Interesting and well-written article. But let me ask you, did the system suddenly just disappear into thin air?
Because last season,
Marc Bulger threw for a career high 4,301 yards and 24 TDs with a QB rating of 92.9.
Steven Jackson broke out into a star by leading the league and ranking fifth all time in all-purpose yards. Both
Torry Holt and Isaac Bruce eclipsed the 1,000 yard mark.
I simply have a hard time believing they did all this without a capable system or in spite of a poor one. It would seem to me that we were able to achieve quite a bit of offensive efficiency in Linehan's system last year when we weren't ravaged by all of these injuries. Now we're practically fielding a new offensive line every week with skill position players in and out of the line-up, and the system is failing. Is that really all that surprising?
I would agree that, should Linehan come back next year and he can't make his plan work with a healthier team, then that's going to be a big, big problem. But the results of last season lead me to believe that there is something here that can work when we have the players to execute it.