I really don't consider myself a Fitzpatrick defender, but damn... he played well. I didn't like his decision to tuck & run it when we were out of timeouts. But other than that... I blame the play calling.
For whatever reason, whenever we found something that was working we went away from it. Runs to the right look good, let's run the next three plays to the left. DeAndre is catching everything, let's force a couple to Dre... heck, that don't look too bad, let's throw it to a TE.
Then we come out in the 2nd half & we're going to do exactly what they expect us to do... they overload the box, but we still try to run right at it.
Then when you look at the plays they score on... for whatever reason they know they have red zone issues & they come up with something no one has ever seen & we forget how to contain, how to cover, how to jam...
Gruden said he didn't understand the low percentage throw Ben made to the end zone instead of running out the clock... we'll it was that aggressive attitude that turned the game for them. We get a turnover, score a field goal... they build confidence. They get a turnover, attack the end zone, score a TD & mentally tear us apart.
You can wish for Mallett all you want, but until we stop coaching scared, it won't make any difference.
We're not better than the Colts, the Steelers, or even the Browns. Coaching like we are... we'll come up short every time. 3 points, 7, next time might be 30. The guys are out there leaving it all on the field, it's time OB did the same.