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Goff I've felt like it was no coincidence he wasn't quite himself this year wrt the payday. While I think most of his problems relate to the protections he also has been off in his accuracy and non-Goff-like even when protections were there

First, to change up your eupehmism--"protections." It's collapsed OL play. They started the season with both OTs out of whack and 2 newbies. When an OL is THAT subpar, there really is no such thing as "when the protections are there." OL collapse is general. It changes the playcalling, it loses the qb's confidence (who then starts pressing), there are worse 2nd and 3rd and long situations, the team is more than likely playing from behind...OL collapse generates a lot of noise to contend with. It never reduces to this simple matter of there being pressure this play and not that play. The effects are too far-reaching for that.

And I will go on record. People who do not factor in the ill-effect a collapsed OL has on qb play are, in my view, not even really analyzing the offense. They're just playing around in some kind of contextless qb popularity contest. I honestly believe it is that shallow. With subpar OL play, qb play diminishes. That's true of all qbs with only a couple of rare exceptions (Brady, Wilson...and it caught up with them, too).

Rams this year were 2-6 against teams that pressured the qb 8 or more times. Against teams that pressured the qb 7 or fewer times they are 7-1. Anyone who makes that entirely about the qb is, IMO, just off in some imaginary universe.