Mark's Deep Ball

That TD was a busted play though, I'm convinced Holmes broke off his route to go deep.

 

He clearly misses Edwards' speed and size.

 

What makes you say that? Sanchez is playing better this year and his numbers reflect that. Take the abysmal Raven game out of the equation, and they look even better.

What he missed was a solid offensive line.
What he missed was Nick Mangold.

 

Edwards and Sanchez had some chemistry together. They'd be a good match again.

A QB with a rep for inaccuracy and a WR with a rep for drops actually worked really well together and made some big plays last year. They were better together than either of them was alone.

 

Couldnt put that all in one message? clogging up the board

 

The whole "chemistry" thing eludes me somewhat. A good receiver runs sharp accurate routes and gets separation. A good quarterback delivers the ball accurately and in a timely fashion to the aforementioned receiver.

After the ball is snapped, Sanchez isn't back there looking for his BFF down the field. He's looking for a guy in green that's open.

Braylon played well as a Jet. I never heard him credit Sanchez for that.

 

The chemistry thing is about knowing what kind of ball your QB throws under what conditions. It's about knowing when to break off your route because the QB is likely out of the pocket and looking for help. It's about being right when you guess on what to do against a particular coverage that is denying you the route you want to run because you and the QB have seen this situation dozens of times in the past and developed an understanding of what to do.

That's just from the the WR's point of view. The QB has even more on his plate because not only does he need to know the answers as to what you are likely to do but he also needs to decide whether or not to throw the ball in the first place or take a sack or throw it away.

The reason that WR's and QB's take so long to develop is that they're dependent on each other for their success. An error on either side of the deal on a given play negates everything the other guy did to make the play work. You see this all the time even with veteran QB's and their receivers. Peyton Manning will make a motion with his hand at Reggie Wayne that says "I expected you to zig and you zagged instead." That's because all the years they've had together made Manning expect Wayne to do the same thing he'd done in the past only this time Wayne brain-farted and went left instead of right when he was denied the route he really wanted to run.

Now throw a young QB or a young WR out there and the problems multiply because they have no idea what the other guy is going to do in a given situation. They haven't had enough repetitions together to get a feel for where the other guy goes when he can't go where he was supposed to be. The WR doesn't know yet whether his QB throws high outside or low inside or what and so he doesn't have a good feel for what he should do when he's suddenly got a safety over the top and the go route is DOA.

After they have a thousand snaps together they probably can begin to figure out where to go when things break down or an unexpected coverage occurs but it takes years for them to really get to the point where 9 times out of 10 they know exactly what the other guy is going to do in a given situation and can make their best play given that knowledge.

 

So they don't have to be friends on Facebook?

I get all that stuff you wrote. And good stuff it is. But I'd call it mostly experience and communication, not "chemistry". It's icing on the cake...we need cake first. They don't bench players for lack of chemistry. They sit for poor play.

I just think that at the pro level, a receiver should reliably catch balls thrown to him. No matter who's tossing it. Sanchez delivers a clean catch-able ball more often than not...at least when he's on target.

Again, look at Holmes and Burress' stats. They are virtually identical. One guy's been here two years, the other four months.

Good play trumps chemistry.

On the flip side, Revis can and will fuck up all kinds budding relationships.
He's a heartbreaker.

 

we don't have a deep threat is this a surprise? And it seems we never throw downfield anyways, only in moments of desperation.

 

Haven't caught most of the thread but here's my two bits on deep balls, in general.

Our high school football coach (a run-first, run-last kind of guy) always used to say "there are three things that can happen when you throw the ball, and two of them are bad."

That's a dated statement. In today's NFL game, there are four outcomes to deep throws, the fourth being a game-changing pass interference call. PI is such a common and major penalty that if you're not throwing the deep ball five or six times a game against one-on-one coverage, regardless of your respective quarterback's deep ball comfort level, you're doing yourself a disservice. (I think I'm paraphrasing Phil Simms, who said something similar during the game).

Go deep, regularly. That's my opinion.

 

Santonio Holmes is an effective deep threat.

 

You're looking at passing dynamics too simplistically.

If, on every passing play, Sanchez is waiting to see a receiver get separation, he's going to either lead the league in sacks or picks. It's not 1) hike 2) receiver gets open 3) Sanchez throws ball. It's 1) hike 2) Sanchez identifies coverage and throws ball to where the receiver will be open 3) receiver identifies coverage and gets open. Then the outcome is either 4a) Sanchez and receiver are on the same page, and the ball and the open receiver arrive at the same place at the same time or 4b) Sanchez and receiver are not on the same page, and the ball and the receiver are in two different spots.

If a quarterback waited for a receiver to gain separation before he threw the ball, the separated cornerback would have time to recover and make a play by the time the ball arrived.

 

It's not like no chemistry means absolutely zero production. It just helps make a connection more than average.

 

That's play design, not chemistry. If you want to lump all the indefinable intangibles under the term "chemistry"....go ahead. But it cuts both ways. If chemistry is that real of an issue in terms of on-field play, then it would show in the stats. Sanchez spreads it around ecumenically.

He's lovin' everybody. What a slut.

Besides, I've yet to hear a receiver blame bad chemistry for a dropped ball that hit him in the hands, or a quarterback claim that his shitty read and throw was somehow half the receivers fault because of that gosh darn chemistry thing.

Sure, some guys zig when they shoulda zagged...shit happens. But if one player is adjusting his game, outside his comfort zone possibly, for another's less than perfect play, then that's both players doing something wrong. Sort of.

Like some audio fanatics idea of "absolute sound", there really is a bullseye that all 11 players on both side of the ball should shoot for. To me, good chemistry looks an awful lot like well executed football.

But now our qb is expected to realize that his fantastically gifted thoroughbred receiver, who, by the way...runs like a goddamned gazelle on fire, is prone to making dumb mistakes every once in a while? All this while making his 5 step drop and throwing to the place where that flaming gazelle is supposed be in a coupla seconds...?...While Suggs & Lewis are just about to make me, Mark Sanchez, the smooth creamy filling in the middle of the cookies that dey's about to deliver?

Just how much "chemistry" is needed here?

Is it coachable? You know, like speed.

 

we have no legit deep threat. holmes isnt the type of wr you want running post routes all the time. i mean he could do it, but you wont have high success with him running that.

you want holmes running comebacks, slants, digs, deep outs.

holmes is excellent in the 10-25 yard range. get him the ball ASAP, and have him work with it.

plax isnt going to be what braylon was, especially at his age/jail scenario. we dont/wont have a 'deep/bomb' target for sanchez this year.

 

You need to quit being so logical.

It ain't fun.