There's nothing at all unique about Zach Wilson running backwards for 28 yards; at least now he managed to throw the ball away even if it caused two penalty flags to be thrown. Duane Brown wasn't standing around waiting for Milano to show up because Milano engaged Carter. Brown's responsibility was Rousseau who took a step towards the inside then went around him with barely a pat on the ass. The only good decision ZW made on the play was not throwing to Carter.
We’re straying from your original point which is the one I was replying to. In no way shape or form could or should Zach have thrown to Wilson or Cobb. This was a classic bad Zach play but only because he didn’t throw it in the dirt immediately.
On that we will have to agree to disagree. Of course if he had intended it to go to GW or Cobb it may have gone into the dirt anyway.
I spent so much time trying to figure out how you could possibly expect him to make a throw to either of those receivers that I’m ignoring the point I intended to make right off the bat. There are multiple linemen not blocking anyone beyond the line of scrimmage while setting up for the screen. If Zach threw a forward pass it would have been called back for ineligible man downfield. So like I said, in no way shape or form should Zach have thrown that ball to anyone other than Carter because that is literally the only option and when Carter was blanketed it should have been in the dirt.
Glad to see TGG is already back in mid-season form with it's Zach Wilson debates. Ladies and gentlemen, we are officially back!!!
Pretty spot on, but I would disagree about average protection. Run blocking was really good, but protection was well below average. Zach was under pressure during every passing play. Brown was not good protecting and Laken was beat like a drum all the time like last year. Maybe we can say it got a little better after abysmal start (a tad too late), but it was not good. I looked at the PFF ratings to see what they think, and it's pretty much in full agreement with what I saw: running reps were good, passing, not so much. On Zach though, this was not a bad game, considering he was thrown into the fire like that with poorly pass protecting Oline. INT was old Zach - tried to fit a tight window ball between two defenders for a longer gain when Lazard was open for easy 5-7 yards or more on the first down. But other than that, it was sold. Even by conventional stats, overall passer rating was 81, which is not bad for a back-up QB forced into action. Sabo brings up a couple of really good points about his improvements. It also cannot be easy when you are basically running the ball twice, then asking him to complete often 3d and long. I think there is some hope for average to slightly below average QB play going forward with full week of practice and game planning as a QB1. Though nest week against Dallas may be tough: we just saw Daniel Jones put a grand total of 0 points on them at home. Zach will have to do a lot better than that on the road. But overall, we do need to bring a decent veteran eventually ahead of Boyle and potentially take over from Zach if he regresses again, but there is a chance Zach may just be good enough to help make play-offs this year.
That's just not the case. At the point that Garrett Wilson is crossing in the middle of the hashmarks the only lineman across the line is McGovern - by one yard. The others are from three to eight yards behind scrimmage following the guys who beat them and Zach who is turning towards the bus stop; they're not setting up for anything. I don't know if you're trying to see this on a phone but on a television or computer it's very clear.
Great post except I have higher expectations for Zach. If Zach keeps improving (We stay relatively injury-free) we need to be thinking more than just playoffs. With our schedule, we will know right way if Zach has improved or not. The tape this season and pre-season says he has lets hope he keeps it up. He has better coaching, the team is behind him and he is now in his third year. I want to see more than a game manager as the season progresses.
We can't afford below average play from Zach, nor can he. This is his moment, whether anyone expected it or not. He needs to step up. He doesn't need to be great, but he does need to be at least average and improve from there. I think he can do that. Despite those who insist they saw nothing different than the 2022 version of Zach, there was a big difference. Yes, he threw that bonehead INT, and I would love to hear his explanation for that, but aside from that, he did a lot of things right that he didn't do before. Watch the breakdown by Luke Grant of PLAJ that I posted to see these in more detail. Will he make mistakes? Of course! Even Rodgers did, as do all QBs. And against a top defense like Dallas he may well struggle badly, but Josh Allen struggled badly against our defense. Zach has made big strides in the subtle ways he needed to, as Saleh stressed in his presser. The question now is: can he maintain that progress in the face of big pressure or will he revert? We can only watch and see what happens.
Just so we are clear… Within one second of the snap, Zach should have bailed on the play because he sees Carter blanketed and then turned his head and then thrown the ball before the three defenders who were barreling towards him made contact and before his lineman got out to block for the screen, which is what they were going to do no matter what because that was the play. The problem is you are still fixated on Garrett Wilson as if Zach should have ever been looking at him. For as long as you think there was an option to make a pass to anyone but Michael Carter you are not going to understand why the play unfolded the way it did.
I too want to see better than average play from Zach. I just don't want to set up an expectation bar too high. If he exceeds slightly below average to average level, to me it is a great bonus. But even if he can be #16-22 QB in the League (basically between average and above bottom 3d), I think we will make play-offs and maybe even win there some games. Towards the end of last year he was worse than PS guys like Streveler, so being #16-21 QB in the League is a massive improvement. Anything above that, please I would love it, just don't want to set expectations too high at this time. What I have observed so far with Zach in preseason and the first game is that he can operate a conservative game plan, reliant on defense and running game. I don't know yet how he will react when we have to open up the offense a bit. I was OK with Hack's plan given the circumstances on Monday, even the super conservative last drive. But ultimately I too want to see Zach given more responsibility and see how he performs.
With Saleh as the coach, this team will play conservatively until we have open it up. Run, run, run work the clock play field position win the game in the fourth. That is what he said when he was hired and is how we have played.
We're not covering any new ground here; one lineman appeared to be setting up the screen the others were going the other way. Wilson was open, Cobb was open and Zach Wilson made more poor decisions. I'll agree that before he had retreated past the 35 he should have gotten rid of the ball but I maintain he had two better places for it than the ground, even as his blockers were in no position for a screen.
There are different level of conservative. I expect Zach to be given more than on Monday going forward, which was quite extraordinary circumstance. And yes, we will have to open it up eventually, I suspect as early as this Sunday.
Could you provide some examples of NFL QB's going through reads on a screen play after the screen option got shut down and then actually threw the ball to someone other than the intended recipient of said screen? Surely you've seen by my posts lately that I'm more on the critical side of the Zach spectrum now and even I think you're reaching a little bit here. It's a screen pass, it's a bad play by Zach but not because he didn't hit Cobb in the flat or GW running a drag, it's because he reverted to "Hero-Ball Zach" and scrambled backwards 20+ yards before throwing it OOB. He's gotta just dirt that ball at MC's feet and move on. Milano read the play like a book and shut the screen down. I don't think any QB would then try to go through their reads and throw it to someone else on that play but maybe I'm wrong, it's just not something that I think I've ever seen. Or if I did see it, I didn't notice/fully realize it.
Yep, this is the formula. In fact, in a strange way, the formula may work better with Zach - if he can do what he did Monday even against a top defense - than Rodgers, because with Aaron's willingness and ability to hit the big play, the offense wouldn't stay on the field as long and be able to give the defense a breather. Using a conservative run first plan with Zach - again if he can execute it - provides that break for the "D". The key to being able to do that is Zach has to be able to make plays to keep drives going, which he did a pretty good job of against the Bills. One of the big problems his first two years was the high number of 3 and outs which put more pressure on the defense - even though he famously failed to admit this after the Patriots game fiasco. Helping this is that this year - so far - he has much better weapons and is showing he trusts them. He doesn't have to play hero ball, he just needs to make sure he protects the ball and gets it into the hands if his playmakers. Going to GW 5 times (and completing all 5) is a great sign that he's aware of this. All that said, I do hope Hackett dials up some field stretching plays for him. He has the arm for it, and even if he doesn't complete them all, as long as he doesn't do a Josh Allen and throw INTs, it will take some of the heat out of the Dallas pass rush.
I mainly agree with your point here about not doing a "Tarkenton" (for those too young to get this reference watch some YouTube videos), but that said, Zach does have the athleticism to pull a rabbit out of ass, and it's one of the things I think the Jets liked about his game at BYU. And while we all held our breath and waited for the huge sack, or the forced INT, it didn't come, and I don't think that was an accident or luck, he recognized when he had no chance to make a play and tossed it OOB. Maybe it was more of a scramble than Rodgers does - now - but, it's something that Aaron did too - even one of his 4 plays from scrimmage he scrambled away from the rush to the right and finally threw it OOB as he was about to be taken down. They definitely have to make sure he doesn't revert to doing a lot of this because it will blow up in his face, but the occasional use of it can be a positive weapon.
It was an odd screen but maybe just because Milano read it so well and tied up Carter very quickly. It also looks odd because only McGovern appeared to be doing anything like setting a screen; how is that explained? In any event, Wilson knew early the screen was not going to happen and he knew where Garrett Wilson was and it takes much less time to throw directly in front than the three plus seconds it took him to decide to bail out the back door. Sorry I don't have a catalog of broken screens to reference but given those three seconds I don't see Aaron Rodgers throwing at Carter's feet in this case, especially with GW on the field.
