Hey, gang.

Thought we could all stand to brainstorm a few questions for Ben to ask this week, because there seem to be gaps in coverage that have left a lot of us dissatisfied. And we can't make any OTHER reporters ask the questions we want to hear, but we can cyberbully Ben until he does.

Obviously he doesn't /actually/ have to ask any questions he doesn't wanna, but... post some stuff you'd like to hear about and let's see what happens!

I'll get us started.

1. David Bailey is having a breakout year. As of Sunday, Pro Football Focus had him as the #2 pass-rusher in the country. But he's also gotten fewer defensive snaps every week, including just 16 against Clemson. Can you talk a little bit about how the coaching staff thinks through the tradeoffs inherent in trying to keep him fresh in critical situations vs trying to maximize his contributions?

Obviously this sets up a question later in the season about "why do we drop our edges back in coverage so often?", but, y'know, gotta take baby steps.

Kyle Shanahan needs a "sanity check" guy on headsets.
His only job is to make sure Shanahan doesn't make ridiculously bad decisions, like he did at end of 1H today.
For anyone watching, on third and long from SF 8 yard line (or thereabouts), NE with 1 TO, Shanahan calls a pass play.

Run the effing ball; make NE use its last TO; and guess what? NE doesn't even get a chance to kick a FG at end of half, with they did (a 63-yarder, to boot, with yards to spare!).

Seriously, Shanahan, for as great an O-mind/playcaller as he is, has serious blind spots when it comes to basic game management.