Why Frerotte?
That's the question I keep asking myself in the wake of yesterday's oh-so-close loss to the heavily favored Seahawks. He's experienced, oh is he experienced. In the league since 1994, he owns a career passer rating of 74.3 and 99/88 TD/INT ration through his career, i.e. he's never been very good for an extended period of time. There's also the fact that at 2 million bucks he's better paid than some of the starters on the team.
It's not like he was making a Hail Mary that got intercepted...or a tricky play to confound the defense. No, he threw cold water on a pretty straight forward power run, muffing the snap before the line even had a chance to let the Seahawks defenders leak into the backfield.
Nevertheless, he could be our guy for the rest of the season...and as much as it pains me to say it, he probably should be. Given the awful state of the O-line and the rather sizeable investment the team has poured into Marc Bulger, it's probably best to hold him and his broken ribs and concussion out for the rest of the season. You don't argue with a concussion, just ask Pat LaFontaine or Jim Edmonds.
Oh, and it's now obvious where the red zone troubles really stem from, Scott Linehan's milquetoast offense. There's a reason they call this guy "cheese pizza."
This game was a sell out, but I'll wager you an icy cold Coca Cola that there won't be anymore EJD sellouts this season. That puts Linehan's future in jeopardy once again, and the needle on the TST Linehan Ax Watch meter has officially moved to the grey area between "somewhat likely" and "very likely" on the firing side of the dial.
Ah, but the defense, they kept them in it the whole game...well, at least until that ill-fated last drive by the offense, but there wasn't anything they could have done short of bring Carriker et al in and replaced the o-line with them. Did you really think this was possible without Leonard Little in the lineup? At one point in time we talked about the possibility of Haslett replacing Linehan. Well, I hate to be selfish, but I hope that Haslett remains our defensive coordinator for at least another season. Especially if Linehan stays around for another season, we may need something positive to watch week in and week out.