2 carries for 5 yards

That's what Russ had on the ground yesterday. Russ has never been an elite passer, very good yes but not elite. What has made him and elite qb though is those 2 or 3 plays where he extends a drive with his legs. By no means am I saying he should revert back to his rookie season but it defintly feels like he runs less then he used to eventhough the opportunities are there. I'm not sure if it's by design or not but he either needs to take the next step as a passer or take off from time to time and make plays with his legs.

Denver was running a very disciplined pass rush designed to keep Russ in the pocket and block his escape routes.

They succeeded.

:229031_shrug:

In addition to what Sutz said, I also got the sense that Shotty isn't letting him run. He'd talked about keeping Wilson accountable - well, Wilson had escape routes a couple of times anyway and forced himself to stay in the pocket. I was glad to see that, but...it's going to have a downside.

Plus it looked to me like him not running was by design. New OC?

I'll concede that they're trying to get him to stay in longer by design, but coaches have been trying to do that for years.

Russ needs to find that balance between staying in long enough to let the play develop and cutting and running to exploit one of his best assets. It was a tough loss of a "winnable" game, but Russ was far from the only problem.

He certainly can play a lot better, but so can many others. Kind of gave one away really.

Only two read options were called; each was handed to Penny or Carson. That has got to change. Not enough run plays in general. Carson and Wilson need to run the ball more for us to be successsful.

He is also slower. He should be but people saying he isnt are wrong. I know roby is fast and barely got him but cpl yrs ago russ escapes.

hawknation2018":156f5a1j said:

Only two read options were called; each was handed to Penny or Carson. That has got to change. Not enough run plays in general. Carson and Wilson need to run the ball more for us to be successsful.

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I'm actually going to agree with this. We have to use Russ to keep the D off balance and we didn't do that at all. I mentioned this exact same issue to my girlfriend watching the game yesterday. It also helps get Russell's head and rhythm into the game early. 7 carries to a back averaging 7 ypc is also pathetic.

I saw Russ make some throws, albeit in the preseason to be more recent, where he seemed to make all the throws when he had time.

So I do thinking Russ has shown elite passing ability. But we also have to get creative, moving the pocket, etc. I’m really optimistic about what the offense will look like mid-season

Shanegotyou11":ccmjnh15 said:

He is also slower. He should be but people saying he isnt are wrong. I know roby is fast and barely got him but cpl yrs ago russ escapes.

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Bingo. He knows it. The coaching staff knows it.

Speedy Russ is fading. He need to greatly improve his pocket passing ability or the career decline will be swift.

Note: He still has better than average speed for an NFL QB but is clearly a half-step slower than his peak "speedy Russ" days and that is problematic for him and the team. He's several years into the league and is now being faced with having to change how he plays the game. That can't be easy.