To be fair, while guys like IM have been on this for a while (and I'm going to say that last week's game was vindication of his concern, though I'm sure he'd have much preferred a win), the fact that more of the "rational" posters are coming around to the same conclusion is telling.


Look - it's football. You can parse it out logically all you want, but the bottom line in football is that players' performance is on the coaches. You can't fire or cut players due to the competitive financial ramifications - sure, it's done at times, but they're somewhat rare and normally involve players who don't have a ton of cash attached to them. The coaches are paid to get the most out of players; the head coach is paid to pick the right assistant/position coaches to get that done. Fair or not, logical or not, Mike's job is to field a competitive team that plays with passion and consistency - I don't think anyone who's rational and at least somewhat objective can claim he's doing that job well, at this point.

Last year I gave him a pass because of the godawful injury situation(s), but this team is - for the most part - the one he wanted on the field. The penalties, lack of discipline, dismal play on the o-line, inability to game-plan to mitigate those line issues - that is, in fact, on the head coach.

I will grant you that firing him now is probably extreme - but I can't imagine that anyone but the most casual fan wasn't furious after seeing that game. Once the season's over, though, assuming they don't by some miracle go on a tear and right the ship, I think he needs to go.

I'm sure he's trying - I know he's frustrated, as evidenced by him now going after the kid who's been killing himself out on the field to get his job done. But the effort isn't bearing fruit, and at some point you have to wonder if he's lost the ability to get through to the team. That won't do.

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I normally side with your stance but that was from money side you cant compare the two worlds..

But I think this time you can..

We are talking about performance of individuals in a management area...

This was their 8th game this year, so if we take your 7.5 minutes thats a whole HOUR of tape..If they cant judge a guy by that then there really is an issue...

but main point is that it doesnt matter who they are putting in, its the same stupid ass mistakes week in and week out..

This is the NFL and it stands for Not For Long and has a brilliant concept of what have you done for me lately?

mm ... failed me.


I think he has the talent, the skill and the ability to be a very good coach. I fear he is too stubborn to make necessary changes and adaptions. I hope my fear is unjustified.

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If this article is to be believed, he may be about to try.


Lang may replace Colledge @ guard this week. 

Personally, I'd prefer it if he'd replace Barbre, but getting him on the field at all is a good start.

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Something that bothers me is I am wondering how during this offseason TJ Lang couldn't win the starting spot at RT from Alan Barbre yet here he is during actual games looking better than Clifton on the left side. It makes me wonder how many decent players we have actually had just sitting on the bench because the coaches "didn't think they were ready" or "didn't see enough in practice" or (insert some other lame excuse for making a poor personnel decision).

Alan Barbre is just an absolute wreck this year. Inexperience comes into play but you expect some improvement game by game. Every game he lets a guy go by him without even hardly touching them and usually multiple times. What a monster diffirence it was against Tampa between when Tauscher was in there and when he left from injury.

Until I see every player in live game action I no longer trust this coaching staffs ability to play the right players. At some point you have to give up on Barbre and just sign a FA or give Breno a shot. Perhaps Barbre can make an impact at guard or something.

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Yes, he was IMO. Saying things like we will miss the playoffs... that's not Porky being objective. 8 games left to go - that is a long, long time in the NFL, and Porky knows this.

I make it a point to read out porky's stuff, but by his post you would have thought that we were out played from the first second of the game. No, we were totally outmatched and lost the game in the final 13 minutes. The line actually held up the first three quarters... the running game was going... the D was doing just okay... the game should have been in the bag.

Porky was very emotional IMO, and that's just fine. I don't blame him, I too was just as emotional.



As for MM ... I find it amazing that he has first time starters in Barbre, Sittion (first full year), and potentially Lang... you have a coach in OC Joe Philbin who was recommended by our previous OL coach, who has worked with young o-linemen at Iowa and developed them into good prospects, and is a coach who (as Bedard points out) Kirk Ferentz swears by.

You'd think he'd tell Philbin to get involved in that mess of an o-line, and limit the duties of our current OL-coach. The situation demands it.

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