Offensive Line

in some ways that kind of makes sense. Play action passes are slow to develop, if you have a QB who is slow to release in a slow to develop play its almost asking to be sacked.

they aren't all in on Fields, they playbook is half open

 

Good point…he can’t read the fucking field while staring at it the whole time…no way he can do it turning around and coming back to it

 

This never even crossed my mind but it makes as much sense as anything at this point.

Play action is as close to a free lunch as you get in offensive play design. There's a mountain of evidence that it works very well even if you don't have a good running game. You have to think Engstrand is at least aware of this and is avoiding play action for some reason we aren't privy to.

If Fields isn't the reason we're avoiding it, then it's a massive indictment on Engstrand (who I've generally liked so far).

 

Yeah, maybe he needs to change protection, even change a play. I am not sure he can learn to do that. I did watch the sacks carefully. 2 of them are definitely on Fields. The one above still I think it's a little tough to blame it on him, but there were two where he definitely held onto the ball too long. On the others though, the OL also sucked. He also missed a TD to GW. So yeah, even though the stats may be decent for this game, and Cowboys even in garbage time tried to play good defense (some sacks were at garbage time too), this was not a good game by Fields. QBR I think tells more or less tells an accurate story - 24.

For the season QBR is 47, 22nd of all QBs, which I think is about right. About the same range as Trevor Lawrence, Rodgers, Murray. Not great QBs, but if everything else is good can get you some wins and even make play-offs. Jags for example are winning, even though they were worse than us last year. Hired Liam Coen as a coach. Someone we wouldn't even interview...

 

Btw guys, as Jags are showing down two scores does not mean garbage time. If you don't have garbage defense that is. Liam Coen appears legit too. Only he were available when we did our coaching search. Oh that's right he was and we didn't even want to talk to him. Thanks Woody!

 

At no point were the Jags down two touchdowns. And if you’re still trying to fight this fight, go search Twitter for all the people posting how bad Fields is until we’re down big in the fourth.

 

If you say so. But of course they were.

 

Also, here is the person on twitter blaming Fields for "long throwing motion".
https://x.com/RyanMSampson/status/1975208350112719271

Membou is running downfield for completely unknown reason instead of blocking the guy and Fields instead of easy throw has unblocked by Membou runner right at him and he deflect what would be an easy completion and a possible TD. Yet somehow it's because of long motion

I have now seen enough all 22 from last game to conclude Fields made a fair share of mistakes. Missed GW for an easy TD. He could have avoided 1 or maybe even 2 sacks out of 5. The 1st one I think he could have avoided though he would need to fit the ball between 3 defenders. Not an easy throw and has some danger, but he could have made it. Also notice this is max protect 7 guys protecting against 4 rushers, and they still quickly get through. Pathetic protection. This is really on both pass pro and Fields 50/50.

The other one he should have definitely avoided and possibly even hit GW for a TD.

How about this one, 4th and 1, and Fashanu literally blocks his own guy instead of the opponent, and causes pressure on Fields and also Beck is not able to get to the spot on time. Still Fields gives him a chance to make a tough catch to get 1st down, but the ball bounces off his hands.

So yeah, I don't think this was a great game for Fields. But no where near as bad as some make it sound. In 2022 this type of QB performance would probably be enough to have a winning record. We had 11 opponents score 20 or less.

 

Idk if his throwing motion is long. It may be. It’s not a professional motion but it could still work if he didn’t take forever back there thinking about when to get it in motion

 

Yea like an idiot I left out the key part... "in the fourth quarter". My bad. Point remains though, of course you don't bail on your defense when you're up 14 in the second quarter. No team does that. Plenty of teams do it midway through the fourth and every metric shows that's the biggest contributing factor to Fields raw numbers.

 

I agree, the throwing motion wouldn't be that much of an issue if any semblance of sound decision-making was present. He might have a tiny bit more confidence in the pocket than Zach Wilson but that's it.

 

You also don't let go when when you are in the 3d or even in the 4th up by two scores until almost the very end. 2 score games are too close. Maybe you blitz less sure, but you still play the best defense you can with 4 men fronts. We just saw with Tampa how quickly things can change. Dallas one yeah, that was garbage time mid 4th. I want to see a complete game where we do not fumble the ball about to score inside 10 and defense does not give up that many points.

 

Btw, here are a couple of plays around a garbage time TD:
https://x.com/Joerb31/status/1975735646804218078
https://x.com/Joerb31/status/1975730110088290318

Defense is still trying, both QB hits, where protections fails again. Olu btw had an abysmal game.

Mason Taylor 2PT on a 6 men rush: https://x.com/Joerb31/status/1975740428151304365

It certainly doesn't looks like the defense is taking it easy. They want to pad their stats too. Do we not count any of it? Do we not give Taylor credit for quite a few catches? There were nice plays by him. But yeah would be nice to have a close game from start to finish where the defense does not shit the bed again and again and again plus TOs and penalties.

 

You give credit for it…facts are facts so yah

But blitz or not, the intensity is very different when you’re up multiple scores in the 4th. The mentality is more “ok guys, let’s not get beat deep and let’s not give up chunk plays”. So you give up short underneath stuff and you trade yards for time. This is basic football strategy. It doesn’t have to be full prevent where you’re rushing three guys and playing everyone 15 yards off the ball and deeper, but the mentality is the same. Doesn’t mean guys aren’t trying, doesn’t mean they are going to let us walk into the end zone. But it is for sure a different mentality.

You can see it just watching the games. To his credit, Fields is taking those short crossers and dump offs and we start moving the ball, but it’s against a different defense.

 

To some extent, perhaps, but it sure looked to me like Dallas tried to rip our throats out until the very end. Sacking the QB, hitting hard, etc... Even that TD at the end to get back up by 3 scores. They actually showed a killer instinct. To the point where I thought maybe Shotty was actually a good choice for the HC. I don't know, I still give credit for this to the players even though yes we all knew we were not winning this game. Heck we pretty much knew after that fumble it was over and two mins later there was no doubt.

 

It’s not about “trying” or effort. Yes they are NFL players and will play hard (or at least they should!)

It’s about the mentality or the concepts of the defense…I don’t know how to say it and you don’t want to believe it so that’s fine, but it’s obvious that we are doing much better on O when the defense is playing soft. Doesn’t have to mean blitzing frequency. They are giving up short stuff…watch the games and you can easily see that in the end we have a lot of short routes wide open in the 4th quarter that weren’t there for the first three. Why is that? The defense is trading short yards for time.

 

its like he's never heard of prevent defense before. The effort is always there, or at least should be, this is the NFL.

 

Can you find some all 22 examples of that? I have already shown plenty of all 22 videos in "garbage time" where I have not seen any trade offs of backed off receivers for time. I did hear about this soft defense narrative, but would be good to see actual all 22 "soft" plays, where the QB and offense should not get any credit for doing well against them.

BA showed one play where we had like 3d and 20, and Miami backed off and were willing to concede short yardage where we do not get a 1st down anyway. Fields did not take it and tried to get closer to 1st down, but was incomplete, so didn't pad his stats there. But if you have other all 22 plays where the stats were padded where we should not give credit to the players, let me know, I do want to see.

Is this an example which we should not count? https://x.com/Joerb31/status/1975756031021228339

 

everything is counted, including that play, in the stat sheet. Looks like Taylor made a great catch on a poor throw that shoulda been easy