Why is everybody pointing to the tap out? The audible and interception at the end of the 1st 1/2 are IMO much more egregious.

In fact knowing now that Richardson audibles to that play in that situation, he should've been benched then and Flacco would've won us the game.

The tap out is bad, then he compounds that worse by saying he was just tired and needed a break just shows how bad this kid's decision making is. But I don't believe for a minute that the tap out is the reason for his benching. I believe that it a disciplinary and performance related benching.

Also, I'm tired of hearing all of these former players and analysts saying that in all of their years in football that they have never seen this in an NFL game.

Harbaugh did it in the 1st game of the '97 season in loss to the Dolphins. The difference is that Harbaugh pulled himself from the game and never went back in. This was a big deal then and I believe led to the fight Harbaugh had with Jim Kelly after Kelly questioned his toughness.

Agree on all counts. Something changed because of Sunday.

Well, I posted my thoughts on what I thought should happen in the other thread about 5 minutes before this was announced, so, that didn't age well.

I am just appalled at how dysfunctional this organization is. This thing is stomach churning, it is pathetic, that is the only way you can view what has happened with this franchise.

To me, you can't look at this from any other prism.

Ballard has been here for 8 years now.

We have had 7 different QB's since the dude has been here. It's actually 10 when you count emergency guys like Hoyer, Tolzein and Eason. Man that's more QB's than years for the dude, and now we're looking at our 2nd round of in / out rotation with the chosen starter being replaced with a player that is absolutely not a long term option.

The NFL is not a place where you can do this, you can't. His inability to stabilize this position should be an automatic pink slip- auto fucking matic. It is so disheartening that this guy has caused such damage to this franchise but remains in the primary position of power.

AR is done, there is NO coming back from this. In turn this franchise is now in another loop of doom. We're headed toward a 8-9, 9-8 record, outside of the PO's and drafting with a pick no where near a spot where we can get a franchise QB.

FUCK YOU CHRIS BALLARD..... FUCK YOU!

Maybe this finally gets Irsay to recognize the obvious. More fans are finally starting to turn on him. Many still think he does an OK enough job that they don’t want to chance being worst though. I mean Luck retired unexpectedly so you have to give Ballard time to enact his vision…..

I don't think he's done. He can come back from this. How many ppl thought JT was done?

I put half of this on the coaches not playing to his strengths (which isn't standing in the pocket throwing right now)

Horrific mistake. Throughout the first half, Colt receivers simply weren’t getting open. Combine that with relentless pressure and a collapsing pocket, and it seems clear to me that no Quarterback, whether he was named Luck or Manning, Brady or Rodgers, Elway or Marino, could have salvaged much of anything.

Benching him does throw a chunk of red meat to a certain portion of the fan base, but it does so at the expense of the team’s long term success. As Bill Polian once commented, you can’t succeed as a GM if you cater to the whims of the mob.

When you take a deeper dive into his stats vs Houston, you see that the average depth of his target was 16.7 yards. Stroud’s, on the other hand, was
7.8. In today’s NFL, it’s hard to look good when you’re running a vertical passing game.

Hope you're right and that this is the coaching staff seeing that the rails have left the tracks and they're trying to slow things down for AR before he goes crashing off a cliff. But in all likelihood this means he's probably done at least w/ the Colts.

I wonder if AR told Steichen and/or Kelly to go fuck themselves when they tried to talk to him about tapping out of the game.


Think someone posted that Harbaugh had to take fluids at the half. If so then there's probably more to him pulling himself than just being tired. Like he had the flu or something along those lines.

fuck Ryan kelly

who the fuck is he? not really in defense of AR here but Kelly isn't exactly Jeff Saturday

The problem is AR is not accurate at all on short passes. So going w/ deep throws is actually playing to AR's strengths.