The Sacks, What I see....and how to stop them

[Skins26]

First of all those of you critisizing us for all the sacks this past week, save IT! Sometimes its not us, its them, sometimes the other team is just too good. Nobody can stop that front 4, actually we did better than most. All QB's get pounded against them. So forget about that.

Alright now here is the problem with the sacks in other games. Most of them are coming on blitzes, it is pretty rare to see their front 4 get a sack on us. People are whining about our protections being bad, but I dont think thats the case, i dont think anybody can prove that that is the problem. The problem is the communitcation between the WR's and Ramsey. This is common when you have a young QB and young WR's. The blitz is coming and WR's are still going deep, Ramsey doesnt have anywhere to throw it. I'd say Ramsey is getting about 2 seconds to throw when the blitz is coming, but really if you look at it, its like that will all teams. Usually when facing the blitz, as BJ did yesterday, you just hike it and make a quick throw.

Now this is what I dont think we're doing right. Alright, instead of leaving RB's in to pick up blitzers, why arent we just telling them to chip the guy coming and then go our for a quick little route. If an LB is blitzing, there is obviously going to be an RB that can see where he's coming from, chip him a bit and go where he came from, leaving that RB wide open to make 5 yards or so, and if we're lucky it could break a play out. I dont think we are sending the RB's out on enough quick routes. Obviously from the stats we arent, or at least we arent throwing it to them enough. Sometimes Ramsey just needs to hit the RB out of the backfield instead of looking deep, sometimes you'll wind up with a bigger play that way. The times we have done it, its worked very well. Such as in the Pats game when they came on a big blitz and Ramsey just slung it out to Morton leading to like a 35 yard play. Betts has great hands too, i have noticed that. I think instead of trying to pick up the blitzes and go deep we should slip an RB out of the backfield and just toss it to him, chances are if someone is on him its going to be an 1 on 1 in the open field, and i'm pretty confident that all of these RB's can win a 1 on 1 in the open field.

So rather than protections or the O Line being the problem, I think its just a lack of safety valves for Ramsey to throw to. Thats just my opinion but i think if you take a look at the tape you may see the same thing.

And one question I have for someone who knows a lot about O Line and stuff, I really dont know much about protections and how O Line works since ive never been on O Line or D Line. But in our first series, when Rice got that sack and Ramsey fumbled, Samuels went to triple team Sapp, even though he wasnt doing anything cause 2 is enough for Sapp, and left Royal 1 on 1 with Rice. Now is that how is was designed, or did Samuels just mess up???? Or is it possible that Ramsey is calling out the wrong protections???

[bulldog]

the Redskins offense believe it or not is best suited right now to a typical Gibbs style ball control scheme.

Run Betts behind the line and allow Ramsey to use the play action pass to hit the wide receivers downfield once the defense commits to the run.

If Chamberlain has anything to offer at TE that is another weapon that can be employed in a more conservative, high percentage scheme.

By doing this you allow the OL to gain some confidence and give Ramsey a break in having to carry the weight of the offense of his shoulders at age 23 and with 10 plus starts on his resume.

Once the team begins to improve its execution you then allow for more and more input to the passing game to give Ramsey some extra looks and plays to use his talent against the defense.

[NASMTrainer]

I agree, but is Ramsey picking up on this? A few times in the game this weekend we had a back trying to chip the guy but he was getting run over in the process. Ramsey does hole the ball to long. It's a lot for a younge QB to learn, he'll get it though.

[NoCalMike]

I totally agree with the poster here. The Skins have no offensive answer for the blitz it seems, besides the ocassional shotgun draw play. When the other team blitzs there should be some short range relief by the RBs or a TE to get open for some kind of gain, rather then seeing the blitz and hoping they can still hold them off for a 40 yd bomb. I remember The Cowboys in their glory days were MASTERS at picking up the blitz. Jay Novacek was great at catching a dump off pass right over the blitz and having open space to run because of lack of coverage help. Maybe Spurrier should design some plays for Chamberlain to give relief on blitzs.

[bubba9497]

Dockery was supposed to pull and help pick up Rice, not triple team Sapp. Dockery blew the blocking assignment.

[DeathByLinebacker]

Ramsey is definitely part of the equation when it comes to sacks. As much as the announcers ****ed about Betts having to block Rice when he came from the LE position, Ramsey had plenty of time to unload the ball but he just held it until Rice got him. Inexperienced QBs just tend to get sacked a lot.

There are other problems too though. I'd say the ineffectiveness of our backs as blockers is a big one. I don't expect them to be able to stonewall a Simeon Rice, but they at least have to slow him a little. Two guys had a shot at him on one of his sacks and they just let him waltz by.