Offensive talent

That's going to happen with the fronts we see in the NFL. And Deagelo does have some Barry Sanders in him.

Moose wasn't fine before the injury. He's older, he's slower, he's less explosive. And Jarrett had several attempts to make plays, and didn't. Whether its lack of speed, body control, recognizing the ball early enough, it just isn't happening. Everytime Kirwan is asked whats wrong with our passing game, this is the first thing he points to, and then to Jake.

Jake's a problem, but not the only one.

 

We have, IMO, a very nice group of receiving TE's. We also have some RB's who are capable of catching the ball.

IMO - and I don't have alot to back this up - if we had an accurate qb, our passing game would be wide open. An accurate qb's ability to hit this large group of receivers would make it difficult for the defense to key in on one playmaker ( smitty ). It would also further open the running game.

Really - I think 90% of our offensive problems are caused by inaccuracy at QB. If jake could connect on some of those balls, it would open up other plays.

As for receivers not doing their jobs, I can think of a couple of plays where a WR could've fought harder for the ball, I can think of loads of balls that flew over their heads. QB accuracy is the main cultprit.

 

I don't specifically think Moose is a big problem, but certainly Jake isn't all.

Has he been that way in a few games? Sure. This past game wasn't one of them, and he was efficient on third down. That's where we could've made some headway before this year v/s Jake - third down. This week he did well. The last few weeks the deep ball has been there, the short game has been there, we've been too conservative until it's too late.

We could be more efficient at QB. The high balls are shitty. So are the drops (DW), the missed routes, the pass blocking.

 

I don't think the problem at WR is "not fighting" for the ball. We lack speed.

BTW, I agree that Jake continues to be terribly inaccurate, and that's a big problem. His numbers weren't half bad this past week, but we didn't throw it downfield as much. I'm not arguing that point. He has cost us wins this season.

But the problem with not having an adequate secondary wide reciever predates Jake's current struggles. We are fooling ourselves if we think this group of recievers is adequate.

 

It doesn't matter who the WR are if the QB can't get them the ball.

 

It doesn't matter who the QB is if the WR's can't get open... no QB hits an open guy every time, but the few times the WR's are able to get open reduces the %

Jake's never been great, he's always made mistakes... but he's been able to rebound in the game before with guys who could get open and make plays too

 

I'm sure there's other problems, but the main one is Delhomme. He has not been the same since Arizona.

We have the same group of receivers as last year - Smitty caught 78 balls in 14 games. Moose caught 65. I don't think Moose and Smitty have been the primary cause of the decline - it's been the passer. Our passer's game has declined sharply.

It's not really that complicated. Delhomme's not the only problem - but he's the main problem.

 

I think the desire to have strong blockers at WR makes it likely we give up some speed, it's somewhat of a tradeoff. But Moose, never speedy, has lost a step he couldn't afford to lose.

Jarrett, I don't know, he's not a burner but he usually catches the ball good and holds onto it afterwards. I'm willing to hold off on declaring him worthless, but more of the same will change my mind.

I've said it before, in Fox's regime, we have sucked at finding WR talent. Colbert, Carter, Jarrett, Robinson, signing Key, there are probably more examples I'm not including.

What's on the plus side there, Proehl? Anyone else I'm not thinking of?

Our staff just plain doesn't trust Jake to make plays, not that I blame them, but that's a hole they dug for themselves.

 

all this is fine and obvious. And something for next year. For this year, it doesn't matter. This is what we have.

We didn't lose last week because of Jake. All this sudden "let's start some threads to complain about our quarterback" makes sense in games he turns the ball over.

 

Disagree. We had a conservative game plan b/c he sucks. Since when is 17/30 and no points good enough to beat a very good team?

I'll tell you when. Since that's as good as he gets. And that isn't good enough.

It's funny that everyone this week is talking about opening it up. WTF? Why would we trust him to open it up? What has he shown in the past year ( or more ) to really justify 'opening it up'?

The point of this thread wasn't so much to bash Delhomme as to praise the rest of the offense. I really don't think we're lacking more than one CRITICAL piece, and that's better than it could be. I think the group of receivers are fine - particularly with such a strong running game and strength at TE. I consider TE a strength.