Thinking Skins

Here's the video of the 6 sacks on Howell'' I'm looking at the boxscore and I don't see how we can say its 6 sacks. I don't really count the sack by Fotu since it was for -1 yards. Same with the sack by Ledbetter since it was no gain. I get "technically" but nah I need to see the ones by Watkins and Dimukeje I'm only saying "nah" because I'm questioning whether he was trying to run on those plays and got stopped and it counts as a sack or was he still looking to pass? that's awfully close to the line to be passing.

Some more next day analysis: Howell: Short Right: 3 / 4, 20 yards (Dotson, Thomas, Samuel) Short Middle: 4 / 6, 50 yards (Dotson x2, Thomasx2) Short left: 6/10, 36 yards (Samuel x2, Robinson, McLaurin, Dotson, Gibson) Deep Middle 1/2 19 yards (McLaurin) Deep Right 1/1 17 yards (Turner) Robinson Right End: 1 for -1 Right Tackle 3 for 12 Right Guard 1 for 5 Up the Middle 2 for 6 Left Guard 6 for 25 Left Tackle 3 for 9 Left End 3 for 3 Rodriguez Left Guard 1 for 2 Up the middle 2 for 5 Gibson Right Tackle 1 for 3 Right Guard 1 for 3 Up the Middl 1 for 3 Curtis Samuel Left Tackle 1 for 3

how long have you been watching football

I'm not going to lie. It wouldn't surprise me if its something like the RG3 thing where he had an actual concussion and it was hidden.

I'll just put a few things in here: I like the adjustments: - I posted in the QB thread and on twitter about the chess match. I think that that the EB / Eagles DC going at one another has been underplayed. We had a second year QB who was in his second start. The media thought we would depend heavily on the run, so Eagles DC played run early, EB opened the offense up and the first half we had some drives that were just walking up and down the field. Unfortunatley they were not getting points. The one drive that did get points, the yards gained were gained by penalty (but one penalty by OPI through EB opening he offense). - - The first drive stalled because of Logan Thomas. (RPRPPPPP) - - The second drive was a TD. (PPRPRPRP) - - The third drive was the INT. (PPPP) - - The fourth drive stalled because of Gibson fumble. (RRPRPPPR) - - The fifth drive stalled because of a sack on third down (PPPP) - - The sixth drive stalled because of the sack fumble (PPPP) - - The seventh drive was the FG before the half (PPPPPP) - - The eigth drive stalled because of another third down sack (PRPRRPPP) - - The ninth drive stalled of a completion to Logan Thomas was short of the sticks (PPPP) - - The tenth drive was a TD run by Howell (RRRPRR) - - The eleventh drive was a 3 and out on a bad call (RRP) - - The twelth drive was a 3 and out to seal the game (RRR) - - The thirteenth drive was 4 and out to seal the game (RRRR) - I included those drive summaries because (to my knowledge nobody had done so already), and to show how the gameplan changed from EB trying to be "cute" with Howell to him being grind it out. There were three early drives where the plays were all passes (4 passes), showing that we got one first down but couldn't do more than that because their DL was teeing off on that. I can't say when this was really starting because Drive 2 they were going after Howell, but there was still balance in the playcalling. One thing I think about with EB, is the same thing I think about with Andy Reid, Reid coached OL in the West coast offense under the 49ers. EB coached Running backs. I have a feeling that their first love is not these high scoring 49 - 43 games. I think they want a Doc Walker 15 - 13 game. That's not today's rulebook type thing, though but yesterday's game with the rain and the young QB and everything else was making it out for EB to just lean on his running game and he did. And BRob didn;t let him down. Gibson did, but BRob didn't.

From what I heard on Twitter, Arizona was in a cover 3 shell that made it hard to go deep.

So I posted this befe the game and boy was I spot on. 1. will he stay healthy? Yes, but only by his own grit and determination. Those dudes were trying to take his head off with dirty plays. That nasty out of bounds shot had me thinking of the RG3 shot in 2014 against jacksonville? or was it Houston? When he came back and then was gone again. 2. Will He let the game come to him? This one is harder to judge, and its more on EB than him. but I'm saying that early in the game things were going smooth. But after that second quarter, and even with that successful 2 minute drill, we seemed rattled in the third quarter, So much so that it was like they knew our offense. 3. How balanced will our offense be? So its hard to grade an offense that expects production but depends 80% on a second year QB on his second NFL start. That's why I was hoping for more of a running game. I think Arizona was teeing off on BRob too, so instead of settling for 1 and 2 yard runs, EB said lets go for the passing plays. And it opened the offense up early. That's fine, but he never went back to the run until Howell had been sacked 6 times. That wasn't a balanced offense. 4. How many drops will the offence have? Outside of Logan Thomas, I don't remember any drops. Howell started off with a great completion percentage. It staggered to 61% though 5. How many times will the pocket be designed to move and where vs him being a running QB? I didn't see this much 6. How aggressive will AZs HC be with blitzes since Howell struggled on preseason? I saw this a lot.

It's wild but that's what I wanted Chris Russell to do in his segment. I didn't call in and nobody said it but I'm glad they did it . It just makes too much sense and it's DC and it's good music

What did they play?

They call that vision

My Howell questions for week 1 and pretty much this season Will he stay healthy? Will he let the game come to him? How balanced will the offence be? How many drops will the offence have? How many times will the pocket be designed to move and where vs him being a running QB? How aggressive will AZs HC be with blitzes since Howell struggled on preseason?

I enjoyed this. I also listened to the QB School video. First QB school There were some good takeaways. - needs to focus on getting the ball quicker to the receiver even when he's not blitzed. - free runner and hot route, weren't a funky take? Was he looking for perfection? - the offence does a nice job of moving the launch point to alleviate pass protection and provide multiple options And Kurt said He's good getting through reads, feet and eyes came together Throwing away from defender he's getting chunk throws and he missed a deep shot on a double safety look recognized man and got the ball to the back

touche

The food info I've got on Charles is that he had a first round grade coming into the draft out of LSU. If he can hold up that will be nice of him and Cosmi anchoring those spots for a while.

This is mainly true but the things we couldn't determine from the tape and scores was stuff like work ethic and leadership. We're seeing Howell have that in droves right now, same for Pickett and maybe Willis compared to his rookie year. That's the thing that got Zach Wilson in trouble and Ryan Leaf and a bunch of other QBs RG3 for example. Hard to tell who's mature and who's not because we don't know how to define it until we really need it. Howell didn't need maturity last year that much because he was in the shadows but this year he's taking the forefront and we see it. Other QBs have time to develop and grow into the maturity.

He wasn't. But scouts are scouts and they will nitpick anything. Just to say they were right. Now Howell is younger had more years with good numbers, and now had a chip on his shoulders. I love using starts as a qualifier so I like Pickett but he wasn't my first.

I thought your guy was Corrall? So when EB wins a ring, will everyone say "this is really Ron's team" like they did with Tampa and Gruden?

The longer this goes on, the more I think I want Ron gone. I love what he's done but I think the game has passed him by. He reminds me of Denny Green in his last days RIP when he was saying some wild things or Herm Edwards. I love that he's keeping the show on him and not the players but why must there be a show? Why can't we just play ball and talk ball? I love that he can relate and give speeches and do the Doc Walker stuff but if he's not Xing and Oing, what's he doing? He's not Gibbsing. He's more like Zorning. Or Spurriering in front of the media. I love that the team plays hard but if we hire EB (big if) I think we'd play just as hard. Same for JDR. But what I want more than anything if EB to get a 5 year contract after Sam wins MVP that keeps him the OC here. I don't care about the HC position as much right now.

I feel like if I ever met Craig, it would be just to listen to him because the moment I spoke he would just talk over me or tell me I'm wrong. Same for most of the other hosts, but when it comes to some of the things I'm passionate about like analytics it's like, this is something I can actually lecture them on. Literally. Ron and Craig are both non data scientists talking about it like they know the ins and outs of it. Actually Ron isn't. He's speaking like a non expert. Craig is trying to school him like a snobby radio host for having a printout. That makes me not want to have a conversation with him.

That's exactly my point though. Analytics is such an uncertain word and he's on a high and mighty train saying Ron is using it wrong. I've been in other threads about why I don't place analytics above scouts. They don't know the game, they just know numbers. They don't know if Chase is limping or tweaked his hamstring or beat that LT last play but it was called back. Galdi talks analytics with Sharpe and a bunch of these guys and he doesn't come across as nearly as stuck up as Hoffman. There's a place for both and Ron can even print them out. Yes we still do that. Some places do that. Some places even make you do that. It's funny that that was what threw him off, a print out of an analytic. There's the analytic, the idea for the analytic, the code for it, the name of it, the output of it, the visualization of it, and so so much more. Trust me. I deal with so many layers of this stuff. I write books on this stuff. But what the users /the analysts see are nothing compared to what the experts (the data scientists) see. We're going back and forth with people like Ron trying to come up with something that can make a fool like QBR understandable to a layperson and expected value and stuff like that. Stuff that data scientists are defining daily based on the data sets trying to improve the team

I think it depends on what you're looking for. Each guy had their moments and I was riding the Hoffman train this summer but he's hard to listen to for a long time because he's so full of himself especially without his producer. Compare that to Russell who is also full of himself but he's also a buffoon so it's laughable he was behind Hasett for God's sake. Russell looks good interesting angles on news articles which I think is cool. Hoffman looks to prove he's right. This market is really lacking in the sports radio personality area. The podcast has more but they are not daily, some are weekly, some are less frequently. And some are just not funny. I used to like Kevin and Rock but I don't know what happened to them. Lionel is the guy who is the big substitute teacher who is getting the big attention dollars right now so he's probably due for a promotion soon. We'll see what he does with it. Hopefully winning brings more people to want to talk sports again because sports radio is dead, like Nas said about Hip Hop.

I'm reaching my limits on him. He knows a lot but he lacks on charm in so many ways. It's like what the junkies, and the other hosts have in barrels, he's just lacking. And he just doesn't realize he's lacking in it. He thinks it's funny or charming. I started listening to sports radio for the callers not the hosts. I came on here for the posters. So I care about how the hosts treat the callers. Sand he treats them badly, rarely taking callers. Now that Scott Jackson has a show again and there's a Bram show and a Andy Polly show (no callers either in those shows though) but they aren't as pompous so I'm quicker to stop listening to a Hoffman podcast when he gets all high and mighty.

So I'm about to read this study by the Harvard Medical Review (https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/does-exercise-help-protect-against-severe-covid-19-202106092475), asking the question if exercise prevents COVID. And I'm like what am I missing here. People space out to exercise. Spacing out prevents COVID. Exercise prevents COVID. Hell, break a sweat or not I don't care. I'm thinking about the concept of a crowded gym now and that may change my perspective. Hmm. Maybe I should leave the original question alone and say outdoor exercise prevents COVID.

Do you know how dificult it is to know what somebody is capable of when they're put undere pressure. Forget the NFL think about driving. We can talk about all the written tests and the empty parking lots and the stuff like that and even stuff like when the teen is driving with a parent in the car but you're going to be asking questions like that. Its especially hard if you've got say three kids and only one car and the older kids (Wentz and Heinicke) have been using that car for the most part all year so the younger kid (Howell) hasn't really had a chance to show he can drive. That's what we're talking about here. The only thing that happened is hindsight. In hindsight, it was like, oh ****, dude can drive much better than I realized. Its the same thing about Forrest. Maybe if he played earlier he would have had more of an impact. Maybe if Curl played more as a rookie he would have had more of an impact, but that's not Ron's style. He protects his rookies. They don't play much. They sit and learn the NFL style and get an NFL body so that they can play more their second year. So it shouldn't come as any surprise for Howell. The fact that he is looking so good in comparison to Corral, Willis (maybe), and Zappe. Its looking like he, Purdy and Pickett are the lone starters of the 2022 draft right now.

This is exactly my point about the run run pass vs pass pass run analytics and Chris Russell (run the ball) vs Al Galdi (pass the ball) arguments of the media. Its more about what you've got, how you match up and other things. Yeah it would be great if we could be bullies and just have a bunch of linemen that could throw defenses around so we could get 5 yards a pop on every run, or if we could have a Calvin Johnson or Randy Moss who could catch everything thrown his way so we didn't have to do much game planning. Even better if we had multiple things to plan around like the linemen and the running back and the wr and QB, but thats a dream. What we've got to work with is stuff like we know we've got a top 5 WR trio and that gives us an edge over probably any set of corners, but how many number 1 corners can Terry beat? How many number 1 corners can a Terry with a hurt toe beat? Doctson is probably a number 1 on most teams so he can probably beat most number 2 corners. And Samuel is probably good right now but I haven't seen enough of him this preseason to call him "healthy". So then we can try to come out passing but to what cause? To our 2nd 4th and 5th Wr? Our TEs? Our line that we're not sure that can pass block yet? We know that our QB is succeptable to a certain type of blitz off the edge that has gotten him twice already. I'm a fan of the pass first game, but I don't think it is as simple as "the analytics say do it so ..."