Official Game Thread - Week 8 - Commanders @ Colts

Someone was asking in the chat whether Heinicke was going to roll out. We've all seen that he throws pretty well on the move. Yet we almost never include movement. It feels like every pass play is shotgun or a seven step drop back. The D never has to guess.
 
What I see is Taylor knows where he needs to go with the ball. Whether his arm allows him to make the throw with follow through is a challenge for him, but he rarely makes the mental mistakes that you see Carson Wentz make.

If you look at the ball distribution yesterday, McLaurin, Gibson were your leading receivers. And who are your two best players in the open field on offense?

McLaurin and Gibson.

A 17-16 win against a team starting a #6 round quarterback starting his first game is not making it to the promised land, but at least we are not seeing Carson Wentz throwing the ball into double coverage for a back breaking turnover with the game on the line in the fourth quarter.
 
Bulldog said:
but at least we are not seeing Carson Wentz throwing the ball into double coverage for a back breaking turnover with the game on the line in the fourth quarter.
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Except for on that interception where Taylor threw it into triple coverage. Every QB is allowed an oops, but on the replay it was a really awful decision. Tight coverage, five defenders in the area and no chance for a reception. That wasn't a 50/50 ball that was a 1/99 ball.
 
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burgold said:
Except for on that interception where Taylor threw it into triple coverage. Every QB is allowed on oops, but on the replay it was a really awful decisions. Tight coverage, five defenders in the area and no chance for a reception. That wasn't a 50/50 ball that was a 1/99 ball.
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unfortunately I have to agree.

Unfortunate because it's been a part of his game for his entire career... given, it's relatively short, but a FULL regular season at this point and we're still seeing the same decisions at times. I still give Taylor a bit of the benefit of the doubt because there are some bad plays (like the first pass to Terry) that come out looking terrible, though I believe it's a product of the play call instructing the QB to throw it to a spot, no matter what with no ability to audible based on the coverage.... we saw it earlier this year with the intercepted screen pass... a play Wentz is getting killed for, but I believe in that instance he is instructed to not look, or think, just get the ball to that spot and the RB will do the rest. Taylor isn't stupid, and a lot of the time he looks very comfortable within the offense, but there are enough instances where we've seen flat out odd plays resulting in the QB looking foolish.
 
SilentThreat said:
unfortunately I have to agree.

Unfortunate because it's been a part of his game for his entire career... given, it's relatively short, but a FULL regular season at this point and we're still seeing the same decisions at times. I still give Taylor a bit of the benefit of the doubt because there are some bad plays (like the first pass to Terry) that come out looking terrible, though I believe it's a product of the play call instructing the QB to throw it to a spot, no matter what with no ability to audible based on the coverage.... we saw it earlier this year with the intercepted screen pass... a play Wentz is getting killed for, but I believe in that instance he is instructed to not look, or think, just get the ball to that spot and the RB will do the rest. Taylor isn't stupid, and a lot of the time he looks very comfortable within the offense, but there are enough instances where we've seen flat out odd plays resulting in the QB looking foolish.
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If you go back and re-watch it,his arm did get hit as he was throwing on the int. Whether that play turns out different? Who knows?

But the overall view of the offense being a disjointed mess is plain to see and that's on the staff.

 
DieselPwr44 said:
If you go back and re-watch it,his arm did get hit as he was throwing on the int. Whether that play turns out different? Who knows?

But the overall view of the offense being a disjointed mess is plain to see and that's on the staff.

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I wondered at the time as it looked like it was, but it was still an ill advised throw.


then again, so was the one that essentially iced the game last weekend... so i guess you give and take.
 
I think the idea that Heinicke is some upgrade over Wentz is pretty shaky ground. He makes the same questionable decisions Wentz does. Pick your poison. I do like his toughness in pressure situations. And so far in his career, he's had luck with him more often than not, and that's a very good thing, because he likes to throw balls up for grabs in critical situations.
 
Heinicke is an upgrade in terms of mobility and escapability. I think he is also an upgrade in terms of knowing the offense and being comfortable in it but he also has a couple of years on Wentz in this regard.

His vision is an issue, somewhat due to his height, and his arm strength in terms of pure velocity is also a problem. In these areas, Wentz is the better QB but again, both are physical traits and at least one of them can't be fixed at all.
 
Still don't get the moves in the off season on the Oline.

Ron says(angrily): He watched the tapes,looked at the analytics..etc.

So he had to see Wentz's mobility issues,right? So why weaken the pass pro?

I know hindsight is 20/20. But some here were advocating to keep Heinicke,draft a guy and develop him while building the team.

Boy.....right now,that sure looks like what they should've done.
 
Not that I'm a Rivera apologist these days but it isn't all on Ron, DP.

Scherff was leaving Washington and there wasn't a thing the team could do about it. Having watched Wes step in and play well in Scherff's spot in the past, I think there was reason to believe we would be okay.

Flowers is the only place we made an active choice about a switch and Norwell is an All-Pro so I'm guessing there was cause to believe we, in fact, upgrading that position.

I can only assume that Norwell is not playing as well as he did on tape in Jax last year and I don't understand the move for Turner at all. He is underwhelming to me, even as a backup.

Depth needed to be addressed in the off-season and this is where I stop defending Ron because it wasn't.
 
But they did re-sign Heinicke - and draft a QB :) Oh - and signed Wentz. Yeah - I'm with you. You sign a prototypical pocket passer who has only really been effective with very good protection, and not only do you not bolster the line, you replace the strength of your line with journeymen. Makes no sense.
 
Turner was on the all-rookie team back in like 2014 and had several Pro Bowls to his credit. He was very good but that was a long while ago. Not sure what accounts for the massive drop off other than some significant water under the bridge. Norwell seems like the typical free agent signing we make where we bring in a guy who everyone else in the league is able to correctly ascertain doesn't have much gas left in the tank. I guess it's fair to say as Bob is here that they did TRY to fill the holes that were created, but it hasn't worked out. And we all know that the OL in particular is often as much about chemistry and coaching as it is individuals.
 
You have an OC who continually calls 7 step drops when Taylor isn't designed to do that, and our pockets never hold up! It's ridiculous.

That, and every 3rd down you just know JD is getting the ball. If Samuel comes across the line in motion it's going to him on the jet sweep. Etc etc etc

Rivera is responsible now for Turner and his inability to coach.
 
In retrospect, I think spending the money to re-sign McKissic might have been a luxury we couldn't afford for a player we didn't really need. Yesterday was the first game in awhile where he even had an impact. With Curtis Samuel and Dotson's emergence, and Cam Sims and Dyami Brown filling in admirably, there are only so many balls to go around. We'd have been better served using that McKissic cash to bolster the OL, LBs, or DBs.
 
Neophyte said:
Heinicke is an upgrade in terms of mobility and escapability. I think he is also an upgrade in terms of knowing the offense and being comfortable in it but he also has a couple of years on Wentz in this regard.

His vision is an issue, somewhat due to his height, and his arm strength in terms of pure velocity is also a problem. In these areas, Wentz is the better QB but again, both are physical traits and at least one of them can't be fixed at all.
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I just about came on the board to post almost the exact same thing. I think it's clear Heinicke helps with his legs to extend a play or scramble for yards. I'm not sure we win yesterday without that. What's hard to know without the film is he making better decisions throwing the ball versus Wentz. There were a lot of check downs yesterday and we didn't attempt many long passes until the end. Were there people open that Wentz would have tried to throw to that Heinicke doesn't see? It may be moot because without the mobility, Wentz may have been sacked waiting on long pass plays to develop.
 
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