This offense is so rudderless and lacks any coherent identity, it’s really remarkable.

Have we seed enough of Love to say that he’s bad? In my opinion, it’s impossible to know because the offensive line can’t give him time, receivers drop passes and generally give poor effort (especially Watson on any given play), and there’s nothing to speak of in terms of a run game. It feels like 3 in 4 pass attempts Love has to run for his life or make a throw with the pocket collapsing around him because of poor blocking or an inability of guys to get open downfield. But there are also the very real, absolutely god-awful decisions Love’s made with the ball.

I know Jones is still recovering from injury, but he’s averaged less than 10 touches a game when he’s been active, and hasn’t touched the ball more than 11 times in any game this season. Dillon–who’s the only 250-lb player I’ve ever seen routinely taken down by finger tackles–is averaging 14.

The offensive line has played really poorly and the lack of depth has shown, but there’s also several plays per game where guys go in the wrong direction, or we just get dominated by great defensive players (Crosby, Hutchinson, Hunter, etc).

Add to it: we’re consistently behind the chains early on and what’s left is throwing the ball in obvious passing situations with a bad offensive line and a worse receiving corps.

From Pro Football Reference, we sit at 22nd in points scored, 28th in total yards, 24th in yards per play, 28th in first downs, 22nd in yards per rushing attempt. And I’d be willing to bet we’re dead last in all of those categories in the first half.

Defensively, I feel like the talent is there to be a top-10 defense if injuries didn’t happen in the NFL. We have dudes who can play in each position group: Clark, Gary, an ascendant Quay, Jaire and Rasul are a nice CB duo, Savage was playing well prior to the injury, and Ford has been consistent all year. A lot of you might laugh at that, but depth issues aside, I truly believe we have a core group of guys who match up favorably against most offenses in the league. And some of the stats back this up: 11th in total yards; 7th in pass defense.

Where this defense is awful is takeaways (dead last), penalties (5th most penalty yards of any team), and in the run game, sitting at 21st. We’ve also only been able to pressure QBs on 25% of dropbacks, which is middle-of-the-road.

What’s frustrated me the most with Joe Berry’s defense has been going into his patented soft zone nickel and dime looks in long yardage situations and watching opposing teams gash us on the ground. We’ve given up the 4th most rushing first downs in the league despite sitting right at league average in YPC to opposing offenses.

This is all to say, the front office got us to this point where we have such a young team, no depth, and no money to go out and get anybody (JULIO JONES TO THE EAGLES?!?!?!), the coaching staff hasn’t gotten guys ready to play, haven’t schemed well (Berry gonna Berry), and it feels like our core group of young offensive players have not developed. It’s a stinker of a season that bodes poorly for the future.

To grade the team at the midpoint:

Offense: D

• QB: C
• RB: C
• TE: D
• WR: F
• OL: F

Defense: B-

• DL: B
• OLB: B+
• ILB: B (when Quay and De’vondre have been healthy together)
• CB: B-
• S: B-