Bits of Bacon ...
The OL moved around,
a lot. Early on, seemingly so Herron wasn't put inside, then we had injuries and were already injured coming in to the game. That's a lot to ask and overcome. In Wynn's case I'm not sure when he got practice reps at G. No matter this unit looked a little slower, out of sorts and as a result, so did our offense. They almost looked
jetlagged. We were late pulling, slow off the ball, slow all-around. Flat. Couldn't get any push up front but more than anything were out of sync. Wynn & Thuney are borderline elite on the left side. More than anything its their communication & unspoken communication on pressure. They would seamlessly pass off players, know who's looping/penetrating, recognize delayed stuff. Our OL was guessing and uncomfortable. Fangio knew it and dialed up some decent pressure looks and we didn't respond well at all.
Cam -
Communication/Understanding - was off between QB & OL. You'll hear different teams shout out different stuff. All that "54 is the Mike" , "Rita, Rita" , "Turbo" is just protection calls to one side or we, ID a blitz, speed up a play, kill a play and specifically for pressure, so who knows what. QB are
responsible for guys as well. To move them off a spot with their eyes, maybe a fake or just know who's unblocked on a blitz so they can plan accordingly when it happens. That's exactly what we saw with an unblocked DE crashing in. That's on Cam, he's left unblocked by design. I think we saw another one as well. He also took a few sacks where he either held on too long or just showed no awareness at all. OL got beat today but Cam made look worse than they were in some instances.
Eyes/Discipline - I've mentioned this a few times but Cam's passes are being telegraphed. Most of our stuff is short so that's where they're going but teams know we have nothing deep. Depending on personnel you can make a good guess which area of the field is being targeted. Those short ones have to be timed better. This is like 10 batted passes so far. Our OL have to make the "jumpers" , guys that jump, pay. Make sure they end up on the ground after leaving their feet. But mostly it's on Cam. That's where peripheral vision, trust and situational awareness.
Mechanics/Speed - He's slow getting set and it seems like that's been an issue off/on, more or less all year. Feet/base, lower half to trigger takes a bit to long. Release point/launch point is an issue on different passes. Short, deep middle, out are off at times. Wouldn't be a bad thing if accuracy & timing weren't issues. You see this from different QB's but again it's about being comfortable and actually completing passes. Some times you need to slow things down a bit and just roll with the tempo depending on the game but those quick hits are dependent on time/space. You want the ball out as quick as possible to give your man a chance. You can't be loafing balls and not expect 4-5 guys to be at the ball by the time our guys has it secure enough to make a move. Again though after he has to reset its a problem.
He has to be quicker getting set and when he has to move/adjust. Too often I'm watching his base struggle when moved off his spot or looking to move, get set etc. Release point has been an issue at times throughout his career. Saw small examples today. Pocket awareness/presence. Accuracy. He's been through a ton the last few weeks and obviously wants to be here, on the field. So it's tough to criticize but he was bad today.
WR/TE - I'm not sure I want to get into this here but it couldn't be more evident this team is desperate for help. 1st, 2nd round picks spent very recently. AB, Gordon, Kobi Myers, Gunna ... This team has been searching for help for years and it's getting frustrating. I'll be the first to admit when I'm wrong and I was on Harry. That said there have been plenty of other available or within a trade up, reasonable trade ups. I know we can't draft everyone but we're passing over many guys that were Patriot-Types. Dugger & Williams really have to pan out. We passed on AJ Brown, DK, Hardman, Laviska Shenault, Claypool, McLaurin ... I'll be posting a lot more in the draft forum on upcoming classes/needs but it's more than clear it's a problem. We have no one to target, no one to make a play or make it happen.
I remember looking at our depth chart and contracts before Harry and we were in trouble. Also and I'm not trying to pretend I know more or am preaching to Bill but the draft is about finding out where
value and
need meet. This isn't that ... If you take a K before 6/7th round you have to hit. Johnson was great value and had a 3rd round skill set/profile imo.
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Coaching - The play calling is tough to get excited about bc we only have so much to work with. Look at our parts. They're just not there so I understand that but some of the stuff was just random and not what the situation called for imo. The 2 point conversion. Condensed with limited options to target in the field. Tough look and this is another conversation but we need some playmakers. Enough is enough. I get the frustration with the play calling though. Just think our personnel is tough to work with.
All year Bill was daring teams to beat us by running the ball. He'd line up 1/2 IDL, two edge-types, a bunch of DB's and dare teams to beat us. All year they either couldn't or abandoned the run like Oak, Sea. He was comfortable in his DB's tackling and today Denver didn't flinch with 30+ rushes to 25 passes/attempts I believe. For 130+ yards on the ground.
In hindsight very smart with Lock so unstable. His first game back after a few weeks. He could have easily tossed 2-3 other picks if he held on to them or if he was asked to pass more.
The 3rd down/FG I understand both sides. I think Bill was thinking we needed to score TDs anyway and needed the ball back asap. If they pick up the 1st down we're losing out on a lot of time but again get both sides. Denver was having trouble and again Lock looked shakey all game.
Non-challenge.
We didn't adjust as well as we should/could have imo but again this goes back to personnel. Denver didn't respect our ability to beat them deep or even pass tbh. Their DL was teeing off on passes all day. This result was their S playing up a lot of the day. Where was the PA (play action), double moves or quick hitters to the MOF? Slants/crossers, I saw a few mesh concepts. Maybe it was just the way the game went but that was annoying.
Mike Ojemudia (rookie), Shelby Harris, Chubb, Simmons all played well for Denver. I thought Jon Jones, Bentley & Gilmore played well for us.
