The Dowdle Mirage - Play Calling Problems

[jfra78]

48 minutes ago, tukafan21 said:

And if that's the case, then you shouldn't be throwing it 30 times.  But if you do, give your only legitimate WR threat more than 8 of those targets.

Because again, this isn't about T-Mac, it's about the overall play calling.

If we came out and just went very run heavy, with the play design and calling keeping the defense on their heels so we're constantly ripping of 5+ yard carries and sustaining long drives, then I'd be 100% okay with it and not upset with "my guy" not having a big game.

But we didn't do that, we kept running rather predictable plays, with bland play design that wasn't scheming players open or creating open running lanes to constantly get chunk yards in the run game.

It was Rico breaking off a few big plays, partially due to his breaking of tackles, that got him the 200+ yards, NOT Canales' play design and play calling.

Do you see the differentiation I'm talking about there?

The one thing Bryce does well is spread the ball around.  I don't think that's a Canales thing at all

[ProcessBlue2]

I laughed.

[tukafan21]

6 minutes ago, jfra78 said:

The one thing Bryce does well is spread the ball around.  I don't think that's a Canales thing at all

I'll be honest, this one is more of just a gut feeling based on watching Bryce all this time, not something I've actively tracked....

But I don't think it's Bryce, I think it's Canales.

Bryce doesn't move through his progressions well (or at all) unless he's scrambling around and thus is forced to.  He very often seems to be throwing to his first read or what the play was called for.

If Bryce was a QB who stands confidently in the pocket, working his way through his progressions and hitting the open man, I'd get it and agree with you, but that's just not what I've seen from my recollection, again, not like I've taken notes of that on all his passing snaps, so maybe I'm wrong on that one.

And sure, it could be Bryce making that decision at the line based on what he's seeing pre-snap, but if that's the case, it's almost more alarming than the opposite, because it's not like he's tearing it up, so it means he's making pre-snap decisions of where to go with the ball, going that way, and still sucking, along with Canales then not being like "WTF are you doing out there?!?!" and making him stop doing that.

Edited 4 hours ago by tukafan21

[jfra78]

6 minutes ago, tukafan21 said:

I'll be honest, this one is more of just a gut feeling based on watching Bryce all this time, not something I've actively tracked....

But I don't think it's Bryce, I think it's Canales.

Bryce doesn't move through his progressions well (or at all) unless he's scrambling around and thus is forced to.  He very often seems to be throwing to his first read or what the play was called for.

If Bryce was a QB who stands confidently in the pocket, working his way through his progressions and hitting the open man, I'd get it and agree with you, but that's just not what I've seen from my recollection, again, not like I've taken notes of that on all his passing snaps, so maybe I'm wrong on that one.

And sure, it could be Bryce making that decision at the line based on what he's seeing pre-snap, but if that's the case, it's almost more alarming than the opposite, because it's not like he's tearing it up, so it means he's making pre-snap decisions of where to go with the ball, going that way, and still sucking, along with Canales then not being like "WTF are you doing out there?!?!" and making him stop doing that.

I give Bryce alot of poo on here, but I can admit he works through his progressions

[tukafan21]

5 minutes ago, jfra78 said:

I give Bryce alot of poo on here, but I can admit he works through his progressions

Again, maybe it's my frustration with him on the whole that I just don't see it as much, but I don't see him going through his progressions from the pocket that much, only when he's forced to scramble.

Just seems like he's very often throwing to his first read from the pocket, which would then be on Canales for spreading it around, not because he worked through to find the open man.

Also, part of it is that we're constantly seeing open guys that he's not throwing to, so if he's going through his progressions, then he's just flat out making the wrong decisions.

[fanpanther]

39 minutes ago, tukafan21 said:

Again, maybe it's my frustration with him on the whole that I just don't see it as much, but I don't see him going through his progressions from the pocket that much, only when he's forced to scramble.

Just seems like he's very often throwing to his first read from the pocket, which would then be on Canales for spreading it around, not because he worked through to find the open man.

Also, part of it is that we're constantly seeing open guys that he's not throwing to, so if he's going through his progressions, then he's just flat out making the wrong decisions.

i agree with this i dont see alot of different people catching passes from young

[jfra78]

4 minutes ago, fanpanther said:

i agree with this i dont see alot of different people catching passes from young

I guess 10 isnt ebough

[tukafan21]

12 minutes ago, jfra78 said:

I guess 10 isnt ebough

I think that's part of the problem, he's spreading the ball around too much, many of them are the first read play calls, and on top of that, a large portion of them are purposefully called screens or other short passes.

I just looked, the Cardinals are the only other team in the league right now without at least 3 players with 100+ yards receiving so far this year, with the majority of teams having 4 or more.  And even then, their #2 right now is McBride with over 200 yards.

Our 2nd leading receiver this year has 108 yards (albeit with 4 more players with 82 or more).

On the surface, that might not be as alarming as you might think, but when you add into it that Bryce is currently 6th in the league in pass attempts, and it's even more alarming that he hasn't gotten a 3rd player to 100 yards so far and his second highest is only 108.

XL has 39 yards on 18 targets.  Renfrow has 82 yards on 24 targets.  Tremble has 87 on 16 targets.  Sanders has 92 on 14 targets.

None of those are good enough, so why aren't we calling more plays with T-Mac as the first read and forcing the ball to him (and again, that's not me wanting my guy to get more targets, that's me wanting more targets for the only productive pass catcher so far this year, I'd feel the same no matter what that player's name was).

All of this is why I have issues with Canales' play calling.  How do you have a player who had 73 yards in the first half and then you only give him 1 target in the 2nd half despite playing from behind the majority of that time?

You can be happy about the win, happy about Dowdle getting 200 yards, but in a game where your QB threw it 30 times, I can't accept the above sentence in the same breath, that's just terrible play calling, which is on top of the already predictable play calling in general, which is also on top of boring play designs as well.

Add it all up, and THAT is why I'm unhappy even after a win, not because "my guy" didn't have a bigger game.

[TheSpecialJuan]

We had a very favorable matchup our o-line manhandles theirs. Even Etienne looked like he would have had a great game on his limited rushing opportunities. 

[tukafan21]

8 minutes ago, TheSpecialJuan said:

We had a very favorable matchup our o-line manhandles theirs. Even Etienne looked like he would have had a great game on his limited rushing opportunities. 

We only had 9 carries that went for over 5 yards on the day, I'm not really sure you can then say our OL manhandled their line.

If you OL manhandled the opposing DL, you should have more than 9 carries that went for over 5 yards (and no, I'm not saying we should then have had a dozen 15 yard carries, but there should have been more of those 6-10 yard chunk plays than we got).  

Which again, is the root of my problems with this game, because I agree with you, Etienne looked solid, combined with Rico having the game of his life.  Better play calling and being less predictable, in an advantageous matchup, 100% should have lead to more carries of over 5 yards than we had, which in turn should have then opened up the passing game more, none of which happened.

Hence my point of the thread, not to let Rico's 200 yard game make you gloss over the fact that Canales still called an awful game.  This thread was never meant to be an attack on Rico or a desire to see more T-Mac targets, it was a statement about Canales still being a terrible play caller.

Edited 3 hours ago by tukafan21

[ProcessBlue2]

6 minutes ago, tukafan21 said:

We only had 9 carries that went for over 5 yards on the day, I'm not really sure you can then say our OL manhandled their line.

-R.Dowdle right guard to CAR 35 for 11 yards (D.Trader).

-(Shotgun) R.Dowdle right tackle to CAR 44 for 14 yards (J.Brooks; I.Melifonwu).

-(Shotgun) R.Dowdle left end pushed ob at MIA 7 for 7 yards (M.Fitzpatrick)

-(Shotgun) R.Dowdle right tackle to CAR 49 for 25 yards (M.Fitzpatrick)

-Ji.Horn left end ran ob at MIA 46 for 5 yards (J.Jones)

-(Shotgun) R.Dowdle right tackle to MIA 31 for 7 yards (T.Dodson; J.Brooks)

-R.Dowdle right end to MIA 17 for 53 yards (M.Fitzpatrick).
 

-Ji.Horn right end to CAR 25 for 5 yards (M.Fitzpatrick).

-R.Dowdle right guard to MIA 32 for 43 yards (M.Fitzpatrick

-(Shotgun) R.Dowdle up the middle to MIA 27 for 5 yards (K.Britt; J.Brooks).

-R.Dowdle up the middle to CAR 33 for 16 yards (I.Melifonwu; A.Davis).PENALTY on MIA-Z.Sieler, Defensive Holding, 5 yards, enforced at CAR 33.

-T.Etienne left tackle to MIA 33 for 5 yards (I.Melifonwu; M.Fitzpatrick

-T.Etienne left tackle to MIA 4 for 12 yards (R.Douglas, K.Britt).

Imagine complaining about this after the last few years

[beckersteen]

20 minutes ago, tukafan21 said:

We only had 9 carries that went for over 5 yards on the day, I'm not really sure you can then say our OL manhandled their line.

If you OL manhandled the opposing DL, you should have more than 9 carries that went for over 5 yards (and no, I'm not saying we should then have had a dozen 15 yard carries, but there should have been more of those 6-10 yard chunk plays than we got).  

Which again, is the root of my problems with this game, because I agree with you, Etienne looked solid, combined with Rico having the game of his life.  Better play calling and being less predictable, in an advantageous matchup, 100% should have lead to more carries of over 5 yards than we had, which in turn should have then opened up the passing game more, none of which happened.

Hence my point of the thread, not to let Rico's 200 yard game make you gloss over the fact that Canales still called an awful game.  This thread was never meant to be an attack on Rico or a desire to see more T-Mac targets, it was a statement about Canales still being a terrible play caller.

Yes, if you take away our best plays we didn't make good plays. 

[Jon Snow]

[tukafan21]

14 minutes ago, ProcessBlue2 said:

 

Imagine complaining about this after the last few years

And THIS, this right here is what I can't stand about this fan base.

Stop being happy at things that good franchises don't get happy about, just because of how bad we have been the last decade, it's loser mentality to be happy for those reasons.

Be happy when we actually show improvement and win games because we played a good game, not because we won a game because the other team was shittier than we were.

I'll never apologize for wanting to see actual improvement, not going nuts over a handful of good plays in a game where we barely squeaked by one of the worst teams in the league.

Edited 2 hours ago by tukafan21