[Goose]

 A poster on the paid forum made a convincing argument that coaching/preparation made them look way worse.

Unfortunately, I am not on the paid forum.

For instance, in the Big Game there was a play breakdown where 3 pass rushers executed the same twist/stunt so they ended up on top of each other (obviously incorrect), and Garbers had the easiest pocket escape in the world. That shouldn't be happening in the last game of the f***ing season.

I don't believe your premises support your conclusion. The fact the players ended up in a bad position does not prove the coach made an error. The problem could equally be that one or more players misread the defense that was called. Unless you know what was called, it is not possible to know how the bad result occurred.  One can equally well say that all errors are the responsibility of the coach because he recruits the players and teaches them how to play. Therefore, if they don't play well, it is the coach's fault unconditionally and the players are just pawns on a chessboard. However, that line of reasoning doesn't necessarily help in fixing the problem.

Your argument that the talent level of the defensive players hasn't changed that much over a couple of years is much weaker than the fact that the defensive coaches haven't changed at all (much to many poster's chagrin). If everything is actually held constant, our ranking can't have changed. Since our ranking did change, either our players aren't as good, our coaches aren't as good, other teams have improved more than we have, or some combination of these factors. What factors are most important is, as of yet, TBD.

[Goose]

 A poster on the paid forum made a convincing argument that coaching/preparation made them look way worse.

Unfortunately, I am not on the paid forum.

For instance, in the Big Game there was a play breakdown where 3 pass rushers executed the same twist/stunt so they ended up on top of each other (obviously incorrect), and Garbers had the easiest pocket escape in the world. That shouldn't be happening in the last game of the f***ing season.

I don't believe your premises support your conclusion. The fact the players ended up in a bad position does not prove the coach made an error. The problem could equally be that one or more players misread the defense that was called. Unless you know what was called, it is not possible to know how the bad result occurred.  One can equally well say that all errors are the responsibility of the coach because he recruits the players and teaches them how to play. Therefore, if they don't play well, it is the coach's fault unconditionally and the players are just pawns on a chessboard. However, that line of reasoning doesn't necessarily help in fixing the problem.

Your argument that the talent level of the defensive players hasn't changed that much over a couple of years is much weaker than the fact that the defensive coaches haven't changed at all (much to many poster's chagrin). If everything is actually held constant, our ranking can't have changed. Since our ranking did change, either our players aren't as good, our coaches aren't as good, other teams have improved more than we have, or some combination of these factors. What factors are most important is, as of yet, TBD.