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Thirteen plays from the St Louis 11 yard line or better. Thirteen chances to put the rock in the End Zone from 11 yards or less out.
If you are like me you got up this morning disgusted with the play calling and believing that out of 13 attempts from short range we ran the ball 12 of them. A review of the Play by Play show proved otherwise to me.
Of the 13 plays 8 were rushing attempts and 5 were pass attempts. Of the 8 rushing attempts Portis had 6 for a net total of 1 yard and Betts had 2 for a net total of 7 yards. Of the 5 pass attempts 4 were Campbell and 1 was Portis. All were incomplete except one attempt by Campbell to Portis for 4 yards. Sellers and Thomas both dropped catch-able balls that would have resulted in TDs (Sellers especially) while the attempts to ARE and Cooley (Portis' target on the halfback option) were pretty much uncatchable.
Anyone who knows anything about the Skins, which should include the opposing defensive coordinator for the week, knows that Portis is the guy used more for running the ball and Betts is the third down back used more for receiving. So I find it telling that the main rushing back caught the only reception in these 13 and the receiving threat had better rushing numbers.
To me this shows some misdirection and creativity on the part of Zorn that I frankly thought was lacking yesterday while watching this thing live. In short, I now think I was wrong yesterday.
Am I still upset? Sure.
The halfback option was a bad idea and should have been saved for a real opponent later in the season when the misdirection might have needed more. In my humble opinion, it showed a real lack of confidence in the QB at this point in the season, much like the option run with ARE last week.
Not to mention being pissed about going for it on 4th down at the end of the game. Sure, they only needed 1 yard to get a first down which would have pretty much iced the game but by then the coach had already called Timeout 13 seconds before the 2 minute warning with a lead where a running clock is your friend so brains obviously were not in great abundance. They should have let the clock run down to the 2 minute warning after the second down play, run the 3rd down play after the 2 minute warning, following that let the clock run as far as possible and kicked a FG.
I am also irked with Sellers and Thomas for dropping catchable balls. You just can't do that to your QB and your team when everyone needs the boost a real score will provide.
However, I am less upset at the play calling than I was during the game. I would have liked to see a fade pattern run with Kelly or an attempt to throw to the TE by the QB rather than by the RB. Really, the only plays I would like to have back so Zorn could call something else entirely is the halfback option and the fourth down play where I think a FG was the smart choice.
Looking at the play calls in order, had Thomas hung on to his pass in the 1st Qtr and Sellers hung onto his in the 2nd Qtr, my guess is the Rams defense would have been loose enough to score on running the ball in the 3rd and 4th Qtr. But since we did not make them pay early for playing the run so hard they had no reason to fear playing the run that hard late.
In short, I think Zorn did Ok with the play calling on 11 of these 13 plays. I wish he had done something different twice and managed the clock better at the end.
If you are like me you got up this morning disgusted with the play calling and believing that out of 13 attempts from short range we ran the ball 12 of them. A review of the Play by Play show proved otherwise to me.
Of the 13 plays 8 were rushing attempts and 5 were pass attempts. Of the 8 rushing attempts Portis had 6 for a net total of 1 yard and Betts had 2 for a net total of 7 yards. Of the 5 pass attempts 4 were Campbell and 1 was Portis. All were incomplete except one attempt by Campbell to Portis for 4 yards. Sellers and Thomas both dropped catch-able balls that would have resulted in TDs (Sellers especially) while the attempts to ARE and Cooley (Portis' target on the halfback option) were pretty much uncatchable.
Anyone who knows anything about the Skins, which should include the opposing defensive coordinator for the week, knows that Portis is the guy used more for running the ball and Betts is the third down back used more for receiving. So I find it telling that the main rushing back caught the only reception in these 13 and the receiving threat had better rushing numbers.
To me this shows some misdirection and creativity on the part of Zorn that I frankly thought was lacking yesterday while watching this thing live. In short, I now think I was wrong yesterday.
Am I still upset? Sure.
The halfback option was a bad idea and should have been saved for a real opponent later in the season when the misdirection might have needed more. In my humble opinion, it showed a real lack of confidence in the QB at this point in the season, much like the option run with ARE last week.
Not to mention being pissed about going for it on 4th down at the end of the game. Sure, they only needed 1 yard to get a first down which would have pretty much iced the game but by then the coach had already called Timeout 13 seconds before the 2 minute warning with a lead where a running clock is your friend so brains obviously were not in great abundance. They should have let the clock run down to the 2 minute warning after the second down play, run the 3rd down play after the 2 minute warning, following that let the clock run as far as possible and kicked a FG.
I am also irked with Sellers and Thomas for dropping catchable balls. You just can't do that to your QB and your team when everyone needs the boost a real score will provide.
However, I am less upset at the play calling than I was during the game. I would have liked to see a fade pattern run with Kelly or an attempt to throw to the TE by the QB rather than by the RB. Really, the only plays I would like to have back so Zorn could call something else entirely is the halfback option and the fourth down play where I think a FG was the smart choice.
Looking at the play calls in order, had Thomas hung on to his pass in the 1st Qtr and Sellers hung onto his in the 2nd Qtr, my guess is the Rams defense would have been loose enough to score on running the ball in the 3rd and 4th Qtr. But since we did not make them pay early for playing the run so hard they had no reason to fear playing the run that hard late.
In short, I think Zorn did Ok with the play calling on 11 of these 13 plays. I wish he had done something different twice and managed the clock better at the end.
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