LTH":1fo5ij3t said:
I'm not trying to say anything other than every great QB has to find the balance between having enough confidence to thread the needle and knowing when to check down...It absolutely is VERY easy to second guess Russ, point taken, but this has been an issue into last year. People want to put blame every where but Russ... The very best example is Brett Farve, Holmgren went round and round with him trying to get him to "get it" Holmgren did the Same thing with Hasselbeck...If there is a criticism of Carroll from my perspective is that he needs to hold Russ accountable and stop pandering to him...
LTH
Will echo that:
There are multiple truths here on both sides.
True, Carrol has coddled Russ.
And True, that Carrol benefited from Russ pulling out game after game in historic fashion. So he likely felt the protection of his qb justified.
Also True that Carrols system isn't passer friendly from a statistal perspective.
AND that any QB might put up better numbers in a more purely passer friendly scheme.
BUT its ALSO true that Carrols system IS Qb friendly in the sense that it doesn't require a PHD in x and o's to understand... which doesn't make it anymore antiquated than the defense that we are seeing the rebirth of. It just means you have to be able to counter what the defense is doing. Which also doesn't require a PHD.
But it's debatable whether Russ's vision of himself as a Brady or Brees or Rodgers type of ANTICIPATORY QB is accurate or whether his skill is more REACTIONARY... and whether instead, the system that in some ways 'held him back', also allowed him to maximize his ability while minimizing his weaknesses - anticipating coverages, rushes, and hitting the entire field.
Question now is whether we've seen the best of Russ now that after 10 years, the plays and schemes that fit what he can do have pretty much all been put on tape. Defenses line up to stop us both at the LOS and in covering our wr's and win now 65% of the time. In essence, the well has run dry, unless we do things like hit the shallow middle (geno did this but Russ has not), utilize the TE ( we did this and caught GB completely off guard), or reset the balance with the run game - which we refuse to do.
It's obvious we need to do the last 3. We will see if we can craft enough of a gamelan to accomplish anything.