you write:
"players haven’t even turned their heads yet, forcing Jones to hold the ball slightly longer than he wants"
shouldn't anticipation and timing patterns be at play here?
if the ball isnt thrown by the receiver reaches the "top of their route" ie turn their heads, its possibly a signal that protection has broken down, then they turn and come back to the ball to make it easier for the qb to get rid of the ball... or at least thats how its supposed to work in theory, i think...
so it a timing issue? is it a protection issue? is it a trust issue on Macs part?
and this is where i see a main difference between Mac and Zappe... Zappe has better anticipation and a willingness to throw the ball, whereas Mac, bitten by the interception bug, isn't putting his faith in his guys to be there... or am I mis-reading the situation?
Both Bedard and Orlovsky have questioned the offense with Mac due to the timing and the spacing, which has them questioning the coaching. My biggest question was that, along with just how different things were with Zappe, and why things look so different with Mac. So based on Orlovsky pointing out the drop point and the spacing, the only way to find out was to grab a snapshot of every play in each of their recent starts of the moment they hit their drop, and the ball is supposed to be out.
It's pretty noticeable. More guys are freed up and/or looking back for the ball in those plays with Zappe than with Jones, and the spacing is definitely questionable on a few of those. Obviously, only the people who created the plays and the guys running them truly know the answer, but given Mac's recent "false realities" quotes (he's used that multiple times), it's tough not to think there's something to it.
Again, you can't - and shouldn't because he plays for this team - discount Zappe because it doesn't change the fact he executed what was given to him. That and it's possible, depending on how things go, that he could be the starter down the road. However, the way those plays were drawn up in what he ran, guys were in the right spot and ready for the football. But there's no question based on the images that obviously, it's not 100% the same plays, which was one of the things I was trying to get clarification on.
There were also a few plays with Mac where people claimed there were other places he could have gone, but there just wasn't time because Wynn really did a bad job at guard Sunday on several plays (you can see it in at least one of those stills). He had zero time to turn and reset his feet, and he sort of touched on that yesterday in his press conference. Zappe's sacks were also the same thing, he just had no chance. This line is just bad right now, which isn't helping things and we all know they don't play well when they can't effectively run the football, which has also been an issue.