OrangeGravy":1hpc02vm said:
Kind of comes around to what a few of us think and feel, that Russ is being Russ for the most part with some added confidence issues making it even worse
https://www.yardbarker.com/nfl/articles ... wsource=cl
This is a great post. It breaks down the Achilles heal of our passing game and lately our offense in a black and white, xs and os, fact based way that has zero to do with opinion or bias.
FF to 24:30 to get an idea of the technical failures that are leading to why our offense is stuck. They break it down really well. And the issue, like may have said, stem from Russ being limited in the reads he makes and the routes he will throw and that defenses are getting to the point where he has little left to go to within the game he is comfortable with. And as has been said, even when Waldron introduces a play to beat what the defenses are doing, Russ won't make the throw.
Our offense is stuck in large part because since 2 years ago really, and especially last year and this, defenses have gradually clamped down on what Russ does as a passer. The playbook has gotten smaller and smaller to the point where the plays that now work are largely just boom plays that rely on the wr having lots of open space to work with over the top.
The vast majority of the rest of Waldrons playbook that is being called to actually get us out of the funk we are in, Russ isn't pulling the trigger on.
FF to 31:00 or so and they talk about the plays that we were running in preseason with backups and finding success with, Russ isn't running or executing... or even looking to throw. Schottenheimer tried some last year and Russ didn't take them and Waldron is calling more of it and Russ is failing at them.
Around 39 minutes in they also talk about what to do next because if this is Russ... and STATISTICALLY, WITH REAL NUMBERS REFERENCED BACK TO 2013, it seems it is, then what do we do? They note that Waldron is seeing the same rejection of playcalls that Schotty did from Russ. And that Waldron is calling more Rams styled route concepts, but that Russ is reluctant to throw them.
To those that think we are trying to run too much, they dispell that, referencing stats that show that on neutral downs, we are passing 57% of the time.
Also that we've become a pure PA team with Russ under center. In other words, no short developing routes that would add to the type of plays that would keep defenses off balance.
And finally, they dispell the notion that the uptempo 2 minute offense is the key to making us work. It worked against WTF because of a broken play. And, in an indictment of how poor our pass offense is and has been from the beginning of the Russ era (my assessment based off of what we've all come to see) with the 3 OCs now ( but the same qb) the uptempo game backs the defense off so that they play soft against those routes that Russ refuses to throw over the regular course of the game. In other words, our offense only works well not when our QB executes it, but when defenses play off enough because they're tired and can't substitute and give us certain plays.
They also talk about the liability that Pocic is and the line in general because of injury. But mention that statistically they are average ( i think somewhere around the 45 minute mark he references that we are 12th in pass pro metric)
Yes, we can run block better, but we're running at a better than avg clip as it stands.
Yes we can scheme better. There are still plays and schemes that we can go to to shake things up.
Yes our wrs need to catch the ball when they get it.
But the stick in the mud of our offense is #3. And it's been that way for a longbtime. Measure by something other than the rainbow ball or scramble, and that's who we really are in terms of our passing ability and diversity.
Not hate.
Not bias.
Just xs and os fact.
