I have to add that it is beyond belief to me that people are criticizing the play calling job by the OC of the highest scoring team in NFL history.
If the standard is 100% of every play call is perfect, there is a lot to criticize McDaniels about, but if the standard is calling plays COMPARED TO EVERYONE ELSE WHO CALLS PLAYS, it is idiotic to criticize what he did last year.
Same idea with OL criticism. Sure there are things to criticize, but compared to all of the other OLs in the NFL, its as good as any.
Just one of my pet peeves. OCs, OL, and corners (and QBs not named Brady) are ripped to shreds for everything that isnt perfect, even when, for example, a corner that gets beat 1/10 as often as a normal corner is still villfied every time he gets beaten.
I do agree that for the majority of the season, McDaniels did a terrific job, and that shouldn't be forgotten. He definetely deserves credit for the emergence of Maroney as a big time RB in the playoffs and taking advantage of the holes that were forming as a result of the Pats passing threat, that was a great adjustment in playcalling on McDaniels' part. Towards the end of the season, he got comfortable with the great tools at his disposal and understandbly picked up some bad habits.
My only real problem with him, and I posted on this at the time, was his misuse of Moss during the playoffs. When Moss was being double-teamed in the playoffs, Moss became a decoy, particularly in the divisional game against the Jags where Brady literally just stopped looking Moss is way after the 1st quarter. Because that game resulted in a W, McDaniels got comfortable with Moss as a decoy and didnt bother trying to get him involved, and it was lost on him and many on this site that the Ws weren't nearly as impressive as they could or should have been. Only when the Pats were staring down the barrel of the gun in the 2nd half of the SB, did he mix it up and use Moss in slants, which predictably got the team results and their only 2nd half TD.
HOWEVER, let it be said that many on this forum weren't calling McDaniels out but instead fell into the same trap of believing all Ws are created equal and until you get an L, what you're doing doesn't need many adjustments. So there is a little bit of Monday morning quarterback, although McDaniels definetely should be held to a higher standard than fans on a messageboard.