A tale of two passes By Jason Cole, Yahoo! Sports August 14, 2006 More Jets: Pennington's curious behavior TAMPA, Fla. ? Two passes last Friday night defined the present and the future of the New York Jets' quarterback situation. The first occurred on a third-and-10 in the first quarter. The Jets had driven 42 yards on nine consecutive plays that measured no shorter than three yards and no longer than nine, but after a pair of incomplete passes, veteran Chad Pennington faced a standard situation that separates good quarterbacks from also-rans. Needing a first down to keep the hopes of a touchdown alive (eight yards to get into reasonable field-goal range), Pennington dropped back and looked for wide receiver Laveranues Coles, who was open in the Buccaneers' soft zone coverage about 15 yards downfield. The throw required some zip but, with the sharp angle, didn't allow Pennington to just fire away. Crow-hopping slightly for a little extra power, Pennington let loose. His toss ended up in the dirt, a good three yards off the mark. The second throw came with 1:30 remaining in the first half. This time, the situation was second-and-9 from the Tampa Bay 47-yard-line, and rookie Kellen Clemens had the opportunity to impress his new bosses in a two-minute drill. He did just that. Clemens, a second-round pick who some believed would have ranked with the likes of Vince Young, Matt Leinart and Jay Cutler in the draft if not for a broken leg last season at Oregon, threw a rope to wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery. The out pattern, which was essentially on the same trajectory as Pennington's throw to Coles, sailed through the muggy Florida air with only a flick of Clemens' considerable arm. While drawing serious conclusions about any two quarterbacks on such limited data is akin to trying to make a living on the World Poker Tour, this much is clear: When Pennington is playing, the Jets' offense looks like it's trying to operate in a phone booth. When Clemens is behind center, the field starts to resemble a pasture. "Kellen can get it out there," Cotchery said with a grin. "He can throw it and get it on top of you in a hurry." The difference can't be understated in today's NFL. One of the greatest statistical indicators of success these days is a team's average of yards per pass attempt. Or in simpler terms, how far do you go when you throw the ball. Last year, the Super Bowl champion Steelers averaged 7.12 yards per pass attempt, second in the league only to the Colts. Meanwhile, the NFC champion Seahawks ranked fourth at 6.9 yards per attempt. Moreover, of the 12 playoffs teams, 10 averaged more than 6.0 yards per attempt and only five teams that topped that number didn't make the playoffs. The statistical comparison between Pennington and Clemens is telling. Both players were relatively accurate last Friday, Pennington completing nine of 14 throws and Clemens going 10-of-14. But where Pennington produced 54 yards (an average of fewer than four yards per attempt), Clemens had 92 (an average of better than 6.6 per pass). Again, this is all premature stuff. Clemens' night could have looked a whole lot worse if his out-pattern pass in the third quarter had been intercepted, as even he expected. "I was already running back [to make the tackle]," Clemens said. After two shoulder surgeries on an arm that was already challenged for strength, Pennington isn't ever going to be throwing rockets all over the field. That problem shows up in some not-so-subtle ways, such as when the Jets faced a third-and-goal situation Friday. New York had driven 60 yards, the biggest gain being 15 on a roughing-the-passer penalty. As the Bucs' defense lined up, the secondary flooded the middle of the field, essentially challenging Pennington to throw something quickly to the outside. Again, it's a throw that requires some strength. Tampa Bay then threw in a blitz on top of that. Pennington was caught with no time and no blocking. He was sacked and fumbled the ball. The Bucs recovered and the threat was gone. Clemens, by contrast, has the kind of arm that can open the field, open the playbook and even cause a little fear. He may not be quite that big of a threat just yet, given how young he is, but the potential is obvious. As obvious as the future is for the Jets. Jason Cole is a national NFL writer for Yahoo! Sports. http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_y...hDubYF?slug=jc-jets081406&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
EXACTLY. COles turned one way and Pennington thought he was going another.. They read the coverage differently, and that happens all the time on all teams.
you can't deny Clemen's arm strength, but he still seems undersized a bit to me, and I'm trying to get past that.
I have to respectfully disagree with you. I too thought he was a small 6'2 (or 6' 1 5/8 but we're talking semantics here) but watching him last Fri. he seemed OK height wise. On another note, If you knew nothing about the Jets and you watched Kellen vs. Chad against the Bucs you cannot deny the fact that Clemens looked like the vet and Pennington the rookie
I understand you points. Clemens looked ok. I did however, think he was a little herky jerky on the snaps and in the pocket. I would like to see just a little more poise from him, but that will come with experience. I don't believe he stood out that much in terms of leadership against Chad as you feel. If anything, I think Chad showed great leadership as expected, and awesome play action (the best in the NFL) If Clemens can settle down a bit, develop the play-action, and really become a leader, he's hands down better than Pennington because of his ability to stretch the field with his arm.
I agree with you that Chad has some of the best play action fakes in the league. Unfortunately with our running game that's not going to be nearly as effective for him as it was when he was unknown to the league. With the current team the ability to drop back quickly and release the ball quickly to spots on the field is going to be much more important than play action. Chad is incredible slow delivering the ball and without play action and his sprintouts he isn't going to have those nice clean lanes to get the ball out to uncovered recievers. Clemens looked very good but he looked very small out there. I'm pretty concerned in general about our QB situation. I wouldn't cut or trade BB so fast.
Great points about the running game. Didn't think about that. You are absolutely right. It it bogs down (and it certainly looks like its heading that way) Mangini just might hand the reigns over to Kellen, because as you said, Chad is very slow delivering the ball. Interesting you mentioned BB, because I said that in a similar thread last week. Personally, with the exception of a stronger arm on Clemen's part(but Brooks can throw) I really dont' believe there is that much of a difference between Clemens and Bollinger. That obviously can change, if Clemens plays and gets us into the endzone, something Brooks couldn't do much of last year.
As usual, winston is right on top of things (although he would agree that his observations are hardly new - many people, including him, have been saying this for a while). CP definitely does have great play action fake ability, but the lack of a running game hurts that. That's not the only issue, however - there is also the lack of the element of surprise. Even worse, the way play action helps is that it gets defenders to hesitate for a second, and open up small gaps. If the QB can't get the ball in there, it really doesn't matter. I was quite disappointed with CP's performance on Friday - it was all dink and dunk, and I can't see the Jets succeeding with that kind of offense.
I'm starting to wonder now if the dinking and dunking is all he's capable of at this point (but I have read that he's thrown some deep passes in practice) I didn't realize it until now, but I'm kinda dissappointed Schotts didn't call a play for Chad to let one rip. I would have like to see how that ball looked.
I think it's all he really can do, too. Even during the game he looked like he was soft-tossing it, not wanting to whip is arm around like he should be.
What good is Penny's 6' 4" frame laying on his back or crawling around on the ground trying to find a fumble? I know, I know – that’s always on the line.
It was the first preseason game, and we came out with a very vanilla offensive gameplan. The Bucs did a good job covering the deeper routes and were leaving the shorter passes open. Chad was taking what he could get, and I don't blame him for that since it was his first live action since last September. There is no point for Chad to come out throwing strong deep passes between defenders at this early stage of preseason. Last year against the Vikings in preseason, he came out throwing with maximum effort and never looked the same again. He had much more time for rehab this past offseason, but we don't need to unnecessarily force the issue. Look for the passing game to open up more once we are further along in preseason and the playbook has had more time to develop.
I have 2 questions for you. This is kind of random but here goes. 1) If you believe this about Woody, why do you support the team? 2) What would you do if the Jets actually do win said championship?
unless ramsey snaps out of his funk, clemmins and bollinger are the only qbs we have who can make the throws needed to keep defenses honest. we'd be better off going with bolly, clemmins, and brad smith and cut our cap losses now for the long haul.:up:
the games are not no-contact scrimmages. tampa showed you on the 7 yard line what happens when you apply pressure to the egg. the dink and dunk turns into chuck and duck.:shit: :rofl:
