It seems like even when Clemens has a good drive going, he always misses the key pass in the red zone. Maybe if Henry dives he makes a great catch, but the pass was a bit long. Last week he missed the guy in the flat who was clear to the pylon and they settled for a FG. Last year he led 80 something drives and they got 8 TDs. A lot of that was because the team as a whole only rushed for six TDs all year, but Clemens didn't lift them either. Look at Ratliff, he gets it in the end zone. He was pressured too, he ducked the guy, bought time for the WR to get open, then hit him in the chest while throwing on the run.
I couldn't see most of the game today, but on the play you're talking about last week he was rushed and threw the ball away. To me Clemens hasn't looked that bad, just a little gun shy.. I think that's really the biggest difference b/w him and Ratliff. Half of Ratliffs TDs were for 70+ yards and what's kept his drives going are his bombs downfield. Hopefully Clemens just needs some time to recover after playing with Pennington for two seasons.
One thing that last nights game did prove was that CLemens is certainly not the clear cut #2, if he was he would have gotten the whole first half instead of alternating series with Ratliff.
Because he is the #2 and not the #1. Gholston played the entire game and we just gave him 40 million dollars. Why would we risk him getting injured when 20 million of that is guarenteed?
They split reps the whole first half until Ainge took over the two minute drill and finished the game. If he was the clear cut #2 he would have gotten more reps than Ratliff.
I think Gholston is at the foot of a pretty steep learning curve, and the CS aim to give him as many reps as possible when it doesn't count so he can get through his "Yipes period" a little faster.
Exactly. These are the guys that need work, if not in a pre-season game then when? What are we saving Clemens for? The big excuse is he hasn't had enough playing time, so why not let him play? How much playing time exactly has Ratliff had and how has he looked? Chances are with Favre both are now done for the season.
This is the biggest non-news I can imagine. Short of some massively unexpected twist, Clemens "locked up" the #2 spot 30 seconds after Green Bay signed the trade deal, and that's never changed. It wasn't going to change no matter how he played (well, anything short of absolutely atrocious, worse by far than he has ever played). Note I am not necessarily talking about what should be. I'm talking about what would be.
