mistaowen":iker7qjc said:JimmyG":iker7qjc said:This is just completely wrong. This is the lazy "a failed play is the result of a bad call by the OC" nonsense that is trotted out every other post on this board.inda2o6":iker7qjc said:Every play that Russell has to make with help from his receivers in a "scramble drill" shows it's not the players that aren't doing their jobs right, it shows the person in charge designing and calling plays, isn't smart enough to use the pieces he has to work with, & is incapeable of accepting responsibility to fix it, since Bevell doesn't think it's his designs that are bad, he won't adjust as much as he needs to.
Next man up is the mantra the team preaches.
Cris Collinsworth specifically mentioned something about this during the broadcast. He said (paraphrasing), "when I like at the tape, I often see Wilson's first and second reads open but he routinely displays a reluctance to throw it. He's almost overly-conservative and safe with the ball. This sometimes leads to him holding on to the ball too long..."
Let's look at a hypothetical example here:
Wilson drops back to pass. His primary read is open, but he hesitates to throw the ball (under the entire PC tenure we've preached ball safety, i.e. win the turnover battle / limit interceptions). After a few seconds, the protection starts to break down (linemen can only block so long). Wilson starts scrambling around, and starts embarrassing pass rushers with his amazing agility. The "scramble drill" that you mentioned kicks in, and he completes a pass to an open receiver.
Here's how you should look at this: the playcall was fine, Wilson's read was open. The pass blocking was fine, they gave him ample time to hit the first/second read. The scramble drill was unnecessary, but it worked out well anyway; Wilson is obviously comfortable with that style of play, so who cares, it worked out.
Here's how 99% of fans would evaluate that play: wow, what a terrible play call, Wilson had no one to throw to (wrong, his first read was open)! Wow, what terrible pass blocking, the line sucks so bad, they gave him no time to throw (wrong, he did get adequate pass blocking, he just held the ball for an unreasonable amount of time)! Wilson had no choice but to run for his life!
Playcalling is only half the battle. Actually executing the play as it was designed is on the players. Not every scramble drill is the result of a poor play call, often it's the result of Wilson being hesitant and resorting to something that he shouldn't have.
Obviously our line sucks, but there are many plays where we actually do provide adequate blocking and Wilson still holds it too long or takes off and runs outside the pocket. Sometimes Wilson shares the blame, it's not always on the OL/OC.
Wilson is very unique because he can turn a broken play into a positive gain -- not many QBs can do that. However, a broken play does not always mean a bad playcall, sometimes he just fails to execute as a conventional QB.
So much deflection good lord
got to protect the OC that says broken plays are past of the game plan lol