All-22 QB review
Post a link to Lazar's tape review, he covers the whole team and does a great job, I solely, for now, am focusing on offense, did O line and RB and posted earlier in this thread, now the QB and hopefully tomorrow will get to the WR's. I also plan on looking at every Rookie QB that played, and possibly more on NFL QBs if I have the time.
I decided to break it down by series, have attached the screen shot of my play-by-play notes. You only get so many series and important the QB maximizes the potential of each drive. The play-by-play notes will sound more negative than I actually analyze, I may see he had this guy or that guy open, but QB play is fast, decisions are fast, every QB misses open guys, it's the context of it all, the % of misses, the pressure etc.
Reminder that Cincy was the WORST team in the NFL in 2023 for Net Yards per attempt passing against and 2nd worst running yards per attempt, this was not a good defense last year. They stunk on defense last year, keep that in mind.
Series 1
Solid series, 1 good play to first read and then good pass to KJ where defender makes real good play, solid series for Jacoby even though they punted
Series 2
Good, solid series by Jacoby. One bad play was the rollout to the right, missed wide open TE for first down. I did find Jacoby was terrible throwing on the run, the Play Action Bootlegs worked great, Jacoby can't throw while moving though, if only they had a QB that has shown he's really good at that? Other than that 1 pass I think Jacoby maximized this drive. They scored a TD as a result, Good QB play equals TD, Huh, who'd have thunk?
Series 3
Jacoby played like a bad QB. He gave away the series, 100% on him. Great designed Play action bootleg, 2 guys open, waits too long and throws wide to the shorter open guy. Common theme with Jacoby, throw shorter when longer option exists. If only we had a QB that has shown the ability to throw the ball past 10 yards? He then sailed a pass to KJ, though short of sticks, had DD open behind him for first down, after the play the defensive guys were arguing on who was supposed to have covered DD since neither guy did..
Series 4
Cincy fumbled at 1 before this drive. 1st 3 pass plays on drive were wide open receivers and he hit them from pocket. Then we get the almost pick in the End Zone. Did not sense pressure until too late, should have taken sack or recognized pressure sooner and threw away, no matter what just a bad play. Next play he had to move up in pocket after pressure, if he stepped up and THEN looked had DD for TD, instead bails from pocket left though did not need to bail pocket then, so now pressure chases him, has TD possible back of EZ but can't throw across body on run and instead slides down and FG. Missed 2 potential TD's as minor pressure he panicked out of pocket. Good QB play and it is a TD.
Series 5
Tough series for the passing part of the offense. 3 step drop, Pats had 2 outside receiver on go routes. 1 high safety is shaded to the TT side. Polk has no safety over the top. First read is the safety and then pick the other go route, for some reason Jacoby, with 3 step drop, no pressure tries to throw to TT, double team, way overthrows. On the other side Polk beat his man and has a step or 2, DEFINATE long completion and possible TD. No idea what Jacoby was thinking, missed a huge play with a basic read. Followed by a scramble running QB play and then Lowe getting beat, Jacoby has to roll left, has a chance at the TE in a little bit of a tight window but again, would need to throw on the run so instead throws it away. I put this series on Jacoby and Lowe but Jacoby had a potential huge play and missed it for reasons I can't fathom. If only we had a QB that's shown he can process really fast?
Series 6
1 pass attempt on 3rd down after punt fumble. All day to throw, throws short of sticks, Austin Hooper is open from the moment he leaves the line of scrimmage until the play is over and he's wide open at the 4 yard line. Bad processing, Bad QB play.
Series 7
Not really on Jacoby in terms of he had a free rusher blitz, one of the Robinson missing the blitz plays. He does have the hot read to Rhamondre but sees the open DD at sidelines 13 yards downfield but inaccurate throw falling away as rusher is in his face. He saw the blitz immediately and backed up But kind of panicked at that point.
If only we had a QB with proven ability to have arm strength while throwing off balance?
Series 8
Good back shoulder throw to Polk, he had a better option in DD open over the middle for big YAC potential, but Polk was first read and he hit it so good play. Avoids pressure from Lowes guy, scrambles for a couple, had some dump offs but yardage gained would not have been any different, fine play. Then a good throw to Hooper with a good pocket, solid play/ Next play good pocket easy throw to wide open TE, defense arguing with each other after over who was supposed to cover. Screen pass blown up and then a connected easy pitch and catch slant. Solid series overall
Series 9
3rd and 5 at the 47, Polk wide open coming over middle, Jacoby decides to throw short of the sticks to DD, he's stopped for 4th down, Polk was visibly frustrated on the field that he did not get the ball. I don't get the read, he had time, DD would have needed to break 3 tackles to get a first, should have looked elsewhere.
Summary
I'm trying to figure out what Jacoby does well. In the game he had a few nice scrambles, he hit a nice back shoulder throw, good throw taking a hit on 2 different plays. No Picks, though had 1 in the EZ that got knocked away, no fumbles but he wasn't really hit in the pocket while he had the ball. They had a realistic chance of putting 28 points on the board with a couple better decisions. Not winning many game scoring 16 points against a bad defense. I did not see many plays where he made adjustments or changed plays. He missed s number of open guys even when he had time. Chuks and Robinson did not leave you with a good feeling on pass blocking, they limited the passes and they did not need Jacoby to throw. It also seems like they don't want him to throw. Just don't screw up
He was 31st in passing yards for the week. 26th in QB rating. Also 26th in total attempts.
He was rated 23rd QB for Passing by PFF for week 1. Top 10 guys were above a 70, Jacoby was 57.2. Seems in the area he should have been. He is what he is at this point.
After pulling off the upset in Cincinnati, now the question for the Patriots is can they replicate their success vs. the Bengals moving forward?
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