Is Jake the problem?

I think the coaching staff did a pretty good job all season in figuring ways to get the ball to Smith. Admittedly, it appears they came up short in this game.

With it being a "total team loss offensively", we may never know. Players certainly didn't execute on either side of the ball.

 

What exactly is the 'problem' with:

Super Bowl 2003
1 game from playoffs in 2004
NFCCG in 2005 and Pro Bowl for Jake.

Just curious what the problem is.

 

That's why I also pointed out that Jake wasn't hurried or knocked down that much either. For example, Jake Plummer was hurried and knocked down a hell of a lot more by Pittsburgh. I'll certainly agree that the line was piss poor in terms of run blocking, but you're flat out wrong when you suggest that they were atrocious in pass protection.


magnus:
I'm talking about how many people immediately brought up QB coaching. When we're looking at college QBs who make stupid throws, our first thought isn't to question the coaching, it's to question the player. Jake's mechanics are bad and always have been, whether or not that means he's had bad QB coaching here and in all his years with the Saints. His mechanics are not what cause him to make those stupid throws, however.

 

I think there's a person or two that lurk here who were actually thrilled that we lost Sunday, just so they could express all the negative things that have been on their minds.

Like the whole "well, I told you so about JD" crowd. They must have been creaming in their pants Sunday around 8:30 PM.

 

and did you have the same stance in 2001?

 

Are you comparing 2001 with 2005?

 

I guess the definition of "stupid throws" comes into play. I don't think everyone terms Jake as an "extreme fuckup" on average, and I don't believe his mechanics are always bad. He's shown he's correctable, though he reverts back to the same problems at times.

Still, no one's giving Jake a free pass.

 

This is the mentality I'm starting to have, too.

Seriously -- you've got an entire half of the back seven dedicated to one receiver -- CB1, S, LB. I think at least some of the time, they were running a 4-4 scheme, which leaves (I'm guessing) 4 down linemen, 2 linebackers, and a safety attacking the LOS, with CB2 on an island and the other S playing center field deep. And not one receiver could beat that? Not Proehl, not Colbert, not Mangum, not even Carter (consistently)? That is a serious freaking problem. Piper was there and he said our guys just could not get open. At all.

Even if this is a run-first team, Jake needs at least 2 dependable options to catch the ball. Smitty is obviously #1. The other can be a TE, FB, WR2, whatever. I don't care. But the man needs something else he can throw to on a consistent basis. Someone he has some confidence in. Look at the difference Heath Miller has made for Roethlisberger this year. As soon as they made that pick, I believed it would be a great one. Ben needed a secondary target besides Ward -- a safety blanket. And he got one in Miller. Jake used to have that in Moose. Personally, I think not having that viable second option was a major cause (though not the total cause) for a lot of his INTs this year.

 

Jake is a good quarterback. I'm not a Panther fan but he is definitely in the top 10 of NFL QBs. People just need to relax, he had a bad game. They'll be back next year.

 

I probably lean more on coaching more than players because I think it's the coaches' job, collectively, to make the players better and to fix their mistakes. Plus, to be honest, it's probably more overcorrection than anything else. Too often I see people stopping with the player on a bad play (or a bad season) because that's what they can see, and not taking into consideration the bigger picture. The truth is, none of us have the complete picture of what goes on during an NFL season. We're not there -- not in meetings, not in practice, not in the lockerroom, not on the sidelines. We ain't wearin' headsets.

Who knows? Maybe Henning is drilling footwork into Jake and he's just not getting it. Maybe he isn't. Maybe McCoy is trying desperately to get Jake to make better decisions by going over countless hours of film, diagrams, and testing (meanwhile sporting a lifeless, Cupie doll face on the sidelines to fool the rest of us into thinking he's a vegetable). Maybe Williamson is losing his mind trying to get Colbert to catch ...anything!

I don't know what's happening behind closed doors. But I do know, even from 2,500 miles away, that the responsibility for production lies with the coaches and the players, and if one or both both aren't doing their jobs, we get what we saw last Sunday night. The rest is pure speculation.