In your opinion, how did we fair in certain areas in comparison to last year?

[mbarbour21]

These are some issues that I believe we typically had last year and how we faired yesterday in comparison:

- Bridgewater was not making deep throws (We had one good completion. To be fair, our 0-line is still severely limiting our ability to go deep. I feel like we did see better arm talent though, and it isn't because our QB is unwilling, isn't capable, or is ignoring/not seeing a wide open Moore.)

- No CMC for most of the year (This is obviously improved. Maybe a bit too much improved. Most agree we over used CMC and need to find a way to spell him. The season didn't get any shorter, that's for sure.)

- No TE production for the majority of the year (More of the same. Would have loved to see Tremble get some targets, even if it was from out of the back. Tremble should not come off field for Ricci.)

- Very poor play in the red zone  (More of the same again. Turnovers, bad throws, getting stuff.....rinse and repeat. Offense did well when they were spread out. Darnold could have crawled in the end zone. Turnover was a stupid fluke play. Hopefully the miscues in the red zone will not be the norm.

- Slye on FGs  (More of the same yet again. Yes Slye did well for the Texans, but he didn't do well for us. It's very possible he played no better than Santoso if he was still rocking the black and blue.....or the white ice cream uniforms....whatever. In case you have been hiding under a rock, WE PUNTED ON THEIR 33 YARD-LINE.)

- Defense could not execute on 3rd down to save their life  (Very much improved! We made them look almost as bad as us on 3rd downs. It was mentioned before somewhere on this site that we would have lost this game last year. This is exactly why we didn't. We got them off the field, and that is refreshing.)

- Defense could not stop the run  (I feel like this goes without saying. Last year we would have given up more yards on a single rush TWICE, than we gave up all game. Held them to 45. If this continues and we keep the improved pass rush we are gonna be a force.)

- Raw rookies starting in the secondary  (We had a rookie in the secondary, but he def wasn't raw. He gave up that TD late, but that was mostly the result of a perfect pass. They went his way 3 times. Horn balled. Chinn was def an upgrade at the safety position. There just seemed to be one major issue with that completion to Mims. But the unit looked much improved over Jackson/Douglas, Pride, Burris, and Franklin....or whatever group we had most often.

***How do you guys think we faired in the areas we performed poorly in last year?***

[CRA]

I still think Sam is playing pretty similar to Teddy.   I think that is the plan.  Overall, in preseason and week 1 is basically playing with just about 10 yards of field.   I would expect that to continue. 

The offense I don't think completed a single intermediate pass.  10-20 yards downfield.   He did hit Robby deep...but that was the type deep play Teddy would randomly hit too.  Where the WR was just so wide open he would take it.   Then that one crazy DJ toe tap play. 

 

[OldhamA]

2 minutes ago, CRA said:

I still think Sam is playing pretty similar to Teddy.   I think that is the plan.  Overall, in preseason and week 1 is basically playing with just about 10 yards of field.   I would expect that to continue. 

The offense I don't think completed a single intermediate pass.  10-20 yards downfield.   He did hit Robby deep...but that was the type deep play Teddy would random hit too.  Where the WR was just so wide open he would take it.   Then that one crazy DJ toe tap play. 

 

Toxic Teddy ran the offence the way Brady and Rhule want it to be run - attacking teams horizontally with quick passes to keep the chains moving and providing receivers with YAC opportunities. 

One of two reasons why Bridgewater is no longer here is because he refused to hit the deep shots. He can't make that throw Darnold made to Anderson - that was all arm. Much like the Saints O with Brees, the plan is to consistently hit the short completions then, if you overcompensate to defend that, hit you with the shot play. It's absolutely by design - we'll experience lots of Bridgewater deja vu this year - except Darnold will hit those chunk plays. 

[RumHam]

too. many. fuging. drops. also, when they started creeping back is when i was not seeing cmc involved. We have him, we use him, there's a reason for that. This isn't the NBA, it's the NFL. The main difference in this game than any other last year was CMC and a pass rush. 

Drops are why preseason is important, but people fear getting hurt. You need those reps, not when the regular season starts. a lot of sloppy football across the board yesterday, esp in buffalo. 

[mbarbour21]

6 minutes ago, CRA said:

I still think Sam is playing pretty similar to Teddy.   I think that is the plan.  Overall, in preseason and week 1 is basically playing with just about 10 yards of field.   I would expect that to continue. 

The offense I don't think completed a single intermediate pass.  10-20 yards downfield.   He did hit Robby deep...but that was the type deep play Teddy would random hit too.  Where the WR was just so wide open he would take it.   Then that one crazy DJ toe tap play. 

 

Do you think that is the plan BECAUSE our offensive line isn't good? Or do you think we would still have the same plan if they were better? 

[LinvilleGorge]

I agree that the primary improvements were on the defensive side of the ball which shouldn't be shocking given our considerable investments in the defense since Rhule was hired.

I also agree that so far, the offense basically looks the same as last year with the same issues present with Darnold throwing the ball at a higher velocity than Teddy did. Hopefully as he settles in and gets more comfortable we'll see a more dynamic offense. The offense can't just be feed CMC and rely on the QB simply not to lose the game. There has to be more to it than that, particularly with the WRs we have.

[GoobyPls]

It’s impossible to make a judgement after week 1. Go back last year to week 1 when we lost to the raiders, Teddy played about the same as Darnold going up against a much more talented team (on paper at least). We lost 30-34 our D got ran over, as of now vs a bad team our defense looked great, our offense looks about the same.

 

To me it seems like the coaches are micromanaging Darnold, they are scared he’s gonna starting throwing picks. That was the least talented most inexperience secondary we will face all season and mostly dinked and dunked, when we should of been attacking down field.

[CRA]

39 minutes ago, OldhamA said:

Toxic Teddy ran the offence the way Brady and Rhule want it to be run - attacking teams horizontally with quick passes to keep the chains moving and providing receivers with YAC opportunities. 

One of two reasons why Bridgewater is no longer here is because he refused to hit the deep shots. He can't make that throw Darnold made to Anderson - that was all arm. Much like the Saints O with Brees, the plan is to consistently hit the short completions then, if you overcompensate to defend that, hit you with the shot play. It's absolutely by design - we'll experience lots of Bridgewater deja vu this year - except Darnold will hit those chunk plays. 

I mean, Teddy hit them too when they were as wide open as Robbie was.   That was the only time he pulled the trigger deep. 

you have to be able to attack at the intermediate level.  The offense failed to complete a pass there the entire game.  It was largely just attacking within 10 yard downfield. 

From a passing attack perspective, it was very similar to Teddy IMO.   Which is fine week 1 for Sam.  But we will have to get better.  Especially vs better teams.  Especially the 10-20 range downfield.  Which we haven't shown yet in preseason or week 1 we can really do that.   

The intermediate throws will be what makes or breaks it for Darnold IMO.  That's where it gets hard for him. 

[CRA]

47 minutes ago, mbarbour21 said:

Do you think that is the plan BECAUSE our offensive line isn't good? Or do you think we would still have the same plan if they were better? 

you don't need crazy time to attack 10-20 yards downfield.  

We didn't complete one Sunday.  I think Sam had 1 in the preseason.  And reports out of camp were repeatedly that Sam was going short and it stuck out.   I would assume Sam is just being coached to do that for the time being.  

That was Teddy's DNA. 

 

[JawnyBlaze]

Setting aside the “deep throws”, the medium and short throws had more zip and urgency than Teddy’s. Teddy’s inability to throw deep wasn’t the only problem, it was his timid decision making and floaters at all levels, as well as throws that were technically catchable but often behind, low or otherwise not accurate.  Darnold had none of those problems outside two or three bad passes. QB has been significantly upgraded this season, based on this game and the preseason game. 

[PNW_PantherMan]

We need a much better threat at TE if we're going to stick to the dump off game and short passes underneath zones.  We did not target Robbie and Marshall enough IMO.

[joemac]

26 minutes ago, JawnyBlaze said:

Setting aside the “deep throws”, the medium and short throws had more zip and urgency than Teddy’s. Teddy’s inability to throw deep wasn’t the only problem, it was his timid decision making and floaters at all levels, as well as throws that were technically catchable but often behind, low or otherwise not accurate.  Darnold had none of those problems outside two or three bad passes. QB has been significantly upgraded this season, based on this game and the preseason game. 

Yeah if Darnold settles into the offense nicely like I think he will, we may have our QB situation solved for a while.  Still need significant investment in the o line though. 

[CRA]

25 minutes ago, JawnyBlaze said:

Setting aside the “deep throws”, the medium and short throws had more zip and urgency than Teddy’s. Teddy’s inability to throw deep wasn’t the only problem, it was his timid decision making and floaters at all levels, as well as throws that were technically catchable but often behind, low or otherwise not accurate.  Darnold had none of those problems outside two or three bad passes. QB has been significantly upgraded this season, based on this game and the preseason game. 

yeah, see, I just can't get down with stuff like that.  QB has been significantly upgraded?  I mean, we can't actually declare that.  

 

[OldhamA]

2 hours ago, CRA said:

I mean, Teddy hit them too when they were as wide open as Robbie was.   That was the only time he pulled the trigger deep. 

you have to be able to attack at the intermediate level.  The offense failed to complete a pass there the entire game.  It was largely just attacking within 10 yard downfield. 

From a passing attack perspective, it was very similar to Teddy IMO.   Which is fine week 1 for Sam.  But we will have to get better.  Especially vs better teams.  Especially the 10-20 range downfield.  Which we haven't shown yet in preseason or week 1 we can really do that.   

The intermediate throws will be what makes or breaks it for Darnold IMO.  That's where it gets hard for him. 

Bridgewater can't make that throw.