AKC

I’d seen enough of his games as a Charger to realize he was wildly overused by them and put in bad situations. Too many times they’d push him back on the field when he was out of steam but he always gave effort. I thought they may have permanently damaged him but I’m happily being proven wrong by him this season.

I was thinking a good title for a game recap would be The Kids are Alright. IRing Hamlin and Rapp forced us to finally get our best athletes onto the field and they proved why they should continue to be there. Our poor secondary play leading up to Sunday is unfair to the rest of the team and the simple changes at safety already paid off by highlighting Bishop’s ability to disrupt. Watching Max running with one of the fastest players in the game was a sight. Let ‘em play!

The Panther game was a showcase of Josh hitting those pitches, he’s got the scoop and delivery skills of a great shortstop. I agree Brady continuing to build his edge attack more on play options from that it will be a big plus over the bubble/swing passes that aren’t a strength and have gotten stoned too many times this season.

That probably indicates we run play action as often out of shotgun as we do under center. The big question is how much is our run game diminished when it starts from shotgun? Cook shows statistical improvement of over a yard per carry under center. Josh is a better passer from shotgun. Its complicated for the coaches gameplanning because the prevailing wisdom has to be to do everything to maximize your best weapon and play to the MVPs strength. At the same time that may not be the most important strength on a game to game basis if you feel forcing another team to submit to our running game is the better strategy?

It brings up the question of play action effectiveness. At least the raw stat says the Frogman looks to have excelled on PA dropbacks.

And Hunt's 3.9 YPC avg didn't change from under center to shotgun.

Listening to Josh post Panthers seems to reinforce what it looks like on the field- Josh prefers to pass from shotgun but our running O is better under center. Josh talked about his drops from under center and his lack of trust of his feet being the major problem for him Sunday. Statistically in 25 Josh has a PR of 109.7 from shotgun and that drops to 89.3 under center. On the other hand James Cook is gaining over 5 YPC under center while dropping below 4 from shotgun. Curiously EPA stats suggest in the Panthers game the opposite was true- they have us more effective running from shotgun and more effective passing from under center. I have to presume the successful pitches from shotgun with long gains skew that in favor of shotgun, while the season long stats tell the story differently.

Statmuse has us in shotgun 33+ times a game this season, most in the league according to their data. We do also lead the league in plays/game so it is possible for both things to be true.

It is indeed difficult to lean on play action when you are leading the league in shotgun snaps.

Are you suggesting the Bengal's strategy is not as wise as Beane's 🤫

Absolutely the overall key to their D performance was their Dline dominance and they were really only playing man on 3rd downs. When they did press up they were effective in muddying everything for Mahomes on 3rd down where they were only 3 for 11 converting.

I think the past Super Bowl got plenty of attention with our coaching staff. Mahomes has thrived on our off coverage but the Eagles disrupted him with soft press coverage. Their DBs press at the LOS and can electively jam their assignment, impede their release without contact or drop out of the press. Hairston was drafted with that in mind. Babich wants to do it but Tre looks like the Achilles. I noticed 3 of the 3rd/4th down must have plays for the Fish targeted and succeeded by going at Tre. I haven’t watched the All 22s but it would surprise me if that number isn’t higher. Tre is currently over performing against the run but he can’t play Babich’s LOS coverage which is more athleticism/less cerebrality. IMO Tre is just a bad fit for what Babich wants to do and the sooner we get a superior athlete at CB2 the better our playoff hopes become.

We played plenty of press in the Fish game. On their 4th and 4 we had Tre White pressing Waddle. Not only did Waddle get off the line untouched, he basically broke Tre’s ankles. 3 yards into his route Tre was 3 yards behind him.

The game last night provided plenty of evidence that we need to get talent up to move Tre to the bench. It’s not even his declining athletic skills as much as it is our scheme is asking more of our corners in man, and while it’s never been his strength it is at this time an obvious weakness. Between Max and Strong we need someone to emerge and begin getting reps from White.

You could frame that as more a lack of instinct than lack of athleticism. I always thought the glue in our Hyde/Poyer back end was instinct.