Slingin Sammy 33
10-06-2009, 08:07 PM
I couldn't come up with a good movie theme this week and didn't want to reach and have it suck. I'm much more concerned with this week's analysis than a thread title though.
We had some good things happen this week so we can "dodge the falling sky" (courtesy GMScud) in a few areas:
Falling Sky nowhere to be found - Good stuff
- A W is always good, no matter how ugly.
- Run / Pass balance on playcalls
- OL performance overall. Run blocking was solid. I hate the scheme for the current personnel, but the OL is executing their assignments a majority of the time. In pas-pro there were four plays I felt were poor. The first two pass plays were obviously AWFUL. After those two plays, the OL held up well, outside of Samuels getting beat off the edge on two plays.
- DL effort. Carter, Haynesworth, Orakpop and Jarmon each had some plays with just great individual effort.
- Jarmon in the game as a pass rushing DT and at LDE. He was double-teamed and spun out to create the game ending fumble. He also created pressure on a few other plays. If this guy keeps it up and winds up starting at LDE next year that 3rd rounder will be very well spent and the FO deserves credit for revamping our DL in basically 1 year.
- Orakpo another sack. If he keeps it up he'll have a 10+ sack year.
- Landry at the LoS making plays, especially the stop on 2-GL in the 4th Qtr.
- Hall good elevation, good play on the INT.
- Doughty, the guy just makes tackles. He only had one play that he didn't fill well on that resulted in a big run. Although Moore should've filled as well but hesitated. Why...IDK.
- Tryon on the field and played well, made two key tackles on third down. (another Vinny pick that may not be looking too bad).
- Suisham stepping in to punt and not killing us. His punts weren't great, but they didn't put the D in terrible position.
- And finally the defensive scheme. I ripped Blache last week because his vanilla scheme played a huge part in the poor defensive performances against the Rams and Lions. His D was much more difficult to get an accurate pre-snap read on, the defensive fronts varied, coverages were disguised better. Yes I know it was a rookie QB, but so was Stafford. The results: 15% 3rd down %, 229 total yards, 13 points, only 3 in the second half and we know where 7 of the 13 came from. Only one sustained drive for the Bucs. 2 turnovers.
Blache was showing Man, but dropping to Cover-2, showing Cover 2 and Zone Blitzing, bringing LBS & Safeties up to the LoS to confuse the OL, bringing DBs. Very well done this week. The only series where he sat back and ran a predictable D was on the Bucs drive for a FG in the second half.
Some rumblings and reports of falling objects - Not so good stuff:
- Yoder on blocked XP...:vomit:
- Landry whiff on big hit on the post play late in the 2nd Qtr.
- Landry penalty for Illegal Block on Hall INT play. These stupid penalties from Landry need to stop.
- A few offensive playcalls that were just bad. I'm assuming Zorn & co. looked at film of the Bucs this week and should know that they play a bunch of Cover 2 or Tampa 2 Zone (basically the same thing). You don't call a slant with two curls on 2-11 right into the teeth of a Cover 2 Zone. Especially when you called inside curls with Go routes outside on 3rd & 4 two plays prior, and got lucky on the check-down to Betts.
2 & 9 on the Skins final drive. Zorn calls Flats from the Inside WRs, Curls on the outside, with 47 running a shallow cross. This is a terrible route combo against Cover 2. Campbell pulled the ball down and ran for +4, but if you want to throw, this is a good situation for a PA pass or designed QB rollout, not an empty backfield.
- Portis tackling himself. This tripping at the slightest contact needs to stop. It appears Portis is leaning forward too much and getting off balance at times, maybe anticipating contact and wanting to deliver the hit too much...again IDK why, but it is becoming a recurring problem.
That isn't space-junk, it's the Sky - Stuff that better get fixed or it's going to be a looonnngggg season.
- Run game scheme & playcalls (been saying this for 3 weeks, maybe Sherm Lewis will fix it):
Not counting JC scrambles, we were 25 for 98 yds. Not terrible on the surface. But let's look a little deeper.
Coming into this game the Bucs were the 31st ranked run D in the NFL. We should've dropped 150 on them, and with 7 in the box it should've been a piece of cake. Back to the same-old-same-old. We called 17 plays out of 25 as Stretch or Stretch Lead. On these plays we averaged 3.53 yds. On the remaining 8 plays we averaged 4.75 yds. The other plays were either ISOs, delays or designed cutbacks off the Stretch. I can understand running the same play over and over if the D can't stop it and we're ripping the D for 4, 5, 6 yds per play. That hasn't been the case. At least the L vs. R balance was good.
Our third offensive series, 2 & 5 is a great illustration of why our team isn't built for a primarily Zone Blocking scheme. 47 motions to the backfield as FB, we run Stretch L. 47 heads for Samuels' outside hip and the OL Zone blocks. Tampa's OLB shots through the gap and makes the tackle before 47 can redirect and get him. Result +1 yd. This happened at least two other times where Tampa's LBs shot through the gaps in the zone Blocking and made tackles for loss or minimal gain
What happens on a true FB Lead or ISO; Samuels turns the DE out, Dock gets the DT (The DTs were playing a "22" or head up the Gs), Rabach gets the MLB, Rinehart the WDT, it should be FB vs. the OLB head up and I'll put my money on Sellers winning that battle more often than not, all Portis need to do is run downhill for +4 or more.
We are also not spreading the D out and running inside traps or counters. If we put in our 2TE set with 86 & 47 in the slots this could be a very effective formation to spread the D out and get 5 or 6 in the box...Win run game. As I've said before our OL and Portis are built more for a straight ahead power run game, not the finese game of Zone Blocking. I don't think I've seen our OL cut down the DL on the Stretch play once this year.
And last but certainly not least....Jason Campbell's struggles continue.
- Fumble on the first series. Back to ball security, last week he had 2 fumbles and a bobbled snap. This week he had this ugly fumble. It all goes back to how the ball is held. JC has an awful tendency to hold the ball at waist level rather than chest level. This is taught to QBs from Pop Warner on up. If Zorn hasn't fixed this by now, it ain't gettin' fixed. His long delivery doesn't help with ball security either.
- JC is locking on to his primary receivers in a big way. He did this on almost every pass on Sunday, even the two TD throws. They weren't progressions JC went straight back locked in and threw to Cooley on the first TD, pumped and threw to Moss on the second TD. To me it indicates the "eye-in-the-sky" spotted Tampa's Safeties cheating outside (which they were doing) and Zorn dialed up a great play to make them pay. On the very next offensive play the safeties had to play honest and another great playcall was dialed up to take care advantage of an over-aggressive Talib. With no Saftey help on a well throw pass Talib was toast.
- On the first INT series, 3 & 6, JC misses a wide open ARE. Next play he doesn't scan the field but locks onto Kelly and throws into double coverage for an INT. If he'd went through his progressions we would've seen ARE possibly open early (I couldn't see exactly when the S came up to cover him) or Cooley with outside position on a Corner route.
- Next series 2-4, we had a holding call so it didn't really matter, but Tampa is in Cover 2 Zone, Zorn has a Smash route combo called (outside WR 5 yd stop, inside WR corner, good route combo against C-2 Zone. JC locks onto Cooley on the Curl and releases the ball late and into the ground. It didn't look like he even went to his second read which would've been Moss on the Corner.
Next play off PA JC hits Moss on the Deep In, once he sets off PA he throws, no read, it was only a 2 Man release.
After a couple of runs, on 1-10 another PA with Max Protect, it looks like 11 was open on a crossing route because the CB on Moss' side appeared to go with him. JC checked down to Cooley and makes a bad throw.
Same series, 3 & 2, Kelly has a step on his man. JC throws inside, rather than outside and downfield. Terrible throw, similar to the first play of the game fade against the Rams.
- Off the Hall INT to start the 2nd half, the Skins had the ball on the +42 and gained only 3 yds passing on that series prior to the FG.
- On the next series after the FG. Outside of the TD pass, the only passing yards were on two screens and the scramble dump-off to Cooley. On the next play after the 4 & 2, JC almost was picked on a late throw to Cooley.
- Next series here's a breakdown of the bad INT which was targeted to Moss: Safety cheats up so JC should read either Cover 1 or Cover 3. Zorn has a motion in the play to help identify Man or Zone coverage. Based on the motion and the DBs reaction it looks to be Zone (and it was). On JC's drop he should be seeing Cover 3 with the way the DBs open out of their stance, Moss runs a go, Kelly runs a Go from the slot on the opposite side, ARE runs a Deep Out, Mason stays in to block and delays to the left flat, Cooley runs a Shallow Cross to hold the LBs. If JC wanted to hit Moss, again that throw has to be deep and outside. What he should've done was look the Safety off and come back to Kelly who had inside leverage on the CB covering deep. Let 12 make a play with his big frame and good hands. If JC didn't want to make the throw to Kelly he should've progressed across the field to ARE (covered) then to Mason on the check-down.
- JC's footwork in his drops and within the pocket are appearing more akward. His feet are set too wide and putting him off balance.
- Keep in mind without the TD to Cooley, the TD to Moss and the Cooley screen, JC was 9/19 for 83 yds and 3 INTs against a poor defense.
The mistakes Campbell has made over the last two weeks are not acceptable for a 5 year NFL QB. No team can consistently survive 4 turnovers a game (he was lucky he didn't have 4 against the Rams). JC must recover within the next few games or he will have shown he can't make it as a starting NFL QB. I have no doubt he will work hard to make the corrections. Against the Rams and Giants he didn't play poorly. But what I'm concerned about is that teams have identified the things JC struggles with and are going to keep throwing them at him until he figures it out or is benched. Either way he needs to stay in as the started so the franchise can figure out if he needs an extension or we need to go in a different direction. I sure hope it's the former.
We had some good things happen this week so we can "dodge the falling sky" (courtesy GMScud) in a few areas:
Falling Sky nowhere to be found - Good stuff
- A W is always good, no matter how ugly.
- Run / Pass balance on playcalls
- OL performance overall. Run blocking was solid. I hate the scheme for the current personnel, but the OL is executing their assignments a majority of the time. In pas-pro there were four plays I felt were poor. The first two pass plays were obviously AWFUL. After those two plays, the OL held up well, outside of Samuels getting beat off the edge on two plays.
- DL effort. Carter, Haynesworth, Orakpop and Jarmon each had some plays with just great individual effort.
- Jarmon in the game as a pass rushing DT and at LDE. He was double-teamed and spun out to create the game ending fumble. He also created pressure on a few other plays. If this guy keeps it up and winds up starting at LDE next year that 3rd rounder will be very well spent and the FO deserves credit for revamping our DL in basically 1 year.
- Orakpo another sack. If he keeps it up he'll have a 10+ sack year.
- Landry at the LoS making plays, especially the stop on 2-GL in the 4th Qtr.
- Hall good elevation, good play on the INT.
- Doughty, the guy just makes tackles. He only had one play that he didn't fill well on that resulted in a big run. Although Moore should've filled as well but hesitated. Why...IDK.
- Tryon on the field and played well, made two key tackles on third down. (another Vinny pick that may not be looking too bad).
- Suisham stepping in to punt and not killing us. His punts weren't great, but they didn't put the D in terrible position.
- And finally the defensive scheme. I ripped Blache last week because his vanilla scheme played a huge part in the poor defensive performances against the Rams and Lions. His D was much more difficult to get an accurate pre-snap read on, the defensive fronts varied, coverages were disguised better. Yes I know it was a rookie QB, but so was Stafford. The results: 15% 3rd down %, 229 total yards, 13 points, only 3 in the second half and we know where 7 of the 13 came from. Only one sustained drive for the Bucs. 2 turnovers.
Blache was showing Man, but dropping to Cover-2, showing Cover 2 and Zone Blitzing, bringing LBS & Safeties up to the LoS to confuse the OL, bringing DBs. Very well done this week. The only series where he sat back and ran a predictable D was on the Bucs drive for a FG in the second half.
Some rumblings and reports of falling objects - Not so good stuff:
- Yoder on blocked XP...:vomit:
- Landry whiff on big hit on the post play late in the 2nd Qtr.
- Landry penalty for Illegal Block on Hall INT play. These stupid penalties from Landry need to stop.
- A few offensive playcalls that were just bad. I'm assuming Zorn & co. looked at film of the Bucs this week and should know that they play a bunch of Cover 2 or Tampa 2 Zone (basically the same thing). You don't call a slant with two curls on 2-11 right into the teeth of a Cover 2 Zone. Especially when you called inside curls with Go routes outside on 3rd & 4 two plays prior, and got lucky on the check-down to Betts.
2 & 9 on the Skins final drive. Zorn calls Flats from the Inside WRs, Curls on the outside, with 47 running a shallow cross. This is a terrible route combo against Cover 2. Campbell pulled the ball down and ran for +4, but if you want to throw, this is a good situation for a PA pass or designed QB rollout, not an empty backfield.
- Portis tackling himself. This tripping at the slightest contact needs to stop. It appears Portis is leaning forward too much and getting off balance at times, maybe anticipating contact and wanting to deliver the hit too much...again IDK why, but it is becoming a recurring problem.
That isn't space-junk, it's the Sky - Stuff that better get fixed or it's going to be a looonnngggg season.
- Run game scheme & playcalls (been saying this for 3 weeks, maybe Sherm Lewis will fix it):
Not counting JC scrambles, we were 25 for 98 yds. Not terrible on the surface. But let's look a little deeper.
Coming into this game the Bucs were the 31st ranked run D in the NFL. We should've dropped 150 on them, and with 7 in the box it should've been a piece of cake. Back to the same-old-same-old. We called 17 plays out of 25 as Stretch or Stretch Lead. On these plays we averaged 3.53 yds. On the remaining 8 plays we averaged 4.75 yds. The other plays were either ISOs, delays or designed cutbacks off the Stretch. I can understand running the same play over and over if the D can't stop it and we're ripping the D for 4, 5, 6 yds per play. That hasn't been the case. At least the L vs. R balance was good.
Our third offensive series, 2 & 5 is a great illustration of why our team isn't built for a primarily Zone Blocking scheme. 47 motions to the backfield as FB, we run Stretch L. 47 heads for Samuels' outside hip and the OL Zone blocks. Tampa's OLB shots through the gap and makes the tackle before 47 can redirect and get him. Result +1 yd. This happened at least two other times where Tampa's LBs shot through the gaps in the zone Blocking and made tackles for loss or minimal gain
What happens on a true FB Lead or ISO; Samuels turns the DE out, Dock gets the DT (The DTs were playing a "22" or head up the Gs), Rabach gets the MLB, Rinehart the WDT, it should be FB vs. the OLB head up and I'll put my money on Sellers winning that battle more often than not, all Portis need to do is run downhill for +4 or more.
We are also not spreading the D out and running inside traps or counters. If we put in our 2TE set with 86 & 47 in the slots this could be a very effective formation to spread the D out and get 5 or 6 in the box...Win run game. As I've said before our OL and Portis are built more for a straight ahead power run game, not the finese game of Zone Blocking. I don't think I've seen our OL cut down the DL on the Stretch play once this year.
And last but certainly not least....Jason Campbell's struggles continue.
- Fumble on the first series. Back to ball security, last week he had 2 fumbles and a bobbled snap. This week he had this ugly fumble. It all goes back to how the ball is held. JC has an awful tendency to hold the ball at waist level rather than chest level. This is taught to QBs from Pop Warner on up. If Zorn hasn't fixed this by now, it ain't gettin' fixed. His long delivery doesn't help with ball security either.
- JC is locking on to his primary receivers in a big way. He did this on almost every pass on Sunday, even the two TD throws. They weren't progressions JC went straight back locked in and threw to Cooley on the first TD, pumped and threw to Moss on the second TD. To me it indicates the "eye-in-the-sky" spotted Tampa's Safeties cheating outside (which they were doing) and Zorn dialed up a great play to make them pay. On the very next offensive play the safeties had to play honest and another great playcall was dialed up to take care advantage of an over-aggressive Talib. With no Saftey help on a well throw pass Talib was toast.
- On the first INT series, 3 & 6, JC misses a wide open ARE. Next play he doesn't scan the field but locks onto Kelly and throws into double coverage for an INT. If he'd went through his progressions we would've seen ARE possibly open early (I couldn't see exactly when the S came up to cover him) or Cooley with outside position on a Corner route.
- Next series 2-4, we had a holding call so it didn't really matter, but Tampa is in Cover 2 Zone, Zorn has a Smash route combo called (outside WR 5 yd stop, inside WR corner, good route combo against C-2 Zone. JC locks onto Cooley on the Curl and releases the ball late and into the ground. It didn't look like he even went to his second read which would've been Moss on the Corner.
Next play off PA JC hits Moss on the Deep In, once he sets off PA he throws, no read, it was only a 2 Man release.
After a couple of runs, on 1-10 another PA with Max Protect, it looks like 11 was open on a crossing route because the CB on Moss' side appeared to go with him. JC checked down to Cooley and makes a bad throw.
Same series, 3 & 2, Kelly has a step on his man. JC throws inside, rather than outside and downfield. Terrible throw, similar to the first play of the game fade against the Rams.
- Off the Hall INT to start the 2nd half, the Skins had the ball on the +42 and gained only 3 yds passing on that series prior to the FG.
- On the next series after the FG. Outside of the TD pass, the only passing yards were on two screens and the scramble dump-off to Cooley. On the next play after the 4 & 2, JC almost was picked on a late throw to Cooley.
- Next series here's a breakdown of the bad INT which was targeted to Moss: Safety cheats up so JC should read either Cover 1 or Cover 3. Zorn has a motion in the play to help identify Man or Zone coverage. Based on the motion and the DBs reaction it looks to be Zone (and it was). On JC's drop he should be seeing Cover 3 with the way the DBs open out of their stance, Moss runs a go, Kelly runs a Go from the slot on the opposite side, ARE runs a Deep Out, Mason stays in to block and delays to the left flat, Cooley runs a Shallow Cross to hold the LBs. If JC wanted to hit Moss, again that throw has to be deep and outside. What he should've done was look the Safety off and come back to Kelly who had inside leverage on the CB covering deep. Let 12 make a play with his big frame and good hands. If JC didn't want to make the throw to Kelly he should've progressed across the field to ARE (covered) then to Mason on the check-down.
- JC's footwork in his drops and within the pocket are appearing more akward. His feet are set too wide and putting him off balance.
- Keep in mind without the TD to Cooley, the TD to Moss and the Cooley screen, JC was 9/19 for 83 yds and 3 INTs against a poor defense.
The mistakes Campbell has made over the last two weeks are not acceptable for a 5 year NFL QB. No team can consistently survive 4 turnovers a game (he was lucky he didn't have 4 against the Rams). JC must recover within the next few games or he will have shown he can't make it as a starting NFL QB. I have no doubt he will work hard to make the corrections. Against the Rams and Giants he didn't play poorly. But what I'm concerned about is that teams have identified the things JC struggles with and are going to keep throwing them at him until he figures it out or is benched. Either way he needs to stay in as the started so the franchise can figure out if he needs an extension or we need to go in a different direction. I sure hope it's the former.