Zornometer midterm grade

a solid 4 as well.

- he didnt mess with what wasnt broken: our solid D core and running game (it wasnt his decision to have coach blatche as his D cord. but he welcomed it with open arms and has left blatche to do his thing)

- he immediately stepped in prepared, ready and focused with a long term vision of success

- the balanced play calling: with the same players coach gibbs had, he has forced teams to not be able to stack the box. our long pass plays are on pace to be significantly higher than last years playoff team.

- his development of JC

- his ability to analyze the game: identify problems and adjust his coaching scheme accordingly. after the giants game he said one good thing is that he was able to identify areas where we have to work on and low and behold he did in a matter of one week no less.

Coach Zorn said in an article today about our redzone scoring problems: "im not alarmed, i know where we need to push . . " I am confident that coach zorn has identified the problem(s) keeping us out of the endzone and that he was figured out the problem. Now that is coaching (i hope).


go skins!!

He's creative, he's strict, good play call, coaches well in big games, willing to make changes, I like him a lot. I give him a 4, that could become a five depending on how we look tonight.

There are several reasons why some dont have TOTAL confidence in him.
Lets just take the last game.
Against the Lions, opening drive, getting 10 yard chunks.
Then at the 3 yard line, you get fancy and run Campbell...thats right CAMPBELL...why? I have no idea, we end up getting a FG and firing up the home crowd on a goal line stand. Buges and Gibbs would have smashed em in the mouth with Sellers/Portis 4 times in a row and destroyed their confidence.

Also, at the end of the game, not going for the first down to seal the game, rather choosing to run some clock out and giving the ball back...he did that agaist the Browns and Rams too I think...at least one of em....
What happened to the go for the throat in this situation...is that only agaist teams that are playoff contenders?

And he still hasn't found a way to convert yards to points...defensive coordinators have figured him out a bit....keep everything between the 20's and that sometimes neutralized time of possesion.

And until they pulled ARE on punt returns, I would say that was lame....I was screaming for it..next thing I see, Moss returns one for a TD...so I'll shut up on that one.

I gave him a 4, but he needs to evolve, adjust his play-calling a bit to get in the endzone, where the hell is Cooley inside the 20?...Sellers can even grab some, where is our 2 TE set in that situation that everyone used to justify sigining a rookie TE? Right now this offense is all Moss and Portis...defenses know we cant do a fade in the corner of the endzone because of height issues.
Kudos on benching Jansen when he was sucking.

Regarding Defense.
We should have benched Jason Taylor by now, he obviously has no experience benching himself in order to get healthy....now were in risk of losing any productivity for the year...
James should be groomed, Wilson should be used more, even Washington as end occassionally, we are not being creative enough on the DE position in 3rd and long
...and....what about Washington....at some point, we may need to bench him to, if blades is any better.

Special teams has been particularly weak on coverage.
Good job on ditching the rookie punter, the new guy looks fat and servicable.
High risk move changing holders though, I would have used the backup QB from preseason to avoid risk...however, the gamble has paid off and things look fine.

I have also noticed that sometimes Zorn struggles to get plays called soon enough in the last 2-3 games...costing timeouts on a couple occasions.

Overall, he is doing great but playing down to competition does not equal a 5 to me....if you cant blowout the Lions, you cant blowout anyone.
He's got a lot to learn...but overall, I am suprised at how well he is doing.
It was wise to not change the running game or the defense.

Big kudos from me...just don't drink all the kool-aid in one gulp.

great post,before this game I would have gave him a 4.5,after this game it drops to a 2.5 . 2 primetime games and 2 flops,and it isnt just that they were flops,its the terrible descision making and clock management that make zorn look bad.We know he's a good coach,but he's got to step it up in big games,to the rest of the country that doesnt watch all the skins games he probably looks like a joke.We have to beat Dallas,another primetime game and if we lose,imo we dont make the playoffs,the division is too tough

Warning: Knee jerk reaction up ahead.

Seriously, I think I gave coach Z 4 a couple weeks ago. Def has to fall after tonight but just how far... hard to say. Playcalling is neither aggressive nor clever. We've won on defense and a running game that can be very good against most teams but not against the best teams. While the defense deserves a rest aside from Carlos Rogers - who should have to catch one thousand passes before the next game - our offense needs to work around the clock to develop consistency and some new weapons. Instead, what I expect is Blache to take the d up another notch for the last 7 games while the offense continues to struggle under Zorn. More than a little frustrating.

We'll pick this up in the next installment. No sense in grading at this point since this was in regard to his midterm grade.