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WARNER. Kurt Warner has been
a complete quarterbacking stud up until this game but...he was keenly responsible for 3
fumbles that the Titans turned into a lot of points on a short field. This was the
difference in the game IMHO. Had he taken care of the football my belief is that the Rams
would've won Despite what one might think of the general O line play Kurt Warner did not take care of the football today... The proper way to handle the football in the process of passing is to carry the ball up over the shoulder, with two hands, by the ear hole, yet many professional QB's fail to do this. They instead carry the ball in the "rebound" position at the waist where when they are hit by a tackle it squeezes that ball down further and often results in a fumble. It also adds to their delivery time as they have to raise the ball before throwing it. This is what happened on two of Warner's fumbles. D Lineman learn to make a certain kind of tackle, swinging their arms down on the ball carrier just for this very reason and Warner allowed himself to be victimized by it...On both occasions as I remember it he was already moving having decided to abandon the pocket or in short he knew the heat was on and that the football should've been priority one either in getting rid of it or making sure it was covered up. I think he's also still a little too reluctant to put the thing out of bounds... The Hodgins handoff was also sloppy handling of the ball. I believe he only had one hand on the ball again instead of two... I don't believe that Hodgins was supposed to get the ball, I think it was a playfake. Hodgins had his hands right and Warner was supposed to either give and pull (two handed) or slip him the off hand. As it was he stuck the ball out high with one hand and it went off of Hodgins shoulder. This was not Hodgins's fault... Warner did not even come close to throwing an INT today. Why? He refused to put the ball up in situations where there was any possibility for it happening. He held the ball too long and took the sack. While this might be fine while you are leading, when you're behind I think you have to put the ball up sometimes and hope your receiver makes a play. Several times I saw him hold the ball too long while his deep receiver was moving deep one on one. Obviously he didn't put the team in 3rd and 25 situations but when it's third and long, you are behind, and one of your receivers is moving deep in a one on one foot race you might like to see if he can make a play...Generally I think if you'd have clocked his release times today they would've been on average taking longer than what he had been showing...or more specifically his sacks occurred outside of the ideal delivery window... Rule #1. You've got to take care of the football... Rule #2. An incompletion is better than a sack... The situation was zone blocking vs an overload blitz. The zone won't hold up over the course of a game because the Titans are putting 3 and 4 men through the zones of two blockers, generally the guard and tackle on one side. This is why the ball has to go out from the QB very fast or there will be trouble. It was not a man vs man blocking scheme where you can without question say "so and so got beat by this opposing player". When there is an overload blitz the point is to put so many men through one area that they can't all be blocked. That is the point. The only real counter is to either get help from somewhere else like a back or more productively get the ball into the area vacated by the blitzing LBs/DBs... There seemed to be two things that were a problem earlier and rectified some after halftime. This blitzing scheme leaves a hole somewhere in the defense and Warner was not either identifying it or they weren't getting a player into it for him to find so he holds the ball, gets sacked, and stripped... I think one of the "problems" was that I think the scheme was unfamiliar to Warner and he had trouble assessing the defense pre-snap. The "46" isn't used widely because while it can be very successful it has a high personnel maintenance factor i.e. you better have the right folks to play it or it will crack up on you... Warner is still really an NFL baby. Given some more experience I think he'd have done better. Now he's seen the "46" once... I think we all know now what kinda guy Kurt Warner is. In fact he took the blame for these problems and the loss. Knowing what kind of guy he is I think we all know that he'll work hard on these problems and have a better sense of taking care of the football. In fact he did better over the course of the game. To his credit he helped rally the team, threw 3 TD passes, and helped them get to within a missed field goal of winning but this game showed that his game is still far from perfect and still has some visible flaws in it that had an effect on a close game against a good team But...One thing is that from now on there's film on successful overload blitzing and Warners reaction to it. He and the staff better get busy for they will see this copied by others. To win in the playoffs the team is going to play better than they did yesterday against quality competition, more specifically Warner is going to have to play better in taking care of the football... of note...remember Jeff Robinson wide open on a ball that Warner threw into double coverage? I can guess that the TE's had perhaps an effective role in this gameplan but weren't utilized in it... MILLER. I think the "damage" is a bit overblown. The more "real" problem is that Miller cracked in a pressure situation...but perhaps there is some hope in his post game response and the experience... FAULK. He is worth every penny they paid him. His awareness when Hakim was laying on the ground can't be underemphasized. Watch him survey the field when the team is lined up and you will see that he has an incredible grasp of the game. The first touchdown put this team back into the game in every aspect imaginable... |
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LEARNING PROCESS, BY PHANTMJOKR (Nov 1)