I love your enthusiasm -
Once we get both down in the same game onto mideast peace...
My line of thinking from the beginning has been that there is talent on the roster and by jettisoning PP and friends, bringing in a good staff would be able to unlock the physical talent by teaching the techniques and reads that were so lacking the last three years. I thought an off season of S&C would be worth two wins on its own by upping the OL from an average of 285 to over 300 lbs. Having an intelligent gameplan on Offense would be worth another two.
As it sits, despite the loss of a bunch of defensive talent on defense we seem to be OK there. Growing pains from a inexperienced players, sure, though not from where I thought we'd would. Specials seem better, though still waiting for the return game to pick up a little. Offense is a bit baffling, OK it's not the smash mouth of the Donald Brown years, and it's not DanO carrying an entire offense, but it's not Bones/DJ/Brown either. Whitmer and Boyle can throw it and this is by far the best group of WR we've had. It's there, the mistakes at the individual level are killing us. Whether it's a missed assignment, penalty, or turnover, if we just clean that up to the point of being average we can win games against the worst schedule since the upgrade. A little confidence and a lot more focus are required and if we do lack the physical speed and strength to block effectively, then it is on the coach to scheme our way out of it.
We didn't spend all winter and summer getting hyped up for a 1 win season or even a 3 win season.