Maybe I’m wrong, but it almost feels like you made that thread just so you could say you made that thread. You can continue making negative comments and act like they have to blow out the giants for there to be any progress, but then come back and say, “But guys, I made that thread about how I like Kyler”.
Just enjoy how much better they have been this year and understand there will be some ups and downs.
Listen, I don't know how else to say this. Yes, this team is making some progress. Under Kliff and Keim, I don't think it is enough progress for me personally to get excited. I have no need to jockey for position on this board, I'm not a politician, and I don't get any rewards for people liking me.
When I say PROGRESS, I mean a hope that we can hold a candle to any team in our division, or any good team, anytime soon. Right now I think we're a streaky-good offensive team with a horrible defense, and too many holes to plug them in an offseason. We are practically void of young drafted talent, unlike some of the other teams who found a way to ascend.
How can it be an "I-told-you-so" when all off-season long, I had no idea what was going to happen? I wasn't one of the Kyler-cultists. In fact, I usually got into big rows with a lot of them because I thought they were being so obnoxious to anyone who dared bring up a concern.
but aside from your Kyler thread, you're still setting up unrealistic expectations for this team and it seems like you're doing it so you can criticize again. For example... you made the comment that this team should DOMINATE the Giants this weekend and that would be proof they're actually progressing. You keep setting up self-fulfilling prophecies, where you're giving yourself ammo to pull the rip-chord again, in a situation, where once again, we're going to be ROAD UNDERDOGS. And you keep negging our wins and completely dismissing our close losses... and even ties.. I'm mean, in one thread you went off saying the Lions game wasn't competitive because we were down 24-6 through 3 quarters while at the same time saying the Falcons game was super competitive... even though we were up 27-10 halfway through the third. Both games had big comebacks... you slagged us for the Falcons squeaker (a game you thought we'd get killed in), yet give next to no credit for the Lions comeback (again, a game you thought we'd get killed in). If the team is either winning or tying games you think they'll get killed in, how is that not major progress? And then there's the Baltimore game that apparently wasn't competitive "because we never had a chance to win". Well, anyone who watched that game was surprised at how tough we hung in there and more important, that's just factually wrong. It was 20-17 in the fourth quarter. Then, we had 2 chances to drive for a game-winning score down 23-17 in the fourth quarter. Did we accomplish that? No... but you look only at the negative.
Meanwhile, prior to the Falcons game, you bent over backwards to give credit to a Falcons team for their competitiveness, insisting they were better than their record. And it goes on and on.
You say you call it like you see it, but I still think you're still seeing things the way you want to see them instead of how they really are.
I think you're misinterpreting a lot of what I have to say about our wins and our losses. I certainly have no "expectations" of dominating the Giants. I don't expect you to read every post of mine, but I think we have a chance to win. However, they're pretty bad, so if we squeak out another win by 1-3 points, it's not going to dramatically shift my level of confidence that we have learned much. If we go in and dominate, like good teams should against bad teams? I'll feel different. In the game thread, I was calling the Falcons game "signature play" until of course we let them back in it.
We are underdogs, yes, but a betting line isn't the only indicator of how things should play out. They're also influenced by bettors. The fact of the matter is, they were either winless or close to winless teams out there. If we couldn't muster a win against them, especially the Bengals, we surely weren't going to compete against the 49ers, Seahawks, or Rams. And this isn't on Kyler Murray, it's not his fault when the defense falters like that, but it is on the overall offense when we fail to convert for a first down with four minutes left, or fail to beat our opponents because all we can put up are field goals.
I thought we would have a damn good chance against Baltimore, and we played alright. I didn't think we would against the Falcons, and we squeaked one out with surprisingly potent offensive play.
I'm not afraid to be proven wrong, but I'm not going to be proven wrong on moral victories against teams that dominated us for 3 quarters and crumbled or teams where we played well for three quarters and then crumbled.
I know we're not going to the playoffs, I know we're not going to have a winning record. I know we need to see progress, or hold onto hope, or whatever you want to call it, it's just that the level of play I need to see out of this team to think that Keim and Kliff can move the team forward into competitiveness just isn't there yet.
Again, we have no young talent, need to find two offensive tackles in the offseason, another OLB, a single DT/DE worth a damn, potentially replace Patrick Peterson if he does demand a trade, find some half decent OLBs, and people here are already clamoring about getting Murray a real Center and a #1 WR despite 5 picks being invested in those positions over the past two years.
I am looking ahead, which makes it hard to live in the now and get too amped up over a win against the Falcons, even though I didn't expect it to happen.
Edit: At the end of the day, I want to say this. Sure I'm pleased that we're better than last year. But an improvement from "Historically awful" to "can beat teams in the bottom quarter of the league if everything goes right" isn't going to make me jump for joy or renew my season tickets.
. 
