Thread: Constructive Critisicm from the Atlanta Game

Room for improvement:

With respect to TJ, I think he started off on the right foot. I still would like to see him look off defenders more before throwing the rock. You rarely see him break up the field into quadrants with his eyes, or go through a progression with his receivers. The accuracy and zip do not worry me much. Those will improve as he becoms more confident and comfortable in the pocket. We really need to connect on the deep ball.

I can't complain about our runningbacks at all. If they play like that every game, it is up to the passing game and OL to open up even bigger holes.

WRs showed a little trouble getting open, as I expected, but they made solid catches and everyone (9 different targets) contributed. Only one catch over 20 yards, so can can defintly improve on passing downfield.

OL had two miscues, 1 penalty and one bad snap. Birk's snap was hopefully an anomaly and I'll take only 1 penalty from the OL any day. I can't criticze a unit that had a 100 yard rusher and gave up no sacks.

Overall on offense 3rd down efficiency needs to improve. That will be easier when dealing with shorter 3rd down yardage, which is where I think we missed Taylor the most. I also really liked some of the playcalling. The give up plays on 3rd down from last year were few. Most of the time we went for the first down but couldn't convert. One of the best playcalls of the day resulted in the offense's only touchdown.

DL was perfect. The only room for improvement I can think of is trying to get that kind pressure without blitzing as much. That will be needed when the oppositon has better receivers.

LBs and DBs were great against the run but average against the pass. I think th gameplan was a bend but don't break attitude, so they were trying to keep everything in front of them and they did a good job of that. I wouldn't mind seeing tighter coverage though.

The defense was great, so it is really just up to the offense to prove that they can produce long sustained drives that end in TDs.

How was the play-calling yesterday?

Defense good play all round, Offense glad to see they opened up a bit throwing around a bit,and giving AP the rock. The offense is gonna have to try and put up more than 10 points,No other way to slice it.

These types of games is what we need if the "O" can't get it into gear.


It's a bit troubling that we still can't put the ball in the end zone with the offense . . . so I guess we'll have to continue to allow our defense to do most of the scoring for us.

This is the formula we probably will need to expect to have a successful season as the "O" continues to try and figure things out . . . hopefully it can continue!

Undefeated is a great way to start the season!

Points of discussion:

Leber's 15 yd penalty
Norwood's long gains
TJ's long ball overthrown
TJ's tipped passes
Birk's bad snap
ATL's 64 rush yards by halftime
Great field position in the first half and no Offensive scores for us
TJ's over the shoulder throw OB to avoid sack
Our D gave up the deep comeback route all day
Joey was 23 for 32 (71% completion rate) even with 2 INTs that is way too much passing for a mediocre QB

Vikes had no Red Zone Offense ---- WTF, we couldn't even get into the red zone.

_________________________


I realize that since TJ is the Viking that touches the ball the most, it is easiest to pick on him.
So I will.

He needs to be more accurate.
He threw a screen pass at CT's feet, which led to 3rd and long.
His long ball was over thrown so Twill didn't have a chance.
TJ had 2 passes tipped, one was intercepted, both were tipped by our guys because the ball was thrown in way that made it difficult for the recipient to adjust.
He also had a ball that should have been an INT which was dropped by Harris (?) which could have been returned if he would have held on.
TJ also misplaced that ball to Rice on the sideline which would have been another long gain.


To be constructive, all I can say, is he can do better.
He needs to work on the touch.
I think that some of it might be nerves and experience.
Knowing when to put touch on it instead of zipping it will help a lot.
The game needs to slow down for him a bit more.

No RED ZONE offense today is a definite concern.
We need to get there or it will be a long season.
It totally says our Offense is lacking.
We did put together
4 substantial drives.
I did not include AP's TD drive which was more of a fluke in terms of a drive.
The closest we got was the 30 once and the 40 twice and the 45 once.
In the first half, the average starting field position was the 31 yard line.
It was great to have those 4 drives, but we fizzled out when it mattered.
A few more yards on those two drives to the 40 and we get a FG attempt.
Some more concentration is necessary to get at least 3 pts on those drives.


I will just throw in a judo to TW.
He played a good game today.
I have been hard on the guy and he deserve some props today.
That one throw to Wade was due to the fact he opened that spot on the field by taking his guys on a fly route.

Why didn't Atlanta run with Norwood more?
I think they could have effectively run down our defense, and gave themselves a much better shot at competing for the victory.

We have to quit being scared of getting beat deep. Atlanta made a lot of their yardage on comeback passes on the sideline because out corners were giving them to much cushion. We have to stop doing that and play them tighter. I don't think their receivers are that fast that our secondary can't keep up with them. Detroit threw a lot of sideline passes and they will eat us alive with them if we don't play the receivers tighter.
Secondly, TJ doesn't need to be wonderful but he needs to avoid forcing the ball and he needs to get rid of the ball quicker. And for crying out loud, quit looking the intended receivers down. He was better at that Sunday but still telegraphed a lot of his passes.

The bottom line is...our O won't win us any matches against decent teams. However I was relatively pleased with TJ's performance and he'll only get better. We won the game 24-3, so we must have been doing something right. No red zone O is a big worry, if we can't get any against Atlanta then how will we against Da Bears? Letting go Harrington 23/32 isn't good enough either. 3rd down D was poor also. But a win's a win and it can only boost the confidence of the players and the staff. Roll on Detroit.

"spunk_goblin" wrote:

The bottom line is...our O won't win us any matches against decent teams. However I was relatively pleased with TJ's performance and he'll only get better. We won the game 24-3, so we must have been doing something right. No red zone O is a big worry, if we can't get any against Atlanta then how will we against Da Bears? Letting go Harrington 23/32 isn't good enough either. 3rd down D was poor also. But a win's a win and it can only boost the confidence of the players and the staff. Roll on Detroit.

Winfield's INT would have got us a FG and put us in the Red Zone for a possible TD.

KWill's INT wouldn't have put us at mid field and at the rate we were playing, it wouldn't have made any points.

The Win itself blurs a lot of the miscues.
We had way too many but we need to ride the high of this win and let our players do the same until they get into the film room meeting and can look at those miscues and think about improving them.

Keep scoring first so we don't have to play from behind, EVER!


We need to keep beating the teams that have a chance to finish in those 28th through 32nd in the league win/loss records. The place where we were suppose to finish.
LOL

My posts are sounding a bit too negative for constructive criticism.
I hope that I am not misunderstood, I am happy about the win, just taking into account that the team we played was an inferior team.
So, until we beat a superior team, we shouldn't get too cocky or too high.