09-22-2014, 09:00 AM
Thank god I survived the Blaine Gabbert and Chad Henne era's in Duval. Now it's time for Bortles to show us what made him the #3 overall pick.
A few takeaways from yesterday about Bortles: He's going to make rookie mistakes. He made two of them yesterday which turned in to two turnovers. In all honesty though I wasn't mad about them at all. He was throwing the ball down the field, keeping his eyes foward looking for receivers, and moving in the pocket. The naked bootleg that he turned into a 20 yard gain the other way would have been an easy sack with Henne in the game. Garbage time stats may have come into it a little there, but it didn't look to me like the Colts defense was playing off very much. They were still very much trying to repeat the first half.
Myself, and a few others here, have said that better QB play improves the Oline play. That turned out true yesterday. Sure he took a sack, but he never rushed. He moved in the pocked, moved the pocket itself, and avoided pressure.
IMO he made up for his mistakes by throwing 2 TD's. Hurns made a great play on the DB's to get loose, so kudo's to him for making a good play but he never would have been able to make a play if the ball never got past the line of scrimmage.
And once they started to back off the line, look what happened!!! The running game started to show signs of life. Imagine that!!
Now where do we focus our attention: Defense.
DE, LB, and FS are HUGE needs for this team. Telvin still looks lost when he's in and he was probably responsible for a TD. Poz just sucks at anything that has to do with running. I know many here love him, but lets be real. He never makes a tackle until after it's a 5 yard gain. He can't run to cover anybody. He's a liability in the scheme that we have here which is basically a modified 3-4. The problem is when you run a 3-4 base, the LB's have to be athletic enough to cover the middle of the field. Poz just isn't that guy. He's a tackle-box guy who doesn't even do that very well anymore because he's too far off the LOS. We need LB's who have the speed to cover and the instincts to react. Telvin may be one of those guys but it may take a year or longer for him to not look so lost.
Ryan Davis is IMO the best passrusher we have on the team. Branch is improving some, but his main strength is in run support. He overruns or gets flat out bodied and stopped when he rushes. Clemons is past his prime and average at best. Marks is still the best guy we have on the line, but we're starting to see how teams react to him. They're doubling Marks and using that double team to set up their running gap's. Big Red is probably the only other good guy we have on the line but they need support which they aren't getting.
Cyp finally came back, but you can tell that he wasn't the reason we got gashed last week since it happened again. He didn't help much either. Cyp is best when he's close to the line of scrimmage. The problem with that is he was supposed to be the Chancellor type guy who could play center field. It's starting to look like he doesn't have the speed to do it, which is having an effect on how the rest of the defense in front of him has to play.
I really think the offense will find a stride with Bortles playing. Having a guy who can make the defense back off will open so many things up. Once we have Ace and Lee both back we'll finally start to see how this offense is supposed to look like as a whole and I'm excited for it. I was happy to see Denard in the game more, but I'm still hoping to see him on a screen/dump off/draw which I haven't seen yet. He needs space and he's going to start to see some. Offense may be able to carry our team a little now so we'll see how it all unfolds.
I'll see more when I look at the All-22, that way I can look more closely at the Oline and DB's. Have a good day errbody
A few takeaways from yesterday about Bortles: He's going to make rookie mistakes. He made two of them yesterday which turned in to two turnovers. In all honesty though I wasn't mad about them at all. He was throwing the ball down the field, keeping his eyes foward looking for receivers, and moving in the pocket. The naked bootleg that he turned into a 20 yard gain the other way would have been an easy sack with Henne in the game. Garbage time stats may have come into it a little there, but it didn't look to me like the Colts defense was playing off very much. They were still very much trying to repeat the first half.
Myself, and a few others here, have said that better QB play improves the Oline play. That turned out true yesterday. Sure he took a sack, but he never rushed. He moved in the pocked, moved the pocket itself, and avoided pressure.
IMO he made up for his mistakes by throwing 2 TD's. Hurns made a great play on the DB's to get loose, so kudo's to him for making a good play but he never would have been able to make a play if the ball never got past the line of scrimmage.
And once they started to back off the line, look what happened!!! The running game started to show signs of life. Imagine that!!
Now where do we focus our attention: Defense.
DE, LB, and FS are HUGE needs for this team. Telvin still looks lost when he's in and he was probably responsible for a TD. Poz just sucks at anything that has to do with running. I know many here love him, but lets be real. He never makes a tackle until after it's a 5 yard gain. He can't run to cover anybody. He's a liability in the scheme that we have here which is basically a modified 3-4. The problem is when you run a 3-4 base, the LB's have to be athletic enough to cover the middle of the field. Poz just isn't that guy. He's a tackle-box guy who doesn't even do that very well anymore because he's too far off the LOS. We need LB's who have the speed to cover and the instincts to react. Telvin may be one of those guys but it may take a year or longer for him to not look so lost.
Ryan Davis is IMO the best passrusher we have on the team. Branch is improving some, but his main strength is in run support. He overruns or gets flat out bodied and stopped when he rushes. Clemons is past his prime and average at best. Marks is still the best guy we have on the line, but we're starting to see how teams react to him. They're doubling Marks and using that double team to set up their running gap's. Big Red is probably the only other good guy we have on the line but they need support which they aren't getting.
Cyp finally came back, but you can tell that he wasn't the reason we got gashed last week since it happened again. He didn't help much either. Cyp is best when he's close to the line of scrimmage. The problem with that is he was supposed to be the Chancellor type guy who could play center field. It's starting to look like he doesn't have the speed to do it, which is having an effect on how the rest of the defense in front of him has to play.
I really think the offense will find a stride with Bortles playing. Having a guy who can make the defense back off will open so many things up. Once we have Ace and Lee both back we'll finally start to see how this offense is supposed to look like as a whole and I'm excited for it. I was happy to see Denard in the game more, but I'm still hoping to see him on a screen/dump off/draw which I haven't seen yet. He needs space and he's going to start to see some. Offense may be able to carry our team a little now so we'll see how it all unfolds.
I'll see more when I look at the All-22, that way I can look more closely at the Oline and DB's. Have a good day errbody
:teehee: :ermm: :blink: