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Well well well, I got to see some extended footage that has my heart aflutter even though my mind says no. The eyeball test says no, we are not elite one bit. But...I saw some flashes I didn't expect watching the ESPN Gamecast description of the game( instead of the real game). First of all, I can see why DL thinks the OL can be fixed. They were massively experimenting. I saw at least five different OL lineups. Nothing super encouraging, but now I understand why the offense looks so disjointed. There were enough blown assignments, that a mean and nasty professor would go pure sadistic on "student Lanning ". That tells me they feel confident enough to horse around against a much inferior team to find the dudes that are going to play come conference time. That might have been a huge mistake, but now I get it- Lanning is looking for six or seven guys on the OL that can get the team to the playoffs and beyond. The defense. My biggest concern - which I felt after the Spring Game - are the inside linebackers. They're not big enough and they're not fast enough. They do a decent job in spite of it, but I think OBD need more NFL caliber talent. I'd put Jackson inside, but that's not going to happen. He IS prototype though, like we see at Georgia, Michigan and Ohio State every year. I think the secondary is better, but the guys still cover the QB instead of their assignments. Muhammad got beat for a TD because he didn't get the safety help he deserved. The safety is supposed to assist on that olay- the QB had no business having an option to throw to that post corner route. The safety should have been there on the post part of it alone, which would have allowed Muhammad to seal off the corner part of the route. That can be fixed, but the coaches need to change their philosophy on how to cover receivers. Some people have derided Whittington a bit. He's fine. He's not as big as James, so he can't break tackles as well. If the OL gets straight, he will be deadly. Same for Gabriel. Though he is waiting for receivers to get open too often ( he needs to throw them open - for those of you that don't know that term, it means to anticipate the spot his receivers will get open and throw to that spot before the receivers turn to look for the ball). The OL... I think the right combo is there. I think Lanning may be experimenting too much. They need to gel, like now. They need time to clean up the confusion. Also, the TEs are missing lead blocks. There are too many blown assignments going on, and not just the penalties. Guys are a step slow, and even the RBs are blowing pass block assignments. My thoughts on that are set the platoon, and get to work on communication and situation assignments. If DG gets another second and a half, this offense will blow the doors open passing the ball. If the TEs clean up a bit on their motion blocking, the OL can lead the RB well down-field. I saw enough of that to grasp why DL thinks it's fixable. Now will that happen? I don't know. This is the part where DL's learning curve has to kick in. He is thinking potential and process too much. My mind says the eval period is over, and it's time to position the best player in his best role, and demand some results. And I'd scrap some strategy assignments. For example, one time the LT was assigned to block inside and the Center was supposed to cover the edge, AND the RB completely skipped by the DE and gave him a free look at DG. That's got to stop. That particular Center isn't quick enough to get outside, and the RB needs to be assigned to the DE. I see potential here. Which would get me fired lol. But the talent actually exists. Everywhere. The big question is "will the coaches take our advice". RLMAO. Seriously though, is the staff flexible enough to tweak their system to fit the talent they have? I think they're giving this team too much to think about and execute given their respective struggles. It just might be time to keep things simple add strategies once the team executes the simple things first What do you think?