he said of his top level play that he came into the season with his mindset being that he was going to shoot for being the best of the best, for being the MVP. He actually recalled a night lying in bed where he thought I got it (talent to be at the top).

As far as the o-line problems, namely at T, is it as simple as a lack of attitude, a lack of mentality that says "I'm the best, no one is getting past me" that's missing?

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I was going to start a new thread but this one pretty much borders what I was going to discuss.

First of all and very important in all this is the fact that there is the regular season and then there is the playoffs and both are completely different in how you look at the team.

In the regular season you will face more teams with losing records than not in most cases and if you are a playoff quality team only a few teams will be equal or better than you are.

What is important is how do you stack up when playing other playoff quality teams and what personnel do you have that will advance or inhibit your chances of success when playoff time comes around? In other words it is of little value to us if say Pickett and Jolly hold their own for the most part but can't do that when we are playing the better teams. Same with the "O" line.

This is why back in '05 I was perfectly fine with Thompson coming in and cleaning house. I named four guys on defense that I thought were "playoff" quality guys. Kampman,KGB, Barnett, and Harris. The rest we were kidding ourselves and that's why I scoffed at all this "get Brett a couple receivers" and we would be fine. Bullcrap. We weren't good enough.

We are much closer now but I see the need for a penetrating interior DL and right DE. I like Thompson but again, does he have what it takes every down to make us better than the winning teams we will face in the playoffs.

Jenkins will definately help. He is a "get you to the playoffs" guy.

I could also go along with one more really good LB.

Same with the "O" line. If we are going to get shoved around by the better teams and the play is inconsistant at best we need a couple of guys in there that do not allow the better DL's in the league to get the better of them. I look at the middle of that line with a ? when it comes to the question, are they "playoff" quality guys?

For me the regular season is like looking a fool's gold. You can go 11-5 but if nine wins come against teams that could not break .500 you don't know what you have UNLESS you are holding your own, especially on the LOS on both side of the ball, against the good teams you face.

I think we may be something like three guys away from this. Maybe four unless this young TE comes into his own next year because I have a hard time looking at Lee as that "get us to the playoffs" type performer. I think of him as o.k. but when your talking playoffs that doesn't cut it.

Looking at the overall team I can see a playoff team with even one really good OG and one mama jamma RDE. With Jenkins and Barnett back I would put us up there as being able to stay with about anybody.

It get's very tiresome watching virtually NO pressure coming from the right side and very rarely anything from the middle. It's a miracle were not giving up 350 yards a game passing. It truly is.

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