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I've been trying to avoid jumping on the "It's all Donovan's fault!" bandwagon. I don't believe that's even remotely the case given the protection he's had this year, and the lack of tools. Does he throw some crappy balls and make some poor reads? Sure; but that doesn't make him an awful quarterback. I certainly don't want to see Rex Grossman on Sunday.
That said, a couple of things about Donovan's performance yesterday bothered me immensely. The first was that awful goal-line sequence that resulted in a killer delay of game penalty. Shanahan has admitted that he and the coaching staff screwed up by not realizing it was a 30-second timeout. Does that make me feel better? No, here's why:
This is from memory, and I've not seen film, so take it with a grain of salt. It appeared to me that Donovan realized the problem and that he didn't have a play called somewhere around the 13-15 second mark on the play clock. The team was in the huddle. Instead of realizing the need for urgency and making a playcall, Donovan starts shouting and gesticulating wildly at the sidelines for a play, which Kyle Shanahan is apparently not prepared to give to the huddle. No play comes in time, delay of game.
Donovan, dude! You've been in the league how many years leading offenses? Screw Kyle, you have 12 seconds, call a play and get this thing in the end zone.
In addition, part of this wild gesticulation was apparently Donovan unsuccessfully attempting to call a back to back timeout, which courtesy of Joe Gibbs, we're all painfully aware is impossible.
This just doesn't feel good to me. Donovan needs to get his head in the game and be decisive and alert. My ROTC instructor always stressed "Stay alert, stay alive!" Donovan's dead on a couple of occasions already this season.
Again, not jumping on the Donovan sucks bandwagon here, just something he needs to improve on. Clock management can lose you games, and we don't need any help in that department.
That said, a couple of things about Donovan's performance yesterday bothered me immensely. The first was that awful goal-line sequence that resulted in a killer delay of game penalty. Shanahan has admitted that he and the coaching staff screwed up by not realizing it was a 30-second timeout. Does that make me feel better? No, here's why:
This is from memory, and I've not seen film, so take it with a grain of salt. It appeared to me that Donovan realized the problem and that he didn't have a play called somewhere around the 13-15 second mark on the play clock. The team was in the huddle. Instead of realizing the need for urgency and making a playcall, Donovan starts shouting and gesticulating wildly at the sidelines for a play, which Kyle Shanahan is apparently not prepared to give to the huddle. No play comes in time, delay of game.
Donovan, dude! You've been in the league how many years leading offenses? Screw Kyle, you have 12 seconds, call a play and get this thing in the end zone.
In addition, part of this wild gesticulation was apparently Donovan unsuccessfully attempting to call a back to back timeout, which courtesy of Joe Gibbs, we're all painfully aware is impossible.
This just doesn't feel good to me. Donovan needs to get his head in the game and be decisive and alert. My ROTC instructor always stressed "Stay alert, stay alive!" Donovan's dead on a couple of occasions already this season.
Again, not jumping on the Donovan sucks bandwagon here, just something he needs to improve on. Clock management can lose you games, and we don't need any help in that department.