I think @cval hit the nail on the head as to why there's criticism of Hackett's play calling. It wasn't terrible like earlier in the season, and there were sound reasons to go run heavy given the Broncos being bad against the run, and Breece having a great day. But why is he still so predictable? And why does he insist on not calling more plays for Zach moving outside the pocket, and play action? When Zach moves he's MUCH better than when he stays in the pocket. Especially with the OL still having struggles with pass pro - which didn't get helped by AVT going down and Becton and Tippman going out too. The success Breece had was almost entirely due to his great vision, cutting ability, and pure speed, NOT because Hackett dialed up great running plays. He's still too predictable, calling runs on obvious run plays, and not meshing the passing game in better with the runs - they might as well have told the defense what the play was and dispensed with the huddle. Yes, penalties really hurt them - again the officiating was questionable - which isn't Hackett's fault. And Zach made some bad decisions again which he needs to clean up - that throw at the end of the first half was just dumb. On that point, Saleh should've managed the clock better and not left them with no margin for error, but still, a QB needs to know what the situation is regardless of how it happened and be able to know what to do regardless. The CORRECT call once he realized he didn't have a good option at the EZ, he should've just thrown it OOB to stop the clock and give the FG unit time to come on. Or MAYBE, worst case, throw a dump off near the center of the field/LOS so that everyone could get back and line up so they could spike the ball and stop the clock. But completing a pass to the outside was about the worst thing to do. There's no defense for that kind of thing.
I don't mean to pick on you here, it's aimed more at all those who have criticized Zach by saying "He can't make short throws"; "He always throws balls in the dirt"; etc. as though every time he attempted them that's what happened. It's a central part of the Zach Sucks meme. But as you said, as glaring as these mistakes were, they were only occasional, and it's not like no other QB - including the best ones - ever did that once in a while. Zach has had his struggles, and still does, but it makes it impossible to have a constructive discussion about him when people resort to lazy hyperbole as though that's enough convince anyone of anything.
Wilson's making progress. He completed the useless short throw that ran the clock out before half time. cost us points but a boost to his confidence and his completion percentage!!!
You guys saying the past is meaningless crack me up. It’s literally the foundation for everything up to this point in time. My first house had a terrible lawn. Previous owner was physically unable to care for it. I worked on it for a few years and it became very respectable. Things and people can change. Hopefully Zach Wilson will do just that, but right now he’s still covered in crab grass and scorched earth dog piss patches.
..because you can't run outside the pocket every play. He Is supposed to be a professional NFL QB. Professional NFL QB's primarily play out of the pocket. His play calling absolutely has been predictable In certain games, this wasn't one of them. The mix was evident and the stats support that. That's nonsense. He absolutely did mix It up on downs, It wasn't the same thing over and over. This wasn't that game. Again, the stats, and play by play support this. He has been atrocious and predictable In prior games, this game wasn't bad. No way. Again, you throw excuses for, Zach. By throwing the coaching staff under the bus. When do we take the training wheels off? It's the same story. Over and over. Saleh should've done this, Hackett should've done that.. Repeat and rinse. It's the same brain dead decisions that we see every week from this kid. Like throwing a check down on 4th down when the game Is on the line.. It makes no sense. The average fan knows that these things are obvious no-no's. Yet, we see It. Week In. Week Out. I understand being critical of the coaching staff. I don't agree with this blame game mentality that several posters/fans have when It comes to defending Zach Wilson. It just makes absolutely no sense to me.
I think the INT was fluky too. I think Zach has to be smarter In a lot of areas, but he proves week In and week out by showing the same mental lapses. I don't think Zach Wilson played out of his mind, or particularly all that good (In terms of production). However, I agree with you, that wasn't the plan for this game. The game plan was for him to manage the game and let the run game take control over the game. The game plan was good, which Is a credit to the coaching staff. Which obviously includes, Hack. My problem Is the excuses that are being made for Zach Wilson by throwing Hackett under the bus Instead. It just doesn't make sense to me. It was a good game plan this week, credit should be given for that. Instead I'm seeing several people acting like Hackett was the problem for the mental lapses that Zach Wilson had yesterday. That just wasn't true. Zach Wilson played a good game for what It was. It's improvement from what we had become accustom to over the last several seasons. We'd all like to see more I think, but the things that weren't good, just weren't good. It Is what It Is. No need to irrationally blame the coaching staff for It. Like you said, It needs cleaned up.
We won the game and had over 400 yards of offense. I understand the frustration with the stupid mental mistakes but he will clean those up. Look where he is coming from, he was not even supposed to play this season. I will take the mistakes (now) if Zach keeps playing free and confident. The mental mistakes will go away. We won the game. The only criticism I have of the play calling is not calling some play-action in the red zone. To me Sunday is a big game for Zach. The kid has been playing great in practice (This did not happen last year) and they will need him to beat the Eagles and show us if he is ready to get us to playoffs. Time to put it all together Zachary.
We can’t use stats to measure Zach Wilson’s performance (unless the other QB is better, even if the team loses the game) We can’t use record to measure Zach Wilson performance. We can’t use play by play analysis to measure Zach Wilson’s performance. We can use the coaches/GM’s decisions to measure Zach’s performance. He’s shown improvement. I don’t think many people would argue against that. The people conveniently forgetting his baseline blow my mind though. You can break off the rearview mirrors if you want but 1. It’s a stupid and reckless thing to do and 2. Brains and cars are a little bit different.
I think the reality is that at this point we need to forget he was the 2nd overall pick. That's why JD went after Aaron Rodgers this season. After the 1st two years he had the draft status goes out of the window. Zach is a back-up QB right now. Our starter unfortunately went down, and we played a back-up in the game. He was able to move the ball, kept the defense off the field. Completed high % of his throws, including hitting on some big ones. He made some mistakes, which were relatively big. The two fumbles we were very fortunate to recover. 3 points lost at the half. Could not score in the red zone. The INT was more of bad luck, but a slightly better throw there and this could have sealed the game. But he did move the ball well in that last drive, which took some time off the clock and rested the D. In total, we got 22 points on offense, which is league average, but against the worst defense in the League. Overall, As a back-up I think Zach did OK yesterday. Not great, but not terrible. He managed the game and for the most part was successful. He needs to better against Philly, but he showed he can against KC. He can also do worse. But I think in aggregate he is improving. Last year he was unplayable. Now he put two games back to back as a back-up where he was OK to good. Hopefully he continues to stack them up.
Big agree on the play calling in the redzone and even on first down in general. They need to let him throw early in the downs when he is getting heavy fronts. Come out in 12 and 13 and do something different. Throw it out of it early. I've definitely been one of the bigger zach bashers on this board, but I think I'm genuinely pretty fair on my assessment of him. He has honestly been fine for what he is the last two weeks-- a backup QB in this league. I actually think as the season goes on he will continue to get better as he gets more comfortable in the offense and we play easier defenses. He just needs to continue to make the few throws he is asked to make, use his legs to move the chains, and don't turn the ball over. That's the recipe for this team. Oh. Also on the 3rd and 4 to Conklin before the INT, zach checked into that play and made a full field read going from left to right. nicely done.
Rogers back up played well/improved....all I got to say He was picked 2nd ...and the Jets have a BIG investment in Zach. Can he do some Trevor Lawrence things please??? That would make his selection easier to digest Next week ? The Phil team that lost to KC in SB...logically if we can give KC fits the Eagles wont be overwhelming ..?? I just dont know
If the recipe is for Breece to break a 70 yarder and the team to have 200 yards on the ground every game then they’re in trouble. Admittedly it worked against some teams before Breece went down last season but Zach still has to make throws that will keep good defenses on their tows. He was pedestrian against a team on pace to give up over 600 points this season. He’s improving but he needs to do it faster.
Really because that QB and his team waltzed into Metlife and humiliated Z just 3 weeks ago. We would be a playoff team with mac jones. He's like a very poor man's Chad Pennington, which is kind of exactly what this team needs. and yes, i know mac jones is bad.
How many times were we in the red zone? The criticism s how do we get the ball in the end zone. Zach was like 6-9 on third down, which is pretty good, especially with the run-heavy game plan.
Yes, he is Rogers backup and you can look at him that way. I am looking at a young QB that is starting to get it and show his potential.
