Re: Well, look. I agree that we're all just guessing on a lot.

Quote
Saguaro
The hard data that we have is that our offense doesn't measure very well against other NFL offenses.

Is it lack of talent?
Is it poor scheme?
Is it a complicated, but good scheme, that will yield good results when the team finally gets it?
Is it a poor fit between talent and scheme?
Is it poor teaching?

Some combination of some or all of those things?

Does any of that have anything to do with Goff not being ready game 1, or is that just on him, or just on the Bear Raid being so different?

Lots of questions I won't pretend to KNOW the answers to. I really just want to see it get better.

In the meantime, I look for clues and I like to discuss them.

That one about Coty Sensabaugh calling out the offensive plays before the ball was snapped in OTA's was...interesting.
The way that the lousy 49ers seemed to know every play that we called in game 1 was dismaying.

What's happened since then is a little better, but not great.

I don't think your questions are the only ones possible and in fact I think if you limit yourself to those questions (and assumptions) you;re bound not to get very good answers because you will narrow the range of what is looked at.

Every single one of your questions assumes things are bad and that the badness has to be explained.

What if you saw something different in the first place and began with different assumptions. Your questions in general assume that they are the same team that played SF and the SF game becomes this huge traumatic haunting presence that defines them. I think differently about that. I think for many reasons and on many levels the SF game was a wake-up call and they changed both after it and because of it.

In which case, constantly factoring in the numbers or assumptions from the SF game doesn't get us a good clear picture of the Rams.

One good example of that is third down on offense. In the last 3 games they were 21st in 3rd down conversions. That's against the 2, 8th, and 15th ranked defenses.

And...I don't buy for a second that the scheme is "complicated" (and what would that even MEAN?) ... that;s a groundless assertion put out there by one writer who based it, near as we can tell he based it on anything, on misundersting something Keenum said.

Keenum said the team is learning a new offense. And btw learning a new offense always takes time. In fact they did look more out of sync than you would expect the first couple of games---and that reminds me of when they looked out of sync to start 2011 and to start 2012.

So a fair question would be: How much did changing the offense slow them down to start with and how fast can they get up to speed?

And other things. If the SF defense actually could figure out the plays in advance why didn't it benefit other teams? I mean, the Rams won 2 games in a row on the road coming from behind in both cases. That was against the 15th and 8th ranked defenses. But THEY (Tampa and Arz) didn't know what one SF player said THEY (SF) knew? Why not?