Can we talk Bevell?

I'm not really complaining, even though I never was a Bevell guy, I've learned to accept who/what he is. BUT...Is he driving anyone else insane?

Against SF and Jax, he seemingly ditched the running game, once it got going. Then, this week, Wilson was carving them up and taking the game over from the gun...so...obviously we put him under center??? What...???

I've learned to live with Bevell needing part of a game and part of a season to get going. Once he does get going, he's great. There's no reason to NOT believe he wont get it going, and it wont be great.

But, I'm getting frustrated.

(note...THIS IS WHINING)

I agree. seems like we are frustrated with him over the first half of the year, then love him the 2nd half of the year when the offense starts rolling. Just wish he would figure things out sooner.

HawkFan72":1vz9yemv said:

I agree. seems like we are frustrated with him over the first half of the year, then love him the 2nd half of the year when the offense starts rolling. Just wish he would figure things out sooner.

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I tell myself Pete has the luxury to counter-punch (counter-punching leads to bigger plays by default, and that's Pete's love), because of the defense, and that's Bevell's direction. But, I'm learning to accept Bevell stick's to his script, and sees it through, regardless of what's working, regardless of reasoning.

In the third quarter after what I believe was our first quick roll-out and easy dish to Zack Miller, I thought he finally got something going. I can't recall the next two plays but I do remember griping about that easy play not being called up again.

Sometimes it does seem he's not playing to our strength in consideration of the opponent at hand.

What surprised me was early (think second drive) RW was getting crushed in 2 secs so we came out and ran on 1st and 2nd down and had 3rd and 3. Let's see runs were working passes were not so of course he called a pass play.....

I wasn't a fan of a lot of the calls today on either side of the ball but. That's what the adjustments are for i guess.

To me it didn't seem like the offensive play calls really addressed the fact that we were missing 3 guys on the o-line, and going up against a beast like Watt. I know some people here didn't want to admit it would be an issue but it clearly was. The play calls did not seem designed in any special way to give us the best success in that situation. I appreciate the fact that we want to line up and just play our game but that is a tough spot for it.

pehawk":1mv5afb0 said:

HawkFan72":1mv5afb0 said:

I agree. seems like we are frustrated with him over the first half of the year, then love him the 2nd half of the year when the offense starts rolling. Just wish he would figure things out sooner.

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I tell myself Pete has the luxury to counter-punch (counter-punching leads to bigger plays by default, and that's Pete's love), because of the defense, and that's the direction. But, I'm learning to accept Bevell stick's to his script, and sees it through, regardless of what's working.

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True - there was something this off-season about him believing that big plays are just as important as winning the turn-over battle. Granted turn-overs are big plays as well.

Bevell is always going to be handcuffed by Wilson's height and the limited offensive talent on this team, but he does have room to improve.

I didn't even see the first half and I was frustrated. So can someone tell me if he called any plays that got the ball out of RW's hands very quickly? Facing that kind of pass rush, it just seems like it would make sense to call some screens, bootlegs, slants, etc. My favorite play and it always seems to work are the quick throws to MRob or Lynch (sometimes a TE).

MontanaHawk05":3ej6spnj said:

Bevell is always going to be handcuffed by Wilson's height and the limited offensive talent on this team, but he does have room to improve.

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Well, yeah. He'll never be able to call a quick slant off a 3-step drop. I think we all know that.

But, if the power run game's going, I've seen them go 3-4 wide. Wilson got going in shotgun, so in OT, they back under center. That's what's confusing.

He's pulling a bit of a Holmgren and trying to force this team to have a certain identity that it doesn't. He has failed to develop any kind of quick passing game and we are absolutely useless between the hashes. I have never really been a huge fan, but his creativity is so come and go its impossible to get a good read on the guy.

The guys were kind of hamstrung today with the OL, but today's win was more a product of individual effort and less of a great offensive gameplan & adjustments

Do we know it's a well-established pattern of getting better in the 2nd half of the season? I mean it seemed that way last season, but the only other season I have to evaluate him on is the Tjack season, and I don't recall a big divide between the first and second part of the season in terms of playcalling.

At any rate, I feel like there could be quicker-developing routes given the state of the line, and more screens than what we're seeing, although I understand you can't call those all the time. I also think that with the line the way it was on some level there's no playcall that's going to do much with it.

So frustrating at times but I'm not super down on him is where I land.

I've been okay with it so far but this game drove me mad!

There are ways to compensate for Wilson's height making "three-step-drop and throw a slant" difficult to do, though. Why don't we move the pocket more often and get Wilson moving a bit? Yeah, it cuts off the field, but Wilson is very good while moving. Our guards might not be All-Pros, but the guard play is probably good enough to get that type of offense going.

Also, why not let him play in shotgun more often? If that helps him see the field, we should put him back there more often.

AbsolutNET":3gcghpvm said:

He has failed to develop any kind of quick passing game and we are absolutely useless between the hashes.

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That's exactly the sort of thing that Wilson's height makes problematic, IMO.

I found it really surprising that he kept calling intermediate to deep pass plays with all that pressure coming every down. I realize that we're not built for short passing, but it's almost like dude's allergic to quick slants or something. That said, I think the gameplan was sound in that it was obvious Russell was told to take the sacks, rather than take the risks. Pete/Bevell knew that we were not going to score many points in this one and planned accordingly.

All said, it was nice to see us burn them with a couple timely RB screens.

I was making this point in the chat room when I was told I was being negative. Go figure.

Jazzhawk":1qldwv1f said:

I was making this point in the chat room when I was told I was being negative. Go figure.

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Makes sense, actually.

I do get frustrated at times but one thing I noticed last year is Bevell is a chess player. His calling method depends heavily on sustaining drives to develope future plays and if we are struggling to stay on the field long enough his play calling looks really bad.

I really did not understand the complete lack of game planning for having a damaged O line. Most people seen it coming a mile away and figured we would have a lot of pocket moving and quick screen type plays to help them out. It is like he out thought himself thinking that may be too obvious and doing the opposite.

I can't complain too much when we pull out the wins but just a bit frustrating at times.

pehawk":1hnobvh6 said:

I'm not really complaining, even though I never was a Bevell guy, I've learned to accept who/what he is. BUT...Is he driving anyone else insane?

Against SF and Jax, he seemingly ditched the running game, once it got going. Then, this week, Wilson was carving them up and taking the game over from the gun...so...obviously we put him under center??? What...???

I've learned to live with Bevell needing part of a game and part of a season to get going. Once he does get going, he's great. There's no reason to NOT believe he wont get it going, and it wont be great.

But, I'm getting frustrated.

(note...THIS IS WHINING)

Click to expand...

I bitched enough about him in the game day forum about his abysmal and predictable play calling in the first have. Once we got way down he got out of his comfort zone of predictability and called a better game in the 2nd half.