Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
This is probably unpopular but dating back to Gulutzan's first season I have found the entertainment value of watching this team poor. Say what you want about the Hartley years but that team worked hard every night and there's something redeeming about watching a team that's busting their humps even if the results aren't there. Under Gulutzan it felt like watching a neutered product where the team lacked emotion and belief that if they played hard they could win. Last season was entertaining because they won a lot of games and winning masks issues. For a good portion of last season they were not the hard luck Flames of the Gulutzan era where the effort was just good enough to provide the illusion that the results would come and a lot of their losses were just bad luck. The effort level was higher and it led to the bounces going their way. Now they have reverted to playing that style where the effort is just enough to make it look like they could have won some of these games they are losing but not good enough to actually win. I hope that Peters can get them out of this rut but we have seen this before under another coach and it's not pretty to watch this team go through the motions.
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I don't disagree, but I think this may be by design. An experienced and talented team needs to ramp up intensity as the season progresses. Of course, this is a dangerous game to play as you may never be able to find the next gear if you come out too flat footed, and all of a sudden you are 5-5-1.
I see signs of improvement in consistency as they settle in so I am not panicked. In a perfect world, you try to get rolling from game 62-82 instead of 1-20. If they can do that, I have no worries for R1.