CIL
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I'm going to keep this a bit shorter than last week's post for a few reasons. One, because we sucked. And two, because my two year old daughter is banging the ever living out my MacBook as I write this. I'll post about defense later on.
Offense: I was quite optimistic after the first few drives that the offense was going to explode. I was wrong. I'm sure the staff prepared for lots of heavy pressure -- we opened up with lots of play action and took several shots down the field. Nassib just missed Stevens which would have probably bert down any confidence RI had. That and the 4th down stop of Smith were the two biggest plays in the entire game. Momentum is a funny thing -- I'm a big believer that you can create momentum with effort. Our effort for the first few series was damn good on both sides of the ball. RI swung it with a ballsy 4th down stand. It took until the 4th quarter for us to get it back. Unreal.
We had a lot of issues once agin dealing with heavy pressure. RI literally had 8 to 9 men in the box almost the entire game. I am willing to wager they brought pressure 75 to 85 % of the time. We went over the top with success early on, but for some reason got away from that. I think Marrone and Hackett got away from that and want to impose our will on the ground. I don't care who the opponent is -- unless you have an Alabama type OL, running the ball against a 8 1/2 man front is going to be very difficult. While the effort of our team was poor, I also think the staff called a poor game as well.
I would have loved a mix of short passes and over the top throws until URI got the safety out of there and stopped sending 2 extra guys every play.
QB: Another efficient game by Ryan. Completed a lot of passes out there and made quick, ostly smart decisions. I would have loved to see him hit Stevens on that deep ball as well as not under throw Chew on a play where Van had two steps on his guy (a play which should have been flagged for PI by the way).
Right now, Ryan is an great game manager for us. He kind of reminds me of Greg McElroy from Alabama who the Jets picked up in the last round. Makes a lot of high percentage throws and does a good job avoiding bad decisions. Unfortunately for us, at this point in his career he is not a game changer. He has to hit Stevens on that pass -- that is one I'm sure he is kicking himself on.
He still needs to develop some pocket awareness out there. Little things such as how to silde a bit in the pocket to create throwing lanes for himself. How to step up to allow some relief to the backside tackle and allow the tackle to shove the speed rush past him. His first instinct under any duress is to roll right. One play that illustrated this fault was a batted pass in the third quarter. Ryan didn't have a ton a of pressure, felt a little backside heat so danced right and throw a pass that got tipped. If he just takes a step up to give himself a throwing lane and delivers that throw with a three quarter motion the receiver on the cross route easily converts a first down and actually has a decent amount of room to run. I know the staff is aware of this (Marrone said as much on his radio show) and is trying to correct it.
RB: It's tough to put on a good showing when the other team is selling out to shut you down. I would have liked to see the staff incorporate Ant more with some swing passes and screen plays. That didn't happen. Any did a decent job in pass protection picking up the blitzer.
Right now he seems to be a bit tentative in this zone blocking scheme. I want to see his find a seem and explode through it. One cut and up so to speak. Still a bit too much dancing in the hole for the staff's liking -- well, what few holes were there. I liked that he was finishing runs today and lowering the shoulder.
An a side note, this team is really missing a Delone Carter type back. 2nd and 7 is a lot better than 2nd and 9 or 10. 3rd and 4 is better than 3rd and 8. I think quite a few people underestimated what his departure meant to this team. He would have made yesterday's game a lot easier. I really want to see Smith or Ameen-Moore step up in this role. We need a powerful runner desperately.
OL: Sucked. Their struggles are really reminiscent of our struggles early last season and are fundamentally making the same mistakes. ID'ing where the pressure is coming from and struggling to pick up any sort of DL stunt. Macky and Chibane were victimized I don't know how many times with any sort of "twist" stunt (i.e the DT over them rushes out, the DE rushes in). Throw a blitz in behind that (which URI did all day) and it's a recipe for disaster.
It's tough to find some sort of silver lining in all this except to say that these are mental errors and fixable. I can't help but wonder if Atkins missing time with illness has set us back a few weeks.
Offense: I was quite optimistic after the first few drives that the offense was going to explode. I was wrong. I'm sure the staff prepared for lots of heavy pressure -- we opened up with lots of play action and took several shots down the field. Nassib just missed Stevens which would have probably bert down any confidence RI had. That and the 4th down stop of Smith were the two biggest plays in the entire game. Momentum is a funny thing -- I'm a big believer that you can create momentum with effort. Our effort for the first few series was damn good on both sides of the ball. RI swung it with a ballsy 4th down stand. It took until the 4th quarter for us to get it back. Unreal.
We had a lot of issues once agin dealing with heavy pressure. RI literally had 8 to 9 men in the box almost the entire game. I am willing to wager they brought pressure 75 to 85 % of the time. We went over the top with success early on, but for some reason got away from that. I think Marrone and Hackett got away from that and want to impose our will on the ground. I don't care who the opponent is -- unless you have an Alabama type OL, running the ball against a 8 1/2 man front is going to be very difficult. While the effort of our team was poor, I also think the staff called a poor game as well.
I would have loved a mix of short passes and over the top throws until URI got the safety out of there and stopped sending 2 extra guys every play.
QB: Another efficient game by Ryan. Completed a lot of passes out there and made quick, ostly smart decisions. I would have loved to see him hit Stevens on that deep ball as well as not under throw Chew on a play where Van had two steps on his guy (a play which should have been flagged for PI by the way).
Right now, Ryan is an great game manager for us. He kind of reminds me of Greg McElroy from Alabama who the Jets picked up in the last round. Makes a lot of high percentage throws and does a good job avoiding bad decisions. Unfortunately for us, at this point in his career he is not a game changer. He has to hit Stevens on that pass -- that is one I'm sure he is kicking himself on.
He still needs to develop some pocket awareness out there. Little things such as how to silde a bit in the pocket to create throwing lanes for himself. How to step up to allow some relief to the backside tackle and allow the tackle to shove the speed rush past him. His first instinct under any duress is to roll right. One play that illustrated this fault was a batted pass in the third quarter. Ryan didn't have a ton a of pressure, felt a little backside heat so danced right and throw a pass that got tipped. If he just takes a step up to give himself a throwing lane and delivers that throw with a three quarter motion the receiver on the cross route easily converts a first down and actually has a decent amount of room to run. I know the staff is aware of this (Marrone said as much on his radio show) and is trying to correct it.
RB: It's tough to put on a good showing when the other team is selling out to shut you down. I would have liked to see the staff incorporate Ant more with some swing passes and screen plays. That didn't happen. Any did a decent job in pass protection picking up the blitzer.
Right now he seems to be a bit tentative in this zone blocking scheme. I want to see his find a seem and explode through it. One cut and up so to speak. Still a bit too much dancing in the hole for the staff's liking -- well, what few holes were there. I liked that he was finishing runs today and lowering the shoulder.
An a side note, this team is really missing a Delone Carter type back. 2nd and 7 is a lot better than 2nd and 9 or 10. 3rd and 4 is better than 3rd and 8. I think quite a few people underestimated what his departure meant to this team. He would have made yesterday's game a lot easier. I really want to see Smith or Ameen-Moore step up in this role. We need a powerful runner desperately.
OL: Sucked. Their struggles are really reminiscent of our struggles early last season and are fundamentally making the same mistakes. ID'ing where the pressure is coming from and struggling to pick up any sort of DL stunt. Macky and Chibane were victimized I don't know how many times with any sort of "twist" stunt (i.e the DT over them rushes out, the DE rushes in). Throw a blitz in behind that (which URI did all day) and it's a recipe for disaster.
It's tough to find some sort of silver lining in all this except to say that these are mental errors and fixable. I can't help but wonder if Atkins missing time with illness has set us back a few weeks.
