Matt Rhule on the Teddy reach and fumble

[Jeremy Igo]

RE: Goal line fumble by Teddy Bridgewater and comment to Melissa Stark about never reaching the ball over the goal line

It’s not Teddy, it’s just our team. We don’t reach the ball over the goal line until fourth down. It’s just kind of a principal. We don’t do it. We never do it. Teddy talked to the team and he admitted, he said ‘I shouldn’t have done that.’ You get to the moment and you can’t do new things. You know, you are at Lambeau in December playing a good team. You just have to trust yourself. I’m not talking about just Teddy, but the whole team. That play was emblematic. You talk about dramatic shift. Had he done that on fourth down, I can live with it, just not on first down, especially when I think we ran the ball well when we did run it tonight.  That’s just a principle of our team. We don’t reach the ball across the goal line until fourth down. 

   

RE: If that was the play call

No, and Teddy never, unless we give him some latitude. Last week I thought the problem was on us. We gave him too much latitude. We had the ball down at the 6-inch line and [offensive coordinator] Joe [Brady], we run the tempo on fourth-and-1, tried to call a tempo call and get us into a quarterback sneak to get into the endzone. We felt like that was one of the good things we were going to do. Instead of running the sneak like we do in practice, he jumped over the top. Again, that’s something I think you do on fourth down. You don’t do that on first down. 

 

RE: If he would have wanted to run a different play than the quarterback sneak

No sir. No, Joe [Brady] called it. Joe calls the plays for us. He called quarterback sneak. That’s just not how we execute it. I’m anticipating when we run quarterback sneak, we wedge in and push it. Quarterback sneaks in the NFL right now are like 90%. You usually score on them. You usually get the yard and score. It was first down. Quarterback sneak to try and catch them. The referees held us because some of our guys tried to run on the field and had to run back off when Joe went tempo. So, the referees held us. But we should execute that play. I have no problem with the play call. It’s first down. You run the sneak, you don’t get in, you are at the 6-inch line. Next play we hand it off. I was not going to kick a field goal there. We had four downs. My issue is really never about the play calls, it’s the execution of the call. I expect every play can work if we do it right. We don’t reach the ball over the goal line. I hate to beat him up on just that one play because there were a lot of things today that weren’t up to our standard across the board. But that play just can’t happen. 

[Hoenheim]

 We might be an average team if we surrounded teddy with an incredible roster but even with this exact same roster, this is a good to great team with a franchise QB. Teddy ain't that and if Rule and Tepper can't see that by the time free agency and the draft roles around , they deserve to wallow in their self inflicted pit of misery for years to come. 

[Burnout189]

Yeah, I think the writing is on the wall here. It obvious Rhule isn't satisfied with Teddy. Makes me think we will definitely be taking a QB first thing in the draft.

[Hoenheim]

Just now, Burnout189 said:

Yeah, I think the writing is on the wall here. It obvious Rhule isn't satisfied with Teddy. Makes me think we will definitely be taking a QB first thing in the draft.

Who was ultimately responsible for bringing Teddy in ? Brady ? Rhule? Hurney ? Tepper?

Might not matter what Rhule thinks if someone outranking him made the decision on Teddy and wants to keep him for some reason

[Khyber53]

Never seen a guy who could make play after play marching a team down the field, then completely go off script and blow it. I had a lot of faith that Teddy had skills and accuracy and experience to make us competitive, but the last two games have changed my mind.

The guy's completion percentages are amazing and it seems he can somehow hit anything for 80 yards of the field, but that last 20 yards... he just shoots himself in the foot. 

Edit to add: Perhaps Teddy will be the Rodney Peete of this generation's Panthers. One bad year of holding down the fort before we get a gunslinger who can win games.

[Burnout189]

9 minutes ago, Hoenheim said:

Who was ultimately responsible for bringing Teddy in ? Brady ? Rhule? Hurney ? Tepper?

Might not matter what Rhule thinks if someone outranking him made the decision on Teddy and wants to keep him for some reason

Not sure on that one. But I don't think anyone, even coaches knew just how non-clutch Teddy would be. I'm sure they were hoping to get at least somewhat decent play out of Bridgewater for those three years he was signed. 

[MHS831]

You do that on fourth down, not first down--Rhule said it.  It was a huge comment---if your QB does not understand situational football--and there are many signs this season that demonstrates he does not---it is time to move on.  Teddy throws short on key third and long situations, for example.  The Packers even said they want to keep Teddy in the pocket----the other team wants our QB in the pocket making decisions. I wish I could remember the exact quote, but when I heard it, I was like "What?"