AKC
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Posts posted by AKC
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It's hard for me to imagine watching our first two game this year and arriving at the conclusion that Bledsoe is the "problem"; instead he looks to be performing his job in the offense he's been handed. Now on the offensive side I HAVE seen some awful work out of our backfield in picking up blitzes and I also noticed last week that the QB who threw the worst passes in the game ended up winning anyway- for the simple fact that his receivers appeared to want it far more by going hard after those poor balls he threw. As bad as Bledsoe appeared to be throwing the ball post head shot Sunday on first look, a second view showed that there were 5 of those "bad" passes of his that were hardly tough catches to make. In fact they all would fall into the category of balls that SHOULD have been caught IMO.
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Some of your assumptions are borne out by the game film. The OLine did an effective enough job on the road in Oakland, playing a new scheme for all of them and with basically a rookie at one gaurd spot, to win the game. Where the majorty of the breakdowns occurred were with Henry/Shelton and McGahee missing blitz pickups altogether or making pansy ass attempts on others. To be fair there were sacks given up by both our OTackles but for the most part the blitz schemes used by Ryan Jr. called for running back pick ups.
Henry is awful at pass blocking and McGahee's whiff in the second half does little to inspire confidence.
On TEs Euhus is too small to be an effective blocker but Cambell is having a strong year for us. He's blocking better than he has since he arrived.
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Campbell is having a very good year and the staff feels he's a great fit. He's a substantially improved blocker and can contribute in the passing game- you might recall his first down grab yesterday carrying three defenders the final 2.5 yards.
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Shelton was responsible for 2 sacks. The first one, where he let the blitzing man run RIGHT past him as he released to go out into a pattern and the 3rd sack, the one where Bledsoe rolled out, Shelton helped an Olineman double a Dlineman and didn't pick up the blitzing LB who sacked Drew.
Thanks-
At least Lindell kept a low profile to allow Shelton to get some bleating reps in, although that first Lindell KO landed at about the 15.
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Our running backs are among the worst in the league at pass blocking, and when it comes to Damian Shelton he also misses his assignments on rushing downs with regularity. Shelton was responsible exclusively on one run stuff and missed a pick up leading to a sack. Travis and McGahee both choked on pass blocks that led to sacks.
Two weeks in a row we've been one play from a win. In the Jacksonville game there were probably 6 plays that would have changed the outcome. In the Raider game there were more like a dozen. We're not a good team right now, at the same time we've improved from last season in most areas. The two areas I believe we've lost ground in are safety coverage and running back blocking, with Shelton helping to take the effectiveness down a notch and Travis stinking up the joint on most passing downs. That made McGahee's pitiful effort in the 4th quarter that much more discouraging to watch.
With the opportunity on a dozen downs to change the outcome of the game Sunday we came up short, again. It's time for a leader or two to emerge who will make the catch in the clutch, who will see the field well enough to make a key block or to simply keep their hands off opponent jerseys on ST plays (how do you get yourself in a postion to be called for holding aginst an OLineman on a punt?). There's two weeks to think about it.
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Some thoughts:
1. Interesting quotes from the Raiders. Sapp and Turner both noted that they thought they had an advantage going in with their d-line versus our o-line.
2. The o-line is terrible, but Bledsoe makes the o-line look worse because he is immobile. Why didn't we fix the o-line in the offseason? I though RW and TD promised during the season last year that this would be addressed in a significant way.
3. I have been impressed with the defense and J. Gray. I thought there would be a decline with Williams and LeBeau departing. Fletcher and Spikes are awesome.
4. If we wanted to win now, why did we hire a rookie coach? The players are making too many mistakes (i.e., penalties, dropped passes and using timeouts prematurely). I don't see any difference in approach or mental toughness.
5. Not enough production from our draft picks. We needed guys that could step-in and contribute immediately.
6. Not only is our team flawed, but they are extremely boring to watch.
7. I know we are committed to running the ball, but our running game looks terrible, averaging about three yards per carry. I assume that it is the o-line and not Henry.
8. I don't see our offense getting better as the season progresses.
Half of our negative yardage plays came from blocking errors by our running backs. As far as Henry's YPC you might want to look at all the slipping he did on a field that should be banned by the league.
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The play you are talking about was a middle draw. The job of the center by the play's design is to release his assignment upfield on the weakside, which is exactly what Teague does. The whole IDEA is for Teague's guy to overrun the play (creating the hole), which happens, but McGahee is forced to move to the weakside to counter pressure in his face, The real problem with the play is that it should arguably have been audibled out of- the Raiders stacked two extra players in the box with one of them right over center.
If you'd like to criticize a Teague play use the 4th quarter holding call/whiff.
As far as McNally is concerned, until he's the positions coach for Damian Shelton and Travis Henry you might not be so quick to point the blame in his direction. Our RBs were by far the weakest link in our blocking scheme Sunday, with Shelton missing assignments in both running and passing plays that led to sacks and stuffs plus Travis just giving up a rusher with a horrible block leading to another sack.
I'm ready to end the Travis experiment right now in favor of McGahee because he has to be no worse a pass blocker than Travis. Henry is awful, and I still haven't figured out what management was thinking when they signed Damian Shelton. He's an average at best run and pass blocking FB who makes poor decisions on the fly.
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You shouldn't buy any analysis here until you watch the games yourself and form your own opinions. My observations come from my own background of playing the game in my youth and being a student of the game as an adult, but that gives me no special insight. I continue to learn about the game from posters in this forum with varied backgrounds from some still playing to some who merely watch the games and see things casual fans might miss.
The one thing that's common among those whose posts I never miss is that they focus on positional play instead of merely watching the ball on Sundays. The rule I've formed is that if you want to continue improving your knowledge of the game you don't skip strings that include names like John in Hemet, Simon, Lori, Fake Fat, BadOl, 34-78- 83, Kelly The Dog, Bill in NYC, Mark VI, and others- all fans who pick up positional nuance because they're keying on players during games instead of the ball, both at the stadium and on the tube. We've even got opponent fans who offer the same, guys like Des and possibly an emerging contributor in Hollywood Donahoe. There's much to be learned from many here, and I'm just another one seeking to improve my understanding by discussion with those who see things I've missed. I hope you're able to gain something too.
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There's a concept out there- it's nearly in your grasp- go ahead and.....reach.....reach............you can do it........
OOOOHH!! Maybe next time!
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Great post AKC, as usual. Teague and Kelsay were 2 guys I noticed immediately this summer as players who obviously lived in the weight room the past several months and gained mass.
Lancaster Steve pointed out the same comments regarding Kelsay , during the game. They started running those sweeps to his side and he was getting tied up. Had some trouble shedding his blocks. Run away from his side and he comes flying to make tackles. Technique work is needed but he is improving.
Teague is the most improved player, by far. A question. If Jennings leaves, do we bounce Teague out to LT ? Easier to replace a Center. Thoughts ?
My gut instincts say he'll be most valuable as he continues to improve his center skills. This year he's up faster from the snap, he hasn't had a bad shotgun snap yet, pre-season or reg that I've seen, and he's making our line calls and developing a knack for it if our performance against a very strong interior DLine is any indication.
I also don't know if he's really ready to take on some of the DEs he'd see every down at LT- he looks to be about 310 to me and it seems like most left tackles benefit from the down after down banging at that spot if they're in the mid 300s.
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I was watching that, AKC. I'm not sure what it looked like on TV but at the game, MW was limping terribly. I immediately said out loud to ICE next to me that Williams "is hurt bad!". It really looked like he wasnt going to be able to play, but waved off help from the bench. The next play, again he hobbled during the play and limped horribly after the play was over. I really thought there was no way he could continue but he stayed in and didnt favor it nearly enough. But that guy got hurt in the game, no question.
You drew the seat next to Ice? - Got Lotto?
They caught a shot of him coming back to the huddle with a noticable hop to that foot, the coverage held on him for at least a couple seconds but I didn't notice it at game speed. It's very evident in replay.
BTW- the new Backer's club in Old Town is very nice- best wings of any place we've been so far (they've always had decent sauce, one requirement I had for coming there was for them to buy fresh chicken instead of the frozen crap they usually use) and the management will jump through hoops for us.
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It was in the first quarter- he walks off the injury on his way back to the huddle with an evident hitch. All the minimalist play I saw from him came AFTER that so if the story from Sabre is true and he was fighting the urge to sit out I should allow that it would be a good explanation for some softer play after the injury.
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Actually there were a few of us who took our lumps last season and off-season insisting Teague was primarily a victim of the undersized guy to his right last season and that a change of offensive strategy could make him a very positive contributor.
One thing I forgot to mention is a guy I've had nothing good to say about in the uniform of Ron Edwards is playing an important, and often effective, role in this defense. He showed exceptional power on some of the plays he was in, pushing a triple team back 2 or 3 yards at one time. If he can somehow become consistent with the fire to play in this league he could become a huge positive in spelling the two starters in the middle.
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But the content seems to be pretty accurate ;-)
Don't I get a passing grade?
I can't believe what I'm seeing at CBS! How in the world can they allow Rather to drag them into this corner?
It is totally indefensible and it doesn't even seem possible that they are allowing it to continue. I can't imagine this won't have a historically negative impact on their reputation as a news provider.
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One of the biggest surprises for ne this year so far is the touch that Bledsoe has shown- I don't ever remember him "settling" balls into his receivers hands in the past.
I agree with you that for the most part Big Mike was "effective", but this guy needs a fire under his ass and get mean like the guy to his left. I'm hoping when he finally plays himself into shape, say mid-season, Villarial's attitude rubs off onhim.
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I had a chance to review the first half last night, I’ll try to get to the second half today.
Schobel played very well. Although his weakness has been defending runs in his face, he blows up two running plays in the first half and on one he gets under the OL’s pads, plants his feet and causes a tackle behind the LOS. On the other he slips his block and makes the tackle behind the LOS.
Jax success came more easily going the other way, and if they didn’t game plan it they found Chris Kelsay a much softer target to run at. In their third offensive series the Jags take 4 runs in a row over our left side, three right on top of Kelsay. The result is 4 straight successful runs leading to 2 first downs. After a pas play though Kelsay looks like he’s tired of getting slapped around and he penetrates a run and drops the back for a 2 or 3 yard loss.
Posey remains somewhat of a mystery; on one play he actually uses his arms to get off a TE block but on more plays than not he’s got “tentative” feet. And it’s his feet that it looks like he seems to be protecting. I don’t know if he’s ever had a leg injury and he favors it but my opinion after watching him in this game very closely is that he could use about a month in the tires to improve his chop steps- when there’s low traffic he seems to lose all his fundamentals and gets taken out of plays very easily.
Jonas Jennings has such a sweet slide that if he is able to stay healthy I expect a pure passing team will offer him big money this coming off-season. Few tackles in the NFL get that perfect lateral movement. That said, he’s not nearly as good in the running game as he tends to carry a little too much weight up high.
Teague has taken his versatile game from the pre-season to the regular season. You can see in Bledsoe’s body language out of the shotgun that he’s got confidence in the snaps coming from Trey. The team asks Teague to make a lot of second level blocks, many of them on the edge. They also don’t hesitate having him take one on one interior lineman assignments occasionally in the passing game.
Chris Villarial is awesome to watch in run blocking- He plays all play long and for linebackers on the second level loafing as a play draws down WATCH OUT because he’ll put the wood to anyone if he’s not engaged and the whistle hasn’t been blown. He is above average on the move and excellent in short range blocking due to his persistence. On one play in our third offensive series you see Travis bounce off the line and then advance for 7 yards- it’s not a broken tackle, it’s actually Travis hitting Villarial who is just WORKING his assignment who has no chance to make a play on Travis.
Right now LSmith is understandably the weak link on our Oline. On passing downs he’s getting help from Teague but he lets his assignment slip him even on run downs. His background considered he needs to be given time against the highest level of talent he’s ever played, but even today he’s an improvement over the previous starter. It will help this Oline big time when Teague can occasionally turn to Villarial’ side as Chris is not nearly as accomplished in the passing game as he is on run downs. Mixing up Teague’s attention will make it much tougher to set defensive line slots for teams playing us.
Big Mike either is still getting his wind together or he just doesn’t put out any more effort than he thinks he has to on most plays. He also looked like he either had his foot stepped on in the first half or he is nursing some type of toe nick.
Something we haven’t seen in a long time is a TE sealing an edge against a DE for a runner. Mark Campbell not only does this perfectly, he does it against DE Lionel Barnes who is definitely bigger than the 260 pounds they list him at on their roster.
QB pressures given up by Big Mike, Villarial and Smith.
Travis was stringing together brain farts on Sunday, first he misses a screen call by going to the wrong side of the field and on the very next play he blows his blocking assignment by letting his man straight through after getting his body between Jennings and Jenning's man. Maybe the fact that he gets knocked on his butt will help him to overcome the same mistake in the future.
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I watched 60 minutes tonight and Dan Rather interviewed the old lady who was the secretary to the supposed writer of the memos.
She states that she did not type them, that there are several items in the memo that point to them being bogus but that "similar" memos were written. She is then given time to state her opinions on how she feels about Bush and his service in the National Guard.
WTF!! This is really hard for me to digest...A top news agency reports on bogus documents but then says it's ok because there probably were real memos that said something similar. If that is sufficient proof for a story, how can we believe anything that we see reported on CBS!
I'm watching it right now- and it's almost like a movie plot. I believe Rather is truly melting down- a guy who is placed in a position to report the news, not make it, has been involved at the very least with presenting fabricated evidence and it's looking more and more as if he may have been involved with the fabrication itself. His inability to report the truth in this case should result in a landslide of emails to CBS demanding his removal. Their address is evening@cbsnews.com
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Coelho makes a very good point in an interview with CBS news (I guess that is if we're to believe anything from them:) regarding the structure of their campaign organizations:
“Here are two groups that have never gotten along and have fought, and it is a lot over money,” says Coehlo. "Because in the Democratic Party the consultants get paid for the creation and the placement of [advertising]. Republicans only pay you for the creation.”
While it's admirable that Coelho recognizes the Republicans are better businessmen, why in the world wouldn't each Democratic candidate be at least enough in control of his campaign to dicate the terms of the consultant deals? Am I missing something here- it doesn't strike me that the Coelho statements are focused on just this campaign, but instead on national Dem campaigns in general?
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I didn't notice Traylor at end, as I belive he spent most (if not all) of his time at the nose. In the first half, the base D-line seemed to feature Seymour at RE, Warren at LE, and Traylor and Wilfork splitting time at the nose. In the second half, the Pats played a bit more 4-3, with both Wilfork and Traylor inside, and Seymour and Warren at the ends.
Interestingly, when the Pats went to a 3-4 in the second half, Wilfork saw a good deal of time at LE (perhaps this is what you were thinking of when you mentioned Trayloy at end). Wilfork also played LE in the final preseason game against Jacksonville, and looked solid in doing so.
As for the 3 DTs comment, while all four of the Pats starting/rotating DL (Seymour, Warren, Traylor, Wilfork) are considered DTs in a conventional 4-3, Seymour and Warren are prototypical 3-4 ends (although can play the nose fairly well), and Wilfork seems able to as well. In addition, Jarvis Green, who many would consider too small to play DT even in a 4-3, sees time at nose in the Pats' system (usually on 3rd downs). I would say that the traditional DT/DE titles probably do not fit well on the Pats' DL, as they are rotated and switched and used at multiple positions at any given time.
I would expect the Pats' three main DL looks to be:
Seymour - Traylor/Wilfork - Warren (3-4)
Seymour - Traylor - Wilfork - Warren (4-3)
Seymour - Traylor - Wilfork (3-4)
With various substitutions for sub-packages, obviously. But yes, I see the DL scheme used against Indy as more a base formation that will be used all year long than as a situational thing.
We've got an interesting opening 3 games against 3 of the 4 best quality interior DLines in the NFL: opener against JAX with Stroud and Henderson, this week against the rotation of Ted Washington, Warren Saap and John Parella, and then the line Belichick has built. It would be a very good sign from my seat for the balance of the season if we are able to run for over 100 yards (as we did against the Jags) for the other two games. Our OLine play is on the other side of the spectrum from the past three years when we were basically playing one on one football along the line. It's been years since I've seen as many of our line players pulling outside the opposite tackle, throwing cross body run blocks and just generally staying very active instead of trying to simply beat the guy opposite them. If the kid at LG can get his footwork in space together we might just become the kind of team that is able to put a lot of 36 and 38 minute TOP games together, and it's my opinion that the kind of running back to feature in that is a guy who is patient waiting for his blocks while being able to hold onto the football. The good news for us is it appears we have a guy who meets that description on our roster ;-)
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I understand it is your intention to be a contributing guest on the subject of football here on TSW, and I welcome you completely in that capacity while looking forward to sharing observations from the alternative viewpoint of a division rival.
Please excuse my presumption that you were just another of the Patsy bottom-feeders who spend their time here posting repetitive drivel.
I didn't go back to re-watch your opener in depth but it appeared to me that the base set of your defensive line regularly used 3 DTs against the Colts with Traylor coming for the most part off one of the end spots. Did you get a feel for the interior DLine scheme for the whole game and do you think it is merely a match-up design or something we should expect to see more this year?
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that whole,its the system thing is retarded because EVERY single qb in this leaque is in a system.a system tht plays best to that players ability,DUHHHHHH. figures a bill fan said this.
and mr breaker,you do realize that in last years playoff game vs indy,fauria dropped 2 td passes in the endzone that was thrown right in his hands. or did you forget to remember that???? theres nothing you can do about your tightend dropping two endzone td passes(again you fail to mention this). brady should of had 3 td passes in that game.and he should of had 4 td passes in the super bowl,fauria caught a td pass but was called incomplete,but he was in bounds by atleast two feet in the superbowl game.
i got no problem with tom receiving both mvp awards,there was at least 4 dif ppl that could have gotten it in the first sb,and tom was one of them. a td pass,no pics,and put them in position in the most pressure filled drive in the pats history for a fg attempt with little time,all as basically a rookie.
and he was awesome in that second super bowl,3 td passes(really 4,read up above about fauria),most completions ever in a sb. and again lead them on a drive to get in position.
again tom should of had 3 td passes in that indy game,but something should be said if you have a bunch of field goals,it says your qb keeps leading them down field in scoring range. better then a bunch of 3 and outs and multiple picks a game.
just took you to school
oh,and bledsoe is a quarterbacking albatross. thank you mo lewis,thank you so much mr lewis. mo,you brought excitement back to new england football.thank you so much for getting rid of that 3 and out,3 and out,3 and out,non td producing,sack and interception machine pea brain of a qb right out of n.e. -i have been loving bledsoe languishing up in buffalo.
drew is a great guy off the field though,but man is not efficient at all.
Just to be fair to you I'd like to ask you one question-
Is English your first language?
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Wow.
First off, that's an article by Vic Carucci about Tommy Maddox. Hardly a league official declaring that passing yards should be the only judge of a QB's productivity.
Second, productivity is mentioned only once in the article, and it's in reference to both yardage AND TD passes.
Third, use common sense. There many stats that can be used to measure a QB's productivity, and yardage is among the least important. Winning percentage, completion percentage, TD/INT ratio, etc. are all better indicators of how effective a QB is.
Understand yet? Or should I type more slowly?
Excuse me- I forgot the bus marked "Pat's Trolls" was the tiny short one in the parking lot.
I hate to throw off your GED studies by confusing you with some very simple realities for the rest of us, but productivity is by definition measured in a quantitative manner as I, and the official website of the NFL, have pointed out. You apparently are welcome to offer your uneducated hypotheses here in a Buffalo Bills forum, but never mistake my exposing your inability to reason or accept logic as a friendly gesture. I don't see the the Pat's fans who have polluted this forum in the past year as capable of becoming "contributors" as many other opposing team's fans before them have become over time. But in every case there was some exercise of manners in their cases.
On the other hand if your intention here is to participate in a discussion of our division excuse my cold welcome. I see the garbage offered by others under the same flag you wave and assume you're as much of a louse as some of them. If you'd like to talk about the dynamics of the game of football in the manner of a guest in another's home I'll be the first to apoligize for the reception.
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OK, let's try your comprehension one more time since you've been a dismal failure up to this point, and no, I don't give out little golden stars. Perhaps a little pointed cap would fit your head nicely though?
Official League post using "QB Production" to describe total passing yards
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Who's for Bledsoe?
in The Stadium Wall Archives
Posted
Interesting that retired NFL Pro-Bowl OTackle Lincoln Kennedy said today on the NFL Network that Bills fans were morons for blaming Bledsoe for the 0-2 start- "I've watched their film and anybody with any sense realizes the problems stem from blocking- Bledsoe is a very good QB who stands too long in the pocket some times- who cares? He's big enough to do it".
My, my Lincoln. Why interject so much of your onfield football knowledge into a debate being directed by a few fans who have drafted 14 quarterbacks for their fantasy teams and can't understand why they lose every week?