Quote:I'm no expert in proper football throwing mechanics or footwork so I won't waste time commenting about it. I have watched the games closely though and I've observed that Blake will too often 'stare down' his intended target. Doing this probably does help the opponents with pass coverage.


I've also observed that compared to last season he seems somewhat less 'settled' when passing; that is to say. he seems too indecisive... even downright nervous at times. Given that he's had people like Luke Joeckel to protect his blind side, I can't say I blame him for being nervous at times... but seeming to be indecisive is a bad sign in a third year player. Does he lack confidence in himself or in his teammates... or perhaps a combination of both?


He has excellent receivers, so they can't be the issue themselves. However, given their success last season they are no longer getting single coverage so they are no longer the easy target they once were. We have good running backs, but they need better blocking to establish the running game. If we can establish the running game it will undoubtedly help 'open up' a better passing game too.


So by all appearances, it seems like Blake has 'regressed' in certain areas. Perhaps he feels under pressure to try to produce that 'winning season' and is trying to do too much himself. Perhaps he realizes how poor the o-line has been (especially the left side) and is feeling 'that' pressure too. Perhaps he just wasn't prepared to see his favorite passing targets getting double coverage so consistently. Perhaps he just needs to learn to throw the ball away sometimes rather than take a sack or a turnover or needless punishment to himself.


...Perhaps. The thing is, we don't know what all may be involved in this. Let's hope that things can come together real quick and our offense can start to get more established.

I agree with you on the getting nervous part, and I don't know why, but I get the impression that it has nothing to do with him getting hit, we saw his reaction and fire when the colts d-line was trying to rough him up. I don't think blake is afraid of getting hit at all, which is a total opposite of gabberts extra scared [BLEEP].


Imo I think he's nervous because he doesn't want to throw picks and he's 2nd guessing what he's seeing in coverages. He realizes how much is on the line, coupled with the level of talent we have, he doesn't want to be the reason we fail drive to drive and game to game.


What impressed me was in the colts game, instead of pressing and forcing a pass into bad coverage like he's done before, he used his super underrated athleticism and tucked the ball and picked up positive yards. It's kinda crazy how just getting consecutive positive plays leads to confidence and it just permeates the whole offense. The line opened up some pretty decent running lanes and the corners had to come up and respect the run leading to open recievers.


So that's all that needs to happen, blake needs to keep taking those positive plays, no matter how pedestrian, and keep his confidence up.


If he plays that way, 9-7, or 10-6 become legitimately realistic goals.

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