Quote:RE: playing to Blake's strengths -
Blake's protection has actually been pretty good this year. It's a real shame he struggles from the pocket, because he's actually had one this season more frequently.
Also - Olson DID actually have him rolling out quite often in three or four of the games this season. I'll have to do the research to be sure, but I'd guess he rolled out 25-30 percent of the time in a few games. I remember being glad it was in the game plan. That rollout stuff is not gonna work much more than that before it gets sniffed out by the defense. You can't do it constantly.
And guess what, he still threw some pretty craptastic passes while rolling out as well. He's making it pretty tough to play to his strengths this year.
Still - I would like them to utilize the rollouts and keep the tempo from sagging to slow as it will give him a chance.
The thing that bothers me the most looking throughout the all22 stuff is how often he never looks in the direction of an open (sometimes even uncovered) receiver, TE or RB because he is squarely locked on one guy. He's let a lot of opportunities slip away.
Same regards on that last sentence there. It's cringe worthy man. He doesn't even bother to look for his other options or properly go through his reads. And like you said, he has had time in the pocket this year more than we've been accustomed to seeing in year's past. But that stare down, light as a feather / stiff as a board throwing from the hip [BAD WORD REMOVED] needs to go.
Quote:You can go back and watch the highlights from his college days at the UCF too. He likes moving around A LOT. Virtually all of his big plays came off a bootleg or fake or where he had to avoid the rush and find someone deep. He's not a pocket passer. I don't think he's ever going to be a pocket passer at this level because he's never had to play from the pocket because he can get away with his size and mobility. That's what they have to do for him to succeed. When he's forced to drop back and stay inside the pocket he's pretty bad. He'll stare down receivers and freeze up like a statue. His passes are getting batted down. He's winding up longer from his throw because it's taking him longer to process the play from the pocket. When he's able to scramble around a bit you're making his job and life easier by making his choices on the field smaller and easier to figure out. It's already been shown that in this leauge he's successful playing just like that.
The problem is you can't live with Bortles playing outside of the pocket. While it makes it easier for him, if you do it enough it also makes it easier for the defense. Rolling him out essentially cuts the field in half. It's a great weapon when the playcall is right. But he needs to be able to move the ball from the pocket.
Quote:The problem is you can't live with Bortles playing outside of the pocket. While it makes it easier for him, if you do it enough it also makes it easier for the defense. Rolling him out essentially cuts the field in half. It's a great weapon when the playcall is right. But he needs to be able to move the ball from the pocket.
That's understandable. But I don't think he's going to be able to play from the pocket anytime soon this year due to the overall ineptitude of the push up front and running game. That's one of the biggest underlying issues this year for him when he does have to play from the pocket. It's bad enough that his throwing motion and inaccuracy and ability to go from left to right quickly with his reads leads to our struggles. But when you couple in the fact that virtually every defense this year has been able to shut down our running game with just their base four it's made his life in the pocket even more stressful. He's not able to fool anybody this year. It's not a coincidence that Blake's best game this year as far as having a good passer rating in a WIN was against the clots when Yeldon and Ivory managed to combine for 100 yards on the ground. He even kicked in 36 yards on the ground himself. But that's what we need to see.
Quote:The problem is you can't live with Bortles playing outside of the pocket. While it makes it easier for him, if you do it enough it also makes it easier for the defense. Rolling him out essentially cuts the field in half. It's a great weapon when the playcall is right. But he needs to be able to move the ball from the pocket.
Disagree. That's conventional wisdom because most QBs have no wheels. The Bills went to 4 superbowls playing up tempo and unconventional. Favre won 2 superbowls playing unconventional. Bortles is more mobile than 80% of the QBs out there. He has the highest completion % outside of the pocket in the league. Why in the world would you have him sit back in the pocket just because that's what you're supposed to do? It cost Olson his job. Hopefully Hackett figures it out.
Honestly I think he should be benched for Henne, and if Henne flounders(he will) Allen should be an immediate go to if Henne has a bad game or 2. I do not expect it though. Our owner on down to the water boy is probably the most inept and incompetent (in terms of football) in the history of football's existence. So given that being said, Blake will start and continue to suck. Anything you would think that would help this team, expect the coaches/ownership to do the opposite and continue to suck at record levels. Who honestly asks the players and coaches why they are losing in an open focus group in the same room? [BAD WORD REMOVED] Christ we are [BAD WORD REMOVED].
Quote:Honestly I think he should be benched for Henne, and if Henne flounders(he will) Allen should be an immediate go to if Henne has a bad game or 2. I do not expect it though. Our owner on down to the water boy is probably the most inept and incompetent (in terms of football) in the history of football's existence. So given that being said, Blake will start and continue to suck. Anything you would think that would help this team, expect the coaches/ownership to do the opposite and continue to suck at record levels. Who honestly asks the players and coaches why they are losing in an open focus group in the same room? [BAD WORD REMOVED] Christ we are [BAD WORD REMOVED].
It very well may come down to that if he flops heavily in Kansas City. They may give him another week or two after that but he's certainly next in line to be Gus Bradley's scapegoat this season. They had to start off the downward spiral by firing Olson first. Once the new OC comes in and tries to spice things up a little and you still see the main QB struggling you can really only go to the back-up and so forth. This is just history repeating itself all over again. Jack did the same thing with Gabbert during his last year here. Bradley is going to do it as well before he's seen the door.
Quote:Disagree. That's conventional wisdom because most QBs have no wheels. The Bills went to 4 superbowls playing up tempo and unconventional. Favre won 2 superbowls playing unconventional. Bortles is more mobile than 80% of the QBs out there. He has the highest completion % outside of the pocket in the league. Why in the world would you have him sit back in the pocket just because that's what you're supposed to do? It cost Olson his job. Hopefully Hackett figures it out.
If you were planning the opening drive for the KC game and you are scripting 8 plays, how many of them are designed roll-outs for #5?
Quote:If you were planning the opening drive for the KC game and you are scripting 8 plays, how many of them are designed roll-outs for #5?
Maybe 1. There's a lot more to playing up tempo than designed rollouts. The alternative is to continue doing what we're doing... 2 runs for a yard, incomplete 5 yard pass, punt
Quote:Just read that too. He's not wrong in what he said. But he kind of gave him a backhanded compliment. He was ranked ahead of Carr and Stafford before this season kicked-off. His problem is that he needs to basically flip flop his mentality. We need the 2nd half Bortles to show up early in the 1st half. But that's asking him to read defenses, make tight throws in small windows, make in game play changes and not turn the football over. He's pressing so hard in the first half of contests it's insane. I really do believe he's overthinking things and he's the epitome of a rhythm quarterback. He has to move fast, call plays fast and run around out there to be at his best. We saw that in Chicago. That's really the only difference Hackett can bring to the table here. We just have to go old school 90's no huddle Bills style offense for this kid to look the part. If that's what it takes to win games. So be it.
Why do people keep saying he is pressing? Anybody take the time to realize he is deficient is several key areas needed to be a pro QB?
Quote:If you were planning the opening drive for the KC game and you are scripting 8 plays, how many of them are designed roll-outs for #5?
I'd say at least half of them.
1. Play action roll out - Something short to Thomas or Lewis to open up the next play
2. Pitch outside to Ivory or Yeldon
3. Bootleg (Away from Marcus Peters side of the field) with a trips receiver set all running low - medium - high drag / slant routes to where Blake should be
4. Play action roll out with Koyack in at FB and Yeldon in at RB - Something short & deep here to maybe flip the field with Hurns or Lee
5. Run off-tackle with Ivory or Yeldon
6. TE Screen Pass to Lewis or Thomas
7. Bootleg (This time on Marcus Peters side of the field) looking for a back shoulder throw to Robinson here or an underneath safety valve throw to Lee or Hurns
8. QB Sneak at the Goal Line
Quote:Why do people keep saying he is pressing? Anybody take the time to realize he is deficient is several key areas needed to be a pro QB?
Because he's pressing. He's forcing passes into coverage. He's throwing passes behind or over his open receivers. And he's almost trying to take off with the football too soon when he's inside the pocket and should reasonably be able to climb it and make a throw or get rid of it instead of eating a loss.
Quote:I'd say at least half of them.
1. Play action roll out - Something short to Thomas or Lewis to open up the next play
2. Pitch outside to Ivory or Yeldon
3. Bootleg (Away from Marcus Peters side of the field) with a trips receiver set all running low - medium - high drag / slant routes to where Blake should be
4. Play action roll out with Koyack in at FB and Yeldon in at RB - Something short & deep here to maybe flip the field with Hurns or Lee
5. Run off-tackle with Ivory or Yeldon
6. TE Screen Pass to Lewis or Thomas
7. Bootleg (This time on Marcus Peters side of the field) looking for a back shoulder throw to Robinson here or an underneath safety valve throw to Lee or Hurns
8. QB Sneak at the Goal Line
Might work for an opening drive, but it's not sustainable for very long once the LBs start sniffing it out.
Also important to note that Blake doesn't look very comfortable throwing when he rolls to his left.
I also get the feeling we'll see a lot more runs than this from Hackett, BTW.
Regardless - I hope the rollout and the up-tempo stuff find their way onto the field Sunday enough to help the kid get something going. Will be interesting to see how Hackett uses that stuff. Also very curious what he'll do to spark the run game that he's supposedly very committed to balancing.
Quote:Might work for an opening drive, but it's not sustainable for very long once the LBs start sniffing it out.
Also important to note that Blake doesn't look very comfortable throwing when he rolls to his left.
I also get the feeling we'll see a lot more runs than this from Hackett, BTW.
Regardless - I hope the rollout and the up-tempo stuff find their way onto the field Sunday enough to help the kid get something going. Will be interesting to see how Hackett uses that stuff. Also very curious what he'll do to spark the run game that he's supposedly very committed to balancing.
I think it'd be great if they mixed it up like that on the opening drive and managed to score. This team is young. They need some confidence shot in their arm early and often. I would certainly expect them to start sniffing it out at some point so that's when you'd maybe start trying to change the tempo up and switch up the personnel packages. Instead of trio sets at WR run a trio set at TE and maybe see if they'll cheat up to the LOS in hopes of freeing up Lee or Robinson on a one-on-one deep route. Use the RB screen instead of the TE screen on this drive or that drive. Let Blake do those little run option keeper plays he's good at to keep the drives going. Line up in shot gun and let Yeldon run a sweep play. If the lineman can't block at least get a TE out on the parameter on the sweep play with Hurns and Robinson coming in to chip on the secondary or outside backer. I think Hackett will try some of this to be honest. Because we haven't seen any of it yet. They're going to need him to open up the running game with the passing game first though.
You can do design roll outs about as often as you can stunt with a dline.
It's all about deception and as soon as it isn't deceptive it won't work. You can't win playing with half a field on offense.
Need more short passes to get confidence up.
Quote:Disagree. That's conventional wisdom because most QBs have no wheels. The Bills went to 4 superbowls playing up tempo and unconventional. Favre won 2 superbowls playing unconventional. Bortles is more mobile than 80% of the QBs out there. He has the highest completion % outside of the pocket in the league. Why in the world would you have him sit back in the pocket just because that's what you're supposed to do? It cost Olson his job. Hopefully Hackett figures it out.
Jim Kelly and Brett Favre are elite throwers in the pocket. Never compare 2016 Blake to those two HoF qbs.
Lol playing to his strengths. It sounds like we are defending Tebow around here.
"We just need to dumb down the offense to the most basic level in order to hide his glaring deficiencies."
Only difference is TD Timmy would win a ballgame every so often.
We need to split the field in half for Bortles, give him the great wall of Dallas, an exact Barry Sanders clone, Jerry Rice and Julio Jones in their prime, and we MIGHT have a chance at winning 6 games.
You two are acting like it's a permanent fixture on the offense though. Ideally we're just trying to find this kid's confidence. You have to start somewhere. So you go to what he's familiar with and what he appears to be comfortable with from at least a statistical point of view. As I said earlier, he's not a pocket passer right now. That's not to say a good coach can't come in and fix him in that department. But we have to do something, anything to get this offense rolling. It's been terrible in every facet. Not just at the quarterback position. But also in the running game and the mindless holding and false start penalties that derail any positive output the offense had been working on during that drive.
I find it interesting as well that Norv Turner stepped down as the Vikings offensive coordinator today. He'd be somebody that I'd like to see come into the building just for a a week or two to maybe offer some insight on what our issues are. He's been one of the better and most talented offensive minded coaches in the NFL for a very, very long time. Wouldn't hurt for him to take a look.