Smoot Lays The Smack Down (Redskins vs. Colts)

[SirClintonPortis]

Matt Schaub attempted forty 20+ yard passes last season out of 574 attempts. He attempted 48 20+ yard passes in 2009 out of 583 attempts, which was Kyle Shanahan's last season there.

Andre Johnson's also had a 1500+ yard season in 2009. What this means is that a hell of a lot of the yards he got were from short and intermediate passes.

The Texans had a remarkably efficient passing game, and they didn't go deep that often.

Besides, with the touchback off kickoffs as king this season, teams will have to be able to move the chains or suffer in the field position battle.

[firstdown]

We don't need to go deep we have guys peeling off 50 yard runs.

[skinsfaninok]

who cares if he can throw 60 yards? He's accurate and makes good decisions

[Beemnseven]

Originally Posted by NLC1054

The thing about that is, his really bad drops all came in his first two years at Miami. His last two seasons, he was there most consistent---if not their ONLY consistent--weapon. Once he settled down in the offense and worked on just focusing and concentrating on catching the football, he was more than solid.

So he has corrected the problem before, and he drops were kind of overplayed, as tends to be the case. But his senior season, he didn't have a game where he caught less than three passes.

That's why I'm not worried now, because I know exactly what the problem is, and I know he fixed it once, and after dropping one on Friday he came right back and made two more catches on almost the same route.

We knew what we were getting when we drafted him. I'm more than willing to guess Keenan, Mike and Kyle knew this might happen, and they know how to solve it.

If you say so ... I just know I personally spoke to Dan Schonka (Ourlads, on a radio call-in show) and he said the same thing -- the reason Hankerson fell to the third round was his issue with drops. Don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for the guy.

But we already had one wide receiver here with the nickname "50/50". He didn't last too long.

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by SirClintonPortis

Matt Schaub attempted forty 20+ yard passes last season out of 574 attempts. He attempted 48 20+ yard passes in 2009 out of 583 attempts, which was Kyle Shanahan's last season there.

Andre Johnson's also had a 1500+ yard season in 2009. What this means is that a hell of a lot of the yards he got were from short and intermediate passes.

The Texans had a remarkably efficient passing game, and they didn't go deep that often.

Besides, with the touchback off kickoffs as king this season, teams will have to be able to move the chains or suffer in the field position battle.

So in 2009 Schaub averaged 3 deep balls a game and 2.5 deep balls a game last year.

We've thrown maybe 2 deep balls in 2 games (I say "maybe" because the Stallworth throw was right about 20 yards and thus not that deep). Even if we count the Stallworth throw, we thus average 1 deep ball per game.

1 per game vs. 2.5 or 3 per game. There's a difference here.

If Houston's offense is the standard - which is debatable - then we have a lesser vertical element in our offense so far. That was my point.

As I said above, things may change with time.

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by Beemnseven

If you say so ... I just know I personally spoke to Dan Schonka (Ourlads, on a radio call-in show) and he said the same thing -- the reason Hankerson fell to the third round was his issue with drops. Don't get me wrong, I'm rooting for the guy.

But we already had one wide receiver here with the nickname "50/50". He didn't last too long.

Dan Shonka!...the official scout of TheWarpath.net

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by skinsfaninok

who cares if he can throw 60 yards? He's accurate and makes good decisions

No one's asking him to just sit back and launch rockets all night long. But I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that we'd like to see what, when needed, Beck is able to do in terms of throwing a deep pass in a game situation. Not too much to ask that a guy we're trusting to be our starting QB in spite of not really doing much of anything his four years in the league show us something.

[Beemnseven]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

Dan Shonka!...the official scout of TheWarpath.net

Yep -- he's great. They have him on every week with the local sports station here and I'm always pestering him with questions on the Skins.

[Ruhskins]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

No one's asking him to just sit back and launch rockets all night long. But I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that we'd like to see what, when needed, Beck is able to do in terms of throwing a deep pass in a game situation. Not too much to ask that a guy we're trusting to be our starting QB in spite of not really doing much of anything his four years in the league show us something.

This.

[SmootSmack]

Originally Posted by Beemnseven

Yep -- he's great. They have him on every week with the local sports station here and I'm always pestering him with questions on the Skins.

That's pretty cool. Good guy

[skinsfaninok]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

No one's asking him to just sit back and launch rockets all night long. But I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that we'd like to see what, when needed, Beck is able to do in terms of throwing a deep pass in a game situation. Not too much to ask that a guy we're trusting to be our starting QB in spite of not really doing much of anything his four years in the league show us something.

I also want to see his deep ball but I was JS if he just has an AVG arm he could still win... Drew Brees for example

[NLC1054]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

No one's asking him to just sit back and launch rockets all night long. But I think it's perfectly reasonable to say that we'd like to see what, when needed, Beck is able to do in terms of throwing a deep pass in a game situation. Not too much to ask that a guy we're trusting to be our starting QB in spite of not really doing much of anything his four years in the league show us something.

The problem with that being that the defense didn't afford Beck any opportunities to throw deep. I suppose Kyle could've dialed up a deep pass just because, but what's the point if a low percentage pass has even less of a shot of being completed? Just to make everyone sorta feel better that Beck could throw the pass deep?

Seems more likely that if Beck "took a shot" just for the hell of it, and his checkdown or a guy underneath was open, people would be complaining that he took a shot down field instead of getting the first down, like I saw people complain that Rex went deep to Stallworth when he had Fred Davis open for the first down.

In this offense, you take what the defense gives you. You think if Tom Brady or Aaron Rogers or Drew Brees or Peyton Manning or Matt Schaub sees a defense dropping 7 dudes into coverage and rushing four, they're going to force a pass down field when they can dump it off underneath and keep the chains moving? I don't.

I guess you could argue those guys have "proven" themselves, but they're also smart football players who aren't going to a risk a shot they don't have too often.

[NLC1054]

Originally Posted by Lotus

So in 2009 Schaub averaged 3 deep balls a game and 2.5 deep balls a game last year.

We've thrown maybe 2 deep balls in 2 games (I say "maybe" because the Stallworth throw was right about 20 yards and thus not that deep). Even if we count the Stallworth throw, we thus average 1 deep ball per game.

1 per game vs. 2.5 or 3 per game. There's a difference here.

If Houston's offense is the standard - which is debatable - then we have a lesser vertical element in our offense so far. That was my point.

As I said above, things may change with time.

Yeah, we took two shots deep in the Steelers game. The first was off the play action bootleg where Rex rolled out and tried to hit Stallworth (yeah, I count that as deep.) The next was when Banks had that big return, Rex dropped back and tried the pump and go to Moss, which also fell incomplete.

Which brings us back to the Colts game. Again, just go back and look at the game tape--you never see the Colts safeties on the screen. They played two deep safeties and dropped seven every. Single. Down. Or almost every single down.

So the concept of "well we should've taken a shot deep because if not they're going to stick a safety in the box"...the Colts never dropped a safety in the box. The idea that we should've taken a shot deep just for the sake of taking one, even if there was practically no chance whatsoever of the pass being completed given how many guys were in coverage, is flawed.

I guess it would've made fans feel better, but it wouldn't have helped to win the football game.

[SmootSmack]

I feel like maybe you glossed over the part where I said "when needed"

[NLC1054]

Originally Posted by SmootSmack

I feel like maybe you glossed over the part where I said "when needed"

I saw it. I just didn't see any opportunity when the Redskins "needed" to stretch the field versus the Colts.