ES Coverage & Interactive Game Day Thread: 2014 Redskins vs Ravens (Audio)

[pjfootballer]

Well that settles that. I mean if Herm Edwards says so, then it must be correct.

Hello! You play the game to look terrible!

[pjfootballer]

The time to make mistakes is in the pre-season.  

 

If Griffin comes out and plays well early in the season, the thumping that he took in the Ravens game, coupled with what the coaches were able to coach off of that, might be the reason why.

 

There are times you have to stink in practice before you can good.

And on the flip side, Cousins looked good against the Browns.  Had a couple of times where he got away with some mistakes and near interceptions, but a solid game.

 

Against the Ravens, he got away with 2 near INTs and even though his stats say he had a good game, it took him 14 completions to rack up 122 yards.  He missed a wide open Grant and got away with another throw to Grant on the 3rd and 7 where it looked like Grant had to fight through the DB to make the catch. 

 

Cousins had Moss bail him out on a 3rd and 19, meanwhile, Griffin found Reed for a long gain that was wiped out on a Trent holding.  And Trent should have never been called for holding.  The Ravens player (Suggs?) was clearly offsides.  He jumped the snap.

 

So I mean, if some people would take a deep breath and go back and watch the games again, you'd be suprised at how you can judge a performance a lot better when emotions aren't running high.

[RandyHolt]

 

 

 

 

Just some random observations about this still, Robert stepping up to go deep would likely get stepped on or hit by Chester or Kory. He needs to protect his knee in preseason, as a priority.

 

He may not have been able to read the entire defense what with the center on out to the right, collapsing into his face, once again.

 

This seems a fine example to point out something that I would like to see Robert do more, is take a step back and to the left into that throwing lane. And to the side of the field with only one defender, yet 2 good guys - Trent and Lauvao.

 

Admittedly, he may not be coached up to do it - we don't know, but if that right side collapsing is going to be a recurring theme this year once again, coupled with the directive for Robert to learn in the pocket more this year feet to the fire, he needs to start drifting to the open spot / passing lanes a bit sooner, "feel" the pressure perhaps.

[Voice_of_Reason]

Just some random observations about this still, Robert stepping up to go deep would likely get stepped on or hit by Chester or Kory. He needs to protect his knee in preseason, as a priority.

 

He may not have been able to read the entire defense what with the center on out to the right, collapsing into his face, once again.

 

This seems a fine example to point out something that I would like to see Robert do more, is take a step back and to the left into that throwing lane. And to the side of the field with only one defender, yet Trent and Lauvao.

 

Admittedly, he may not be coached up to do it - we don't know, but if that right side collapsing is going to be a recurring theme this year once again, coupled with the directive for Robert to learn in the pocket more this year feet to the fire, he needs to start drifting to the open spot / passing lanes a bit sooner, "feel" the pressure perhaps.

 

A few additional thoughts:

 

1. It looks like there was some mix-up on the OL, or somebody got beat bad, because 2 players, the LG and the RT, are blocknig NOBODY. (I can't see numbers, but I'm going to assume it's Luavo and Polumbus.  Luavo is looking back at Trent, to see if he needs help.  Doesn't look like it, and there isn't another player of either team within 2 yards of him.  Polumbus looks like he's actually trying to be an official making a pass-interference call.  He's in front of (ie: further down field from the LOS) than any of the Raven's DL. 

 

Which means Chester and Kory are trying to block 3 guys.  Kory actually seems to have moved forward (good), but Chester is getting pushed backwards. (Less good)

 

But I'm pretty sure that having 2 of your 5 OL watching the play is not how they drew it up.  

 

2. Reed is open, but I think we've been told Robert moved off of him after he got bumped at the LOS.  He's looking to check-down and get out with something positive.  There are 2 issues: a) the check down is exactly where the pressure is coming from, and by the time he winds to throw, Chester is going to be in his lap, making it difficult to figure out where to throw the ball.

 

I think in this case, the right play is actually to bail out to the left, look down field and see Reed and hit him.  Or another option is just to tuck and run behind Luavo, who's sitting there contemplating his navel.  

 

The hardest thing to do is what he did.  And for all I know, he was told to practice getting the ball to Morris and NOT bail the pocket.  But if he was throwing to Morris, he needed to float the ball about 10 yards to the right and let Morris go get it.  He couldn't throw it to where he was, because, well, that's what he did and you saw the results.  

[Thinking Skins]

I think in this case, the right play is actually to bail out to the left, look down field and see Reed and hit him.  Or another option is just to tuck and run behind Luavo, who's sitting there contemplating his navel.  

 

The hardest thing to do is what he did.  And for all I know, he was told to practice getting the ball to Morris and NOT bail the pocket.  But if he was throwing to Morris, he needed to float the ball about 10 yards to the right and let Morris go get it.  He couldn't throw it to where he was, because, well, that's what he did and you saw the results.

This is what makes me think that he was told something to concentrate on going through his reads and getting the ball out quickly. Even what Gruden has said this week has been things like trusting the line and trusting the WRs. So while I agree with your (and that of others) assesment, I do wonder what he was told and thus what his intent was on this play.

And I figure that now's as good a time as any to say that what I'm looking from Robert this year isn't him becoming Steve Young all of a sudden. I kinda expect him to have his problems with pocket passing, but I don't think he or Gruden wants him to be a straight drop-back passer. I just think we're going to see more of that element in his game. For example, I think if he just stays an extra second in the pocket before taking off and running, he can probably have about 500 more yards and about 5 more TDs.

Stuff like learning to slide, throwing the ball away, not running out of bounds for negative yards, etc. are all minor things to me. I just want him to begin to get more comfortable in the pocket. That, plus focusing on mechanics should help us a lot.

And I'm not expecting this stuff to happen next Sunday. I think it will take time just like when you first learned times tables sometimes you'd rush things and say that 3*4 is 13 or you'd take too long when somebody asked you "what's 15*5". All this stuff comes with practice and I don't expect him to become an expert at this stuff immediately. I hope our fans understand that this is a process and try to watch the gradual improvement from what we saw in 2012 to hopefully something much better than what we saw in 2013.

[Voice_of_Reason]

This is what makes me think that he was told something to concentrate on going through his reads and getting the ball out quickly. Even what Gruden has said this week has been things like trusting the line and trusting the WRs. So while I agree with your (and that of others) assesment, I do wonder what he was told and thus what his intent was on this play.

And I figure that now's as good a time as any to say that what I'm looking from Robert this year isn't him becoming Steve Young all of a sudden. I kinda expect him to have his problems with pocket passing, but I don't think he or Gruden wants him to be a straight drop-back passer. I just think we're going to see more of that element in his game. For example, I think if he just stays an extra second in the pocket before taking off and running, he can probably have about 500 more yards and about 5 more TDs.

Stuff like learning to slide, throwing the ball away, not running out of bounds for negative yards, etc. are all minor things to me. I just want him to begin to get more comfortable in the pocket. That, plus focusing on mechanics should help us a lot.

And I'm not expecting this stuff to happen next Sunday. I think it will take time just like when you first learned times tables sometimes you'd rush things and say that 3*4 is 13 or you'd take too long when somebody asked you "what's 15*5". All this stuff comes with practice and I don't expect him to become an expert at this stuff immediately. I hope our fans understand that this is a process and try to watch the gradual improvement from what we saw in 2012 to hopefully something much better than what we saw in 2013.

Yeah, we'll never know what he was told.

 

But one thing I am pretty certain of: when Gruden and company watch the film, they are grading the entire team, not just the QB.  Griffin might/might not have done what he was supposed to on that play (well, obviously he wasn't supposed to throw an INT, but I mean stay in the pocket, go through the reads, etc), but they probably was some discussion about the OL as well.  Because if Polumbus maybe helped a little bit, Griffin has a split second more, and not fudge-up the check-down.

 

As to your broader point, I couldn't agree more.  I think Griffin CAN become Young, been saying it for weeks.  But Young took like 7 years to become Young.  He had to get cut from a team, sit on the bench for 4 years, (with one of the best coach/QB combinations in the history of the NFL), and then he finally got his opportunity, and played at a HOF level.

 

I expect steps from Griffin.  I expect him to be able to improve, one step at a time.  Maybe not baby steps, but not giant steps either.  And luckily for him and the team, he's got enough around him, and he's got his legs to help him as he develops.

[Thinking Skins]

As an example of what I'm talking about, I look no further than 2013 when Griffin threw a lot of short passes to get into a rhythm (after we were already down a whole lot). People talk about Garcon's great year where he led the league in catches but had only 1300 yards. That means his ypr was pretty low (11.9). Counter that with his ypr of 14.4 and 13.5 in the previous two years. DeSean Jackson has averaged 16.2, 15.6, 16.6, 22.5, 18.6, and 14.7 yards per reception in his six years in the league. So part of the game plan may be just giving Griffin another short outlet on checkdowns and letting the WRs (and RBs) do what they can with the ball. That mey frustrate fans (and they may have memories of Campbell/Brunell/Beck), but it may be a part of a larger process and I hope we're able to see it through.

[darrelgreenie]

Damn I missed where this play was discussed....

 

My 2 cents on the tipped interception to Morris.

 

I think the timing on this play is all messed up.

I think Griffin primary is Garcon split wide left on a hitch route.

Garcon is open and Griffin never looks that way.

Imho this is mistake 1 (-)

For whatever reason he begins his progession looking at Reed.

But the ILB is playing zone and like any good zone veteran ILB moves to cover Reed because Griffin is looking at him

Griffin sees Smith's movement and comes off Reed IMHO comes off Reed too soon

 

Griffin's eyes then go to Morris and like any good zone defender (**the sequence here is important and hard to know but it ultimately determines how this play is viewed; to my eye it seems D.Smith is reacting to Griffin eyes as opposed to Griffin reacting to D.Smith**)Smith follows Griffin's eyes to Morris.

 

Of course at this point Reed is open because ILB Smith has dropped coverage on Reed to cover Morris. But Griffin has already come off Reed and moved to Morris

IF Griffin was keying "reading" Smith then he should throw back to Reed

 

The result is Griffin tries to beat a zone defender who can see him and the receiver with the throw.

This imho cannot be stated strongly enough...beating a zone defender with a throw is gonna be high risk when that defender can see both the receiver and the QB eyes. (see Joe Haden Browns game)

 

For me this play is a negative -1.

Again I don't know where he was told to begin his progression but I believe Griffin was supposed to begin  with Garcon.

If Garcon on the hitch is covered (he was open on this play) but if Garcon was covered then Griffin moves to Reed then to Morris.

But can you honestly say you are encouraged by the tape you saw in the Ravens game?.......We get excited about the defense and why we think they'll be good and it's only preseason, but with Griffin all of a sudden "it's only preseason". Why?

Griffin had more negative plays then we would want to see. I've given my opinion on the interception play above. As I've said before my biggest gripe is Jay's approach to preseason. Its clear he's taking more of an evaluation view then a getting players in rhythm view. But, I felt the same way Griffin's rookie year, I thought he didn't get enough reps then boom the Saints game happened.

I trust that if Jay thought Griffin was behind he would get him more preseason reps and gameplan those reps more.

I don't think the defense will be better because of pre-season I think they'll be better because they added more talent.