Zach Wilson vs Raiders: A Breakdown

It's becoming more and more painful to do these, but mama didn't raise no quitter so here we are again.

Overall, I honestly felt that Zach played well last night. The pick was bad and the misfire to Lazard down the left sideline was bad. He had a couple of other bad plays but I honestly felt like he only had a handful of bad throws/decisions last night after watching these throws again. Zach just is what he is at this point, a middle of the road backup that can't elevate the team around him or overcome horrendous play calling. Hackett's a bum, Lazard's a bum, & Uzomah's a bum. There's plenty of blame to go around for why the offense hasn't scored a touchdown now on their last 36 possessions and while Zach certainly has his fair share of blame for that, I just refuse to put all of it on his shoulders.

Anyway, let's get into it... (link to every pass from Zach here)

1st Quarter:
12:18, 3rd & 5: Jets come out in 11 personnel, trips left. Raiders simulate pressure and walk almost everyone up to the line. GW runs a slant from the left side of the formation, Zach makes a good throw and GW makes a great catch. Beautiful. Gain of 6. (1-1, 6 yards)

11:55, 1st & 10: 12 personnel, I-Form where Ruckert is playing FB. PA pass. GW runs a crosser from left to right and Zach hits him. GW makes the safety miss and gets a big chunk. Well done all around. Gain of 41. (2-2, 47 yards)

11:10, 1st & 10: 11 personnel, Jets come out in a Pony package (2 back gun) where GW starts to the right of Zach in the backfield. GW comes in motion out to the left. Fake pass to the left, to set up the slip screen to the right. Raiders sniff it out though. Zach tries to get it close to Breece instead of taking the sack but its not good enough, results in an intentional grounding penalty. Mitchell (who I thought played well overall last night) just totally whiffs on Crosby. I get the point is to let the defenders get up field but you've gotta give a little more resistance than that. Incompletion/penalty. (2-3, 47 yards)

10:21, 3rd & 13: 11 personnel, trips right. Essentially a bubble screen to Gipson to try to get him in space. Zach throws a good ball, dropped by Gipson. Probably wouldn't have resulted in much but I guess we'll never know. Incomplete. (2-4, 47 yards)

4:57, 3rd & 4: 11 personnel, trips bunch right. Gipson runs a wheel route from the inside of the trips and gets wide open. Zach hits him for a gain of 24 yards. Well done. (3-5, 71 yards)

4:05, 1st & 10: 11 personnel, 2x2. PA boot to the left. Zach has immediate pressure and hits GW on an out from the slot on the left. Good pitch and catch for a gain of 5 on 1st down. (4-6, 76 yards)

3:26, 2nd & 5: 13 personnel. RPO smoke completion to GW. Zach wisely sees the corner playing 8 yards off and hits GW instead of going through with the run. Well done. Gain of 8. (5-7, 84 yards)

2:00, 2nd & 18: 12 personnel, TE twins left, WR twins right. Zach fires it to GW on a slant from the right side of the formation. Dropped. Rough as it would've set up a very manageable 3rd down. (5-8, 84 yards)

1:56, 3rd & 18: 11 personnel, trips right. Zach hits Conklin on an out from the slot on the trips side of the formation for a gain of 5. Gets us to a good FG opp, which Zuerlein hits. (6-9, 89 yards)

 

2nd Quarter:
14:39, 2nd & 14: 11 personnel, trips right. GW runs a little sit down route coming from the slot on the trips side. Zach throws it a little to high but GW bails him out. Would've liked a better ball here but it "worked". Gain of 7. (7-10, 96 yards)

13:56, 3rd & 7: 11 personnel, empty set, trips right. Zach maybe has GW running a drag across the middle but sees open field to the right so he scrambles out and takes off. Almost gets the TD but steps out at the 3. Gain of 20 yards. Would love to see more of this from him. I'd like to think this game turns out different if he gets into the EZ there but oh well. (7-10, 96 yards, 1 rush, 20 yards)

11:55, 3rd & Goal: 11 personnel, trips bunch left. Nothing happening, Zach tries to hit MC on an out out of the backfield but it's tipped at the line. Incomplete. (7-11, 96 yards, 1 rush, 20 yards)

1:46, 2nd & 3(note the 10+ min gap here, will bring it up at FH Breakdown): 11 personnel, trips bunch right. From this angle, it looks like a bad rep for Zach here and he's lucky that it got tipped at the LOS. Locks in on GW, running a slant from the left side of the formation, Spillane is flowing that way so best case he blows GW up on the catch, worst case it's a pick (foreshadowing for the late game INT). Better play was to go to his next read, maybe Lazard?, who's open in Spillane's vacated area. Either way, incompletion. (7-12, 96 yards, 1 rush, 20 yards)

1:42, 3rd & 3: 11 personnel, trips bunch right. Zach decides to take off again, he probably could've hit Gipson over the middle but well done by him, gain of 20. (7-12, 96 yards, 2 rushes, 40 yards)

1:33, 1st & 10: 11 personnel, 2x2. Conklin runs a sit down from the left slot. Zach hits him over the middle, gain of 8. Well done. (8-13, 104 yards, 2 rushes, 40 yards)

1:14, 2nd & 2: 11 personnel, trips left. Zach sees nothing open and scrambles out to the right. Almost gets back tot he LOS but not quite and ESPN categorizes it as a sack. Weird. (8-13, 104 yards, 2 rushes, 40 yards)

1:08, 3rd & 3: 11 personnel, empty set, trips left. Video cuts out, if someone can find a clip of this play, please post it in this thread. Pretty sure this is the miss to Lazard down the left sideline though. It's a bad miss by Zach. He's open and while I think Lazard isn't giving it 100%, he still needs to hit this pass. Incomplete. PS: Have we converted a 3rd down out of empty set? I don't think so. Scrap this shit Hackett, enough is enough. (8-14, 104 yards, 2 rushes, 40 yards)

First Half Breakdown:
It's a good half from Zach. Idk what else to say. He had 3 bad plays (the miss to Lazard, the Intentional Grounding, and the decision to throw that ball to GW which got batted down). Penalties and drops ruined any chance of us scoring TDs in this first half. If Saleh has any balls, Uzomah would be demoted to TE3 the next time they have everyone at the facility. But he won't and Uzomah will continue to be a net negative for the rest of the year and derail drives with his idiotic penalties and drops.

Now I'd like to refer back to the note I put in there where there was a 10 minute gap from the 11:55 mark to the 1:46 mark in the 2nd quarter. How does that happen you might ask? Well we actually had a possession in between there and Hackett ran the ball on 4 straight plays. It really blows my mind how inept that dude is. Your QB who has struggled most of the year is actually playing a good half and you totally take the ball out of his hands for over 10 minutes? No attempt to pass the ball on 2nd & 1, when essentially all advanced metrics tell you that's the best bet? He's a joke. He should be fired but he's Rodgers' buddy and Woody/JD are too chicken shit to upset their new Golden Goose (who happens to be a 40 year old about to return from an Achilles tear and *maybe* play 1-2 more years). Great idea, let's let this guy hold our franchise hostage for a couple of years.

 

3rd Quarter:
15:00, 1st & 10: 11 personnel, trips bunch right. Conklin goes in motion from right to left. Not the best throw form Zach but this is the right idea. The defender is breaking on the ball, he needs to lead GW outside and away from that guy. Just didn't hit it. (8-15, 104 yards, 2 rushes, 40 yards)

14:15, 3rd & 8: 11 personnel, trips right. Gipson runs a curl from the outside of the trips. Great throw from Zach, hits him on time. This play gets nullified by the chop block from MC. We can question the call but why even put that decision in the refs hands? Undisciplined team. (8-15, 104 yards, 2 rushes, 40 yards)

13:54, 3rd & 21: 11 personnel, trips right. Conklin runs a drag from left to right, seems to be sort of a screen pass as the trips WRs all set up to block about 7-8 yards past the LOS on the right side. Gain of 17. Holding on Gipson brings it back though. (9-16, 121 yards, 2 rushes, 40 yards)

13:41, 3rd & 22: 11 personnel, trips left. Bubble screen to Malik Taylor on the trips side. Gain of 6. (10-17, 127 yards, 2 rushes, 40 yards)

10:45, 1st & 10: 12 personnel, 2x2. PA pass. Zach doesn't set his feet as he's moving up in the pocket and sails the pass to GW running a crosser from right to left. Gotta reset your feet there Zach, you've got GW open, gotta hit him. (10-18, 127 yards, 2 rushes, 40 yards)

9:47, 3rd & 16: 11 personnel, empty set, trips right. Zach sees nothing and takes off again. Gains 13. (10-18, 127 yards, 3 rushes, 53 yards)

2:28, 1st & 10: 12 personnel, trips right. RPO smoke route to GW. GW gains 5. (11-19, 132 yards, 3 rushes, 53 yards)

1:49, 2nd & 5: 11 personnel, 2x2. Becton gets smoked and allows 51 to get right around him. 51 gets a strip sack that's luckily recovered by Becton. (11-19, 132 yards, 3 rushes, 53 yards)

1:04, 3rd & 10: 11 personnel, empty set, trips right. Taylor runs a deep post from the left side of the formation. Zach takes a shot but it's an inaccurate ball. Incomplete. (11-20, 132 yards, 3 rushes, 53 yards)

 

4th Quarter:
14:10, 1st & 10: PA screen. Zach hits Breece coming out of the backfield to the left of the formation. Breece does Breece things and gains 35 yards. Well done. (12-21, 167 yards, 3 rushes, 53 yards)

13:26, 1st & 10: 11 personnel, trips right. GW runs a curl at the sticks. Zach hits him on time. Good route and good throw. GW gains 12. (13-22, 179 yards, 3 rushes, 53 yards)

12:50, 1st & 10: 11 personnel, pony package again (GW lined up to the left of Zach in the backfield), GW kinda does an orbit motion, Zach laterals the ball to him to set up the double pass. Lazard is wide open and has no one in front of him. t's a walk in TD (if Lazard catches it, which isn't a guarantee). GW makes a bad throw, incomplete. PS: glad they included this one. Again, how big of an idiot are you Hackett? You make the WR who hurt his right shoulder/elbow earlier in the game throw a double pass? Why not let Gipson, Breece, Cook, literally anyone that DIDN'T hurt their shoulder this game make this throw? It's just laughably stupid and bad. That should be the title of Hackett's Memoir, "Laughably Stupid and Bad: The Nathaniel Hackett Story".

12:44, 2nd & 10: 11 personnel, 2x2. Another bad miss by Zach. Cook is open in the flat and Zach just throws the ball behind him. Inexcusable. (13-23, 179 yards, 3 rushes, 53 yards)

12:40, 3rd & 10: 11 personnel, 2x2. Nothing open for Zach so he takes off for a gain of 1 yard. Bad playcall, seemed like everyone just runs shallow posts?? Hackett is such a bum. (13-23, 179 yards, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

6:06, 1st & 10: 11 personnel, 2x2. Short split right. PA pass. Zach was clearly paying attention to Rodgers during TC and takes a page out of his Hard Knocks playbook. Scrambles right a bit and throws a no-look pass to an open Lazard running a slant from the right. Lazard tried his best to drop it but hauls it in and gains 17. Beautiful. (14-24, 196 yards, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

5:30, 1st & 10: 11 personnel, trips bunch right. RPO smoke to GW again. GW gains 3. (15-25, 199 yards, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

4:55, 2nd & 7: 11 personnel, trips right. Zach hits Breece over the middle on a sit down coming out of the backfield. Breece runs around the left side and gains 10. (16-26, 209 yards, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

4:17, 1st & 10: 12 personnel, 2x2. PA boot left. Zach sets his feet and hits Uzomah in the flat. Uzomah breaks a tackle and gains 6. Well done. (17-27, 215 yards, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

3:38, 2nd & 4: 11 personnel, trips right. Zach takes a deep shot to GW down the left sideline. This is an elite ball IMO. Zach drops it right in the bucket between the CB and the S. It's a tough catch but GW needs to come down with this one, hits him right in the hands. Incomplete. (17-28, 215 yards, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

3:30, 3rd & 4: 11 personnel, trips bunch right. Zach hits Conklin who chips Crosby and then releases up field from the inside of the trips bunch. Gets the first. Gain of 4. (18-29, 219 yards, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

3:04, 1st & 10: 11 personnel, 2x2. Hard to tell form this angle but this looks like a good ball that just goes through Lazard's hands? Maybe Zach misses him but again, hard to tell from this angle. (18-30, 219 yards, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

3:00, 2nd & 10: 11 personnel, trips left. Raiders simulate pressure but only bring 4. Zach rolls out right and finds Conklin close to the sticks. Gain of 8. Well done by Zach. (19-31, 227 yards, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

2:21, 3rd & 2: 11 personnel, 2x2. Raiders bring the blitz, Zach hits GW quickly for a gain of 6. Well done by him to recognize the blitz and hit his first read. (20-32, 233 yards, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

2:00, 1st & 10: 11 personnel, 2x2. Zach hits Breece on a screen to the right side of the formation. Gain of 2. (21-33, 235 yards, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

1:24, 2nd & 8: 11 personnel, 2x2. Lazard runs a lazy route and Zach doesn't see Spillane flowing towards that side. Pick. He's getting immediate pressure as Newman lost against him man immediately but still. This is rookie stuff man. Can't have that in that situation. (21-34, 235 yards, 1 INT, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

0:53, 1st & 10: 11 personnel, trips right. Hackett dials up the classic quick slants play from Madden in a situation where you have to drive 80 yards in 53 seconds with 1 timeout. What a bum. Zach sees nothing open and essentially just dirts the ball quickly. (21-35, 235 yards, 1 INT, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

0:49, 2nd & 10: 11 personnel, empty set, trips bunch right. Conklin again blocks and releases. Zach hits him for a gain of 9. (22-36, 244 yards, 1 INT, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

0:25, 3rd & 1: 11 personnel, 2x2. Conklin runs a seam/sit-n-go route from the right slot. Big boy throw from Zach. Steps up into the pocket as Crosby gets to him and does a jump throw to Conklin. Incredible throw. Gain of 27. (23-37, 271 yards, 1 INT, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

0:13, 1st & 10: 11 personnel, trips left. Zach scrambles out and throws a line drive towards the left sideline towards Gipson. Incomplete. (23-38, 271 yards, 1 INT, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

0:05, 2nd & 10: 11 personnel, trips left. Zach somehow breaks free from a would-be sack by Crosby and rolls out to his left. Rolling left he somehow throws a good enough ball to get to the EZ. GW has a chance by Conklin throws 1 hand up like an idiot and doesn't give GW a chance to make a play. Incomplete. Ball game. (23-39, 271 yards, 1 INT, 4 rushes, 54 yards)

 

Half by Half Breakdown:
1st Half:
8-14, 104 yards, 2 rushes, 40 yards

2nd Half:
15-25, 167 yards, 1 INT, 2 rushes, 14 yards

Total:
23-39, 271 yards, 1 INT, 4 rushes, 54 yards (For some reason ESPN has him listed with only 263 yards though? Very confused by that, but it's not like that changes much.)

TLDR; Zach played a good first half and then a below average to poor 2nd half. Feels like I'm in the movie "Groundhog Day" though because I want to say the same thing I said during last week's breakdown. This is Zach Wilson. He's got a handful of great/elite throws but always a handful of mistakes. While I think he had fewer mistakes last night than previous weeks, they're still there and he's not good enough at this point to overcome multiple drops, boneheaded penalties, or poor game plans.

I'm in the same spot going into next weekend as I was going into this weekend. I don't think Siemian or Boyle really gives us a better chance to win but at this point, it really can't be *that* much worse, right? Might as well give one of them a shot and see if they can spark the offense. Worst case, they have a quick hook at the half and we go back to Zach if it really is somehow worse than what we've seen over the last 3 weeks.

 

All-22 look at Zach's throw to Conklin to set up the Hail Mary attempt.

 

Hackett's first play call on the final drive. Pathetic.

 

Zach's throw to GW down the left sideline on the drive where he later threw the pick.

It was a dime.

 

Zach's interception. Additional angle.

Awful, awful play by him and Lazard. He's got to account for Spillane there.

 

The GW pass attempt to Lazard.

 

All-22 of the almost fumble by Zach.

Looks like Hackett dials up a four verts play on 2nd & 5. BUM!

 

Yeah, I'd be fine if they made a change. I just want to see a competent offense and whether that's with Zach, Boyle, or Siemian, doesn't matter to me at all.

I don't think Siemian or Boyle make those handful of good/elite throws that we see from Zach every week but they probably make fewer mistakes so it's a pick your poison type deal IMO. I'd lean towards the small amount of upside you might still have in Zach but I could totally understand making the change.

I honestly think this offense is doomed until Rodgers gets back under center though. He can just call Hackett an idiot to his face and audible the play at the line.

 

I want to be clear on my opinion on the pick. I do think it's mainly Zach's fault, there's just no excuse to throw that ball in that situation without peaking inside to see what Spillane's doing post-snap.

That being said, did Lazard run a lazy route? Yes. Could he have helped Zach out a bit and tried to work back towards the ball? Also, yes.

Lazard's got a bit of skin in the game on that one but Zach HAS to know better in that situation. Especially within the context of that game situation. Just can't throw a pick there.

 

This is legitimately the only reason I would be fine with them making a change at QB.

I'm not sure how much more of this offense I can watch before I fully check out on the year.

I felt myself doing it a bit last night in the 2nd half. Every time we got the ball I felt nothing because I have zero faith in this offense to score any points.