What Haley has *really* accomplished
 

Forget today's game. Were it not for a couple of huge plays, the final score would have been as brutally bad as the stat line. And there will be plenty of those games in the weeks to come. This roster is amazingly lacking in talent.

What Haley has accomplished is to instill a hyper-competitive environment. These guys know they are competing for playing time and roster spots every time they take the field. Everyone is trying to get better and know they will lose their jobs if they don't. For most of them, that won't be enough and they will be out of the league within a couple of years. But that competitiveness will keep us in a couple of games that we shouldn't be in and let a win a game or two that we shouldn't. If he doesn't lose the team (a risk, but not a certainty) this environment will pay huge dividends down the road as we slowly add talent to the roster.

Yep.

I'll give them this - they showed more guts today than in any game I can remember in the Herm OR Vermeil era.

They were completely overmatched, were getting ****ing owned offensively, but managed to do just enough to stay in the game, against all odds.

1+

Hooray for moral victories. **** that I want some W's.

If OTWP says it then it mut be true.

Seriously, I agree, a team takes on the attitude of it's coach and they didn't give up. I bet Haley is not happy with his play calling.

Yep! But you know in a couple of years when we get the couple of big plays from the ST's and defense, maybe everyone will be saying the same thing about us that they say now about the Ravens defense. That it was an expected score every week, not an unexpected treat.

I agree. They will be competitive in almost every game this season because of Haley

Be patient grasshopper. They will come.

Correct. He's building a team full of no-nonsense, no-quit guys.

Tank was still fighting at the end. That said something to me.

There was zero quit in that team.

Nice post cdcox - I feel the same way

Were we expecting to see quit in game 1?

After we're off to a 1-7 (or so) start, let's see if the same balls-out effort is in place.

I thought it was going to be Atlanta '08 out there today. Wooo

Yup, I bet he'll demote himself to ball boy for a few days to teach himself a lesson.

They'll need some wins to keep it going. I think they really, really need to beat Oakland next week. Playing hard but still losing will only keep them playing hard for so long, I think.