[CBFF] August 25

[Jim Ferolie]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Westmalle van 't vat" <westmalle at comcast.net>


> On 9/18/07 9:25 PM, "Jim Ferolie" <ferolie at charter.net> wrote:
>
>> I think it has little to do with Dallas and more to do with not tipping 
>> your
>> hand so early in the season if you don't have to. There's a bit of a 
>> gamble
>> in that -- there could be a TD and an onside kick, for example -- but
>> trusting a defense like this one is not a huge gamble.
>>
>> If you can win with your base plays, win with them. They won.
>
> Jim, all of the plays you mention are gadget or trick plays.  Flea 
> flickers
> or onside kicks are not what I, at least, was talking about.

I know that, Steve. I used trick plays as an illustration. I don't know what 
the stuff in the middle that they haven't busted out yet is, but I'm sure 
they don't want to use it until they have to. I'm sure there are a handful 
of plays they have just begun to get down that they want to save for the 
right moment.

(The onside kick I mentioned meant that Kansas City had this wild chance of 
coming back but it wasn't a good chance.)

Rather, the
> offense has not stretched the field very much, the running game has been
> slow to impress, the receivers have not generally run good, crisp routes,
> and, more fundamentally, the blocking has been average at best and the
> turnovers have killed us.  Mentally, we do not appear to be in the game 
> for
> large bunches of offense snaps.

The running game has been slow, yes, but that's what happens when you have a 
new featured back in a new year and he's not LT. Poor execution is what 
happens early in the season. It always happens. It happened last year, but 
the teams we played executed worse.

How do you know the receivers have not been able to run good, crisp routes? 
Have you gotten extra replays we haven't? Or are you basing that off the one 
they showed where Berrian bailed in the end zone after the CB got in the way 
and Grossman overthrew him? And by the way, there is more to getting open 
than being "crisp." Good fakes, jukes, double moves, fighting through the 
jam are all important aspects. That's why it takes receivers three years.

The blocking is all integrated with the play calling. If the RB is on the 
right side and the guy he's supposed to chip a guy is the left, someone 
should notice it and move him over. There are checks and balances. The QB 
could see it, but he's got a whole lot of things to pay attention to. Our 
center could, and probably should, see it, but he might have the new play 
mixed up with another one or been focusing on another part of the play. The 
RB should see it, but he's got to react quickly, and they're probably not 
doing that yet.

> None of those are 'holding back'-type issues but poor execution and, IMO,
> poor play calling.  What of these things are results of 'holding something
> in reserve' for a future opponent?  I submit: none.
>
> To those who subscribe to the theory that there's something special we've
> not seen yet because they are purposely holding it back: what exactly will
> we do differently in terms of play calling against Dallas that we have not
> done so far?  What more can we and will we do?  Presumably, you can 
> specify
> what 'tipping your hand' will look like, since you are so confident we've
> not 'tipped our hand' so far.  I want to recognize it when it happens so
> help me out!
>
> Steve

I don't think you can really look for it, but I'm sure there will be a 
couple they pull out that we haven't seen before. If the situations are 
right. One of them this week, for example, was that awful screen with 
Garrett Wolfe that I hope they've thrown out of the playbook. It probably 
looked really slick in practice.

I don't really know what you mean about stretching the field, because as 
anyone who's ever played Madden knows, on almost every passing play there's 
a long and a short receiver and it's up to the QB to figure out which one is 
open. Turner might call a play where the short receiver is the No. 1 read 
and he's covered and Grossman throws to the long guy, or it might be the 
other way around.

Unless you are so familiar with the play that you can say, oh, it's that old 
Z-wide, X-15-left, Y-long, how can you tell what they called? No coordinator 
says, "This play you're going to hit Berrian on the skinny post." That's 
sandlot football. You have at least three people that are potential 
receivers -- including an outlet usually -- and the QB chooses based on the 
coverage and the route.

It's just terribly oversimplifying everything to say the play call on this 
was bad or the O-line didn't block this right or they didn't go long enough. 
There are so many variables, and I'm sure the team knows what happened by 
now, as they've done their film review, and can say, "Well, Adrian, you 
didn't recognize the blitz until the play started, that's why Rex got killed 
here," or "Rex, you forced it to the No. 1 guy on the play when you should 
have checked down."