Sam Cosmi gives some candid thoughts after Kliff’s departure: “I really wanted to establish the identity of the run, like who are we? That was my biggest thing. And me personally, I want to slow it down with the offense, to dissect the little things better on the field”

10 comments

1. That says a lot when your most tenured starting Lineman says that. The offense definitely did not compliment the defense either. You can’t go hurry up no huddle offense 3 and out after your defense was on the field for 14 plays and 7 minutes of offense

2. I mean he’s not wrong. I trust Kliff knows football better than me but at times it just seemed like we were trying to do things that worked a year ago instead of doing what would work with the personnel we had available.

3. Yeah sometimes a slow, move the chains type offense can compliment a weak defense, or make them look better in some cases by keeping them off the field.

   Of course, then everyone will start thinking the offense sucks because the games will be lower scoring.

4. They’re not blameless at all, but I’m glad AP and DQ are taking the season seriously and not just blaming it on injuries. Fans have been frustrated by Kliff all year, and it seems like the FO and (possibly) HC agreed. Better to fire him too early than too late.

5. Sounds lazy!

6. I’m in the camp of really not caring what kind of offense my O line wants to run. Right it wrong, that’s not a way to run a team.

7. I’ll never forget hearing Mark Schlereth when he was a frequent guest on Mike and Mike on ESPN. He and Golic always talked about establishing the identity of the offense and how your offensive line was key to making that happen.
   It was a fairly simple premise that stood the test of time in football. Our job is to kick the other team’s ass, and there’s no better way to establish who you are than shoving it down their throat.
   Although that no longer means your fullback and running it up the gut, it does still mean establishing dominance in the trenches.
   You cam come at me all day with our overall rushing stats, but Cosmi’s statement reinforces what folks have been saying about Kliff and his offensive scheme.

8. Called it! 

9. Last year we were praised for tiring out defenses with our up-tempo, fast-paced, no huddle offense.

   Now it’s suddenly a problem?

   We were 4th in rushing yards, we were 4th in Rushing Play Percentage, we did establish an identity of a running game. Our offense simply wasn’t effective enough to sustain long drives and we fall off in counting stats due to running less overall plays (28th in total offensive plays per game).

10. The frustrating thing is, Kliff has always been this way. That’s why hiring him was weird to begin with…don’t play with a snake and be surprised it bit you