I can let others pick apart the Browns road opener, but before I put RG3 on the shelf, I have this to add. His overthrows on deep passes were toubling, but his throwing behind fast crossing receivers wasn't as bad.
People talk about short and intermediate "accuracy", but it's not that simple. These patterns are slants and crosses. RG3 (normally) excels at "bucket" throws to deep receivers running away from him. It's a straight line throw over the guy's head, and the accuracy is all in the ball's speed and trajectory.
Crosses and slants are obviously different. RG3 is accurate, but was aiming wrong. These are timing throws, and he was misjudging the speed of Hawkins, Coleman, and Pryor. His passes were consistently behind them. He thought they were slower tham they are, and this is easily fixed.
It's not that uncommon, either. First, he hasn't worked much with Coleman, Pryor may not have been practicing this type of route that often yet, and Hawkins was a vet who got less work than the rookies they were testing and developing.
Real games are different, as well. Players are faster in real games. Practice can't get their adrenaline flowing like a real game. Fixing this is a matter of repetition.
Having said that, I must agree with Terry Pluto about the disposotion of RG3. I still believe Hue Jackson knows his stuff, and that RG could be great again. Pat Kirwan, however, said he stood behind Griffin at training camp, seeing what he saw. Pat insists that he had a vision problem.
That is, that he simply couldn't see around or over the clutter in front of him. Pat suggests that RG3 doesn't yet know how to slide around like other shorter quarterbacks do to find sightlines downfield. This would also explain the overthrows in the last game: If he can't see the receiver, he sort of throws it away.
Just a mention of that. But he's also fragile. I'm not bashing him here. But he has what Kirwan calls a "track body". He is a thoroughbred racehorse...in a pit full of Clydesdales (sp?). He's a smaller Sam Bradford, except no longer as selfish or greedy.
I now think Hue did another Carson Palmer move here (though not nearly as bad, since RG3 only cost money, and not much of that.)
I can't claim to have seen this coming all along, but in retrospect think I should have, and so should Hue.
Pluto thinks the Browns need to keep looking for their franchise guy, and maybe make RG3 a backup.
Sashi and Paul aren't brain dead, which is partly why they held onto Gramps McCown. McCown will step right in, and indeed play better than RG3 was playing. Only, he might well get busted up, too.
But even with Cody Kessler under construction, they signed Kevin Hogan (a second-tier prospect with similar stats and higher general scores from scouts). Hogan is much bigger than Kessler.
Some say he has a popgun arm, but others vehemently disagree, and some even say he has a rifle. I don't know, but Hogan is here for a reason, and that reason probably just happened.
Of course they won't trade for another geezer quarterback! While the plan isn't really to tank the season, they know this is a training season anyway. Hue Jackson insists he's going to win now. Yeah, Hue. Keep it general, because you probably won't really lose all 16 games.
I can already tell you what the front office is telling Hue: "We have Kessler and Hogan now. If one or both can make some strides later this season, he will have trade value or backup value, and we have RG3 under contract for another season too.
"You're not going to pass the Bengals or Steeler--Hue? No you're not. Hue? Hue? Good! Now we're past denial: Not in 2016. Most of the team is young. They get it and won't quit. They won't want out, as long as we find our quarterback by next season. We may trade Joe Thomas and complete the fire sale.
"A first and a fourth, at least. Yes, we know it would. Yes that's what we're saying. Hue? Hue? You've got a free season here. You don't even have to win four games. I know, but it's just one season, and you can pick the quarterback then. You want a dynasty, right? Accept this challenge."
Now, a few corrections: When a quarterback flees a stale pocket and is injured trying to get out of bounds. When your quarterback averages about 3.2 seconds to throw and your backs average 5 ypc your offensive line doesn't suck.
Carson Wentz did look terrific, especially given his circumstances. It doesn't mean he's great yet. Even if he is, he might not have done as well on this team.
I personally wanted either Wentz or Goff, but when they made those trades instead, I didn't knock it. They got some really good players out of it. It's not even over yet, because they've got more picks on their way.
Yes, it's a quarterback-driven league, but if you pay any attention, there are a bunch of other players in the Pro Bowl too. Aaron Rodgers didn't suck last season. Players around him got injured.
In the fullness of time, we can compare Wentz to the legion of players the Browns will have stockpiled instead, and see how Sashi and company did. But not now. Not even the real experts know that yet.
My updated win/loss prediction is 15-1. I will as usual keep doing research and collecting more data, and update this after 4:00 pm sunday.
No comments:
Post a Comment