RayNAustin wrote:2 turnovers in the red zone ... a blocked punt for a TD ... blocked extra point ... trouble with pass protection ... these are not a good recipe for a win.
RG3 still looks confused .... and it appears to me that he's not getting the ball out of his hands fast enough on some plays. Whether that is a product of slow decision making or slow developing plays, clearly, the offense isn't fine tuned enough to overcome critical mistakes.
As for the positives, the defense kept pace ... don't know if that's attributable to good defense or poor offense from Houston.
Seems like the same old sad story ... different season, new staff, same problems. Pass pro, red zone woes, and special teams gaffs.
Again, Ray, we are on the same page more or less. While I believe our OL wasn't great ---- the playcalling was set up for quick passing routes with little protection using a spread offense formation. In the majority of situations, HOU was bringing in their front 3 and an additional 2-3 LBs/DBs on each play -- generally coming straight up the gut. RGIII, on many plays, was supposed to be throwing quick, timing patterns. Sometimes they wouldn't develop, but I found he held onto the ball longer than I remember him doing so in previous years.
One of the things I did while watching the entire game was (1) try to determine which options were 1, 2, 3, etc. prior to snap, (2) look downfield at open receivers within the first 4 seconds post-snap/completion of route or at WR break, etc., (3) count the time from snap to throw/pressure applied. I was forutnetely able to do this because I was at the game and had the vantage point to do so --- and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. First and foremost, I found was the playcalling was
highly predictable -- in that I was able to easily ID the WR options prior to snap and predict 1,2,3 with decent consistency (I said this in another post, but I wasn't the only one in the stadium able to do so). I concluded there were about 15 (but not more than 20) plays that, after going thru steps 1 and 2, above, I found open receivers that RGIII either didn't identify or decided on another, shorter route, option. The remaining 15-20 were either (1) set plays that RGIII ID a downfield receiver (e.g., Nile Paul and the throw in Q1 where the WR (can't remember who) was WIDE open but RGIII threw OOB --- and he was wide open for a W-H-I-L-E), (2) the play didn't required RGIII to ID WRs downfield (e.g., screen passes) or (3) pressure was applied to the point I concluded it would be unfair to consider the play as an opportunity for RGIII to throw downfield. I was a bit disappointed in these numbers, but was more disappointed in the playcalling.
I also agree that RGIII looked confused. In retrospect, I honestly think the Shanahans did a good job of creating a playbook for RGIII. Kyle is a very good OC; he did a good job in HOU, did a very good job in DC (based on the circumstances), and is showing to be solid in CLE. Gruden is coming in with something vastly different --- a style RGIII is not used to. He looks confused because of this and it is yet to be determined whether he can be successful in this type of O.
As far as our D, I agree that they looked decent, but HOU's O is horrible.
Agree, new staff, same problems. What people fail to understand is that the
REAL problem is ownership. Everything starts at the top. Ownership has to hire a quality FO; a quality FO has to hire quality coaches and players; quality coaches have to implement quality schemes; quality players have to execute quality schemes. There is
LITERALLY only 1 thing that has NOT changed in all these years of suffering:
OWNERSHIP.
RIP Sean Taylor. You will be missed.
Nice work. 