Playing a tight game against a strong (and still underrated IMO) Montreal team isn't bad in and of itself, but they just couldn't afford to dig themselves into a hole to start the year yet again, and that's exactly what they've done.
The offense is not better under MBT than Ford. Probably marginally better through the air, but completely vanilla without the threat of a QB run. So basically Jones blew 500 grand or whatever on a lateral move. Imagine that money being spent on 3 other all stars elsewhere on the roster and this might actually be a half decent team by now.
The defense is surprisingly alright considering the no-name personnel. A couple big errors for sure, but holding Montreal to 23 should yield a win most of the time. They were getting good pressure on Fajardo as the game wore on. I was concerned early, but they buttoned things down in the second half.
All that said, if Mitchell grips a sure major and they don't brainlessly gamble on the next play, they probably win. I have no f***ing clue why you would gamble there with the D playing well and kick coverage being strong. Pin the Als deep and live to fight another day. The whole game slipped away on that one sequence.
Shaping up to be another situation where they're sitting 2-7 in August and we're again feeling that if they could have just won one of these last two games it would be a totally different season.