Grantland: What Really Went Wrong with Robert Griffin III

[RandyHolt]

Agreed. The inability to adapt, has been the most frustrating part of the offense all season. To see RG3 not be allowed to run any spread formations, then have Kirk come in and get spread formation packages are a slap to the face of logic. It's a disturbing issue to say the least.

 

Hail

It, like so much I have seen, is bassackwards.

 

Cousins the more traditional pro set QB, gets spread. And of course he does well, it's all the rage across football and top offensive teams in the pros and college.  If they want to see him in 4 wide that's fine. But I want to see him dominate in the 2WR set so I can compare him to RG3.

 

But is 3-4WR physically spread wide, a part of our offense, or, is it mostly for Cousins. We hear Mike and Kyle say its the same offense. That's a laugh. Of course its the same offense but the play calling is very different. Someone lurking reporter, please ask them why RG3 does not get much spread love, yet him used in spread is what made us like him in the first place.

 

It's just seems like they are making things more difficult on RG3 than they need to be. And if they consider it developing his game, I don't see it. I see more likely regression.

 

Maybe they are trying to pump up Cousins value. Who knows with crew Shanahan. I do know this, if Cousins dominates these last 2 games, operation QB controversy will be a smashing success.

[darrelgreenie]

That's why I'm very convinced that the Shanahans intentionally mailed the season in because of spite.

 

I mean, 2 notebooks and an IPad?

Going from a revolutionary offense adapted for the pros to the same offense except stripped of everything that made it good?

Running 2 WRs out every play despite knowing RGIII plays better in spread sets?

 

Can we really rule out Shanahan going into the season wanting to be fired, while being able to blame it on "RGDiva" and "Meddling Shanny"?

All things being equal I go with the pure football explanation, its the only thing I can know.

Do I think the Shanahan's are devious? Yes. Do I think having a playcaller at odds with the person he calls plays for is a bad situation? Yes.

I can see certain things on the field: lack of success of the 50 series play-action, success of the spread formations, success of turbo/uptempo, success (relative) of Fred Davis, success of the Alfred Morris, a frustrated QB, disjointed/inconsistent playcalling featured by all or none gameplans i.e. a lot of WR screens or none, a lot of toss/pitch or none, double/triple TE sets inside power runs (CHargers)even by the FB or none, some or none rollouts/sprints outs.

I chalk those things up to a young OC searching, grasping for answers. I chalk those up to being mistakes.

Can I rule out malicious intent? No.

If it weren't for leaks and disinformation I would have ruled out agenda based playcalling and thought the offensive unit deserved to comeback and try again. But now after the blameshift  bringing them back would be untenable.

[Tyron Biggums]

 

Maybe they are trying to pump up Cousins value. Who knows with crew Shanahan. 

It's the only logical reason, unless they are trying to crush the franchise. I don't trust the Shannys, but I can see a couple ways that they could play this into the franchise's advantage. So for now we will have to wait and see how it plays out.

[garyclarkforhall]

I like this article as well because it takes the emotion out of the argument (who loves Robert, who doesn't, blah blah blah).

 

So, the Shanahans built an offense last year that earned the most yards per play in the NFL last year.  Check.

 

Robert gets hurt and all off-season is spent healing.  While you're getting reps throwing the ball as mentioned above, you aren't doing it under pressure... heck, as I recall, he didn't start camp doing 7 on 7 (wasn't cleared or for his safety), didn't do full team drills until two or three weeks before the season started (for his safety), and there were regular camp-goers who talked about his mechanics (Jaworski was a major one).

 

When the season starts, everyone KNOWS he's not capable of running last year's offense and we try to limit plays to what he physically can do.  It doesn't go very well.  All the warts of the offense (the line, depth at receiver) start showing up. 

 

Defenses become very comfortable sitting on our running game and allowing Robert to run because it was going for four yards not forty this year.  Defenses began heavy blitzing on Robert because he wasn't the same threat (last year, we killed blitzes).

 

In retrospect, this is very easy to see and understand... we were just blind to what an impact his injury would have.  The real question is what kind of Robert returns next year.

[aussieskin]

The Football Gods gave us RG3, he was impressive and played very well, then he got injured and instead of being put on IR or at least the PUP list he was played and then he got really injured.  He should never have played against Seattle, and if he hadnt the whole situation would be different.   Then he had the surgery and went into rehab, instead of solidifying his start to his professional career he was in the gym.   Then he played in round 1 this year, instead of being on the sideline watching and doing his preseason then.   Had he not played in the first three games, he wouldnt be on the sidelines now.   Players like RG3, shouldn't play wearing supportive structures, it slows him down.   Now RG3 can now start his preseason for next year, which will be the best possible situation, we get money back on the cap and RG3 will be fine fit healthy and roaring to go.   

[Bubble Screen]

That's right. It could be either. Or it could be a combination of both. We see the sausage on Sunday, we don't see the making of the sausage throughout the week.

Whoa, whoa. Enough with the sausage talk.