Open Receiver

[PantherCam213]

I heard a clip of Rivera soon after the game praising Cam for doing a good job of waiting until the play clock was down to 6 seconds to pass to stretch our time of possession, so some of that is probably by design.

[DeeJay]

Shula plays tecmo super bowl I knew it

[bigdog10]

Let me preface this post below by stating that I can't stand the way Shula calls a game and I don't think he should be an OC in the league.

With that out of the way, he made some great calls down the stretch to salt the game away.  On the long drive leading to a FG, he mixed run with pass.  He used misdirection and QB runs.  It didn't hurt that Cam was excellent on the last drive and his ability to scramble helped a ton.

I bash him in nine out of ten posts, but figured this would be one where I give him some props.

[Hogmolliesmaht]

I thought the play calling was pretty darn good. If the run blocking was a little better, if they hadn't gotten that BS offensive PI call int he end zone, if they had fewer drops, and if Cam had a little  better ball placement on a couple of throws, they could have had 30 plus on the board. Watch Brady and Rodgers and see what perfect ball placement can do. IT can make a huge difference.

 

All in all, it was a pretty good day, aside from the injuries.

[EightyNine]

If the refs didnt screw Olsen out of a TD and Ginn didnt drop a TD, would this still be an issue?

[Panther53521]

I agree that Shula should take a couple more shts downfield, but to be fair Ginn let a TD get away that would be exactly what we are talking about.

Pound the rock, and when the defense keys on your RBs throw a dagger to Ginn and make them pay for it.

Thats what I have been asking for from Shula ever since he took over as OC ... Honestly its just that simple

[motocross_cat]

If the refs didnt screw Olsen out of a TD and Ginn didnt drop a TD, would this still be an issue?

nope

 

[Nick_81]

I remember the only time i saw a drag route by ginn caught it around 8 yards and went for around 35. Why they dont do more of this is baffling instead they are running 25 yard comback , curl and deep post routs with the slowest wr on the team. Yet in the post game presser ron used the words impressive and shula in the same sentence which scares the poo out of me. 

That's the problem.  Shula is sticking to his established playbook, as always, and not developing plays that compliment the strengths of the players on the field.  If Ginn and Brown are on the field, we should be able to take advantage of their speed, whether in zone or man, by putting them in situations where they can make plays using that speed/shiftiness.  Short drags, slants, screens, etc.  As an armchair OC, I would try to just get the ball in their hands quickly, and let their legs do the rest, instead of any kind of route that takes more than 2.5 seconds to run.

[EightyNine]

That's the problem.  Shula is sticking to his established playbook, as always, and not developing plays that compliment the strengths of the players on the field.  If Ginn and Brown are on the field, we should be able to take advantage of their speed, whether in zone or man, by putting them in situations where they can make plays using that speed/shiftiness.  Short drags, slants, screens, etc.  As an armchair OC, I would try to just get the ball in their hands quickly, and let their legs do the rest, instead of any kind of route that takes more than 2.5 seconds to run.

Ginn and Brown are our top 2 WR's.  If they were numbers 3 and 4, we could use them to fill those niche roles where they only run those types of routes.  But if they are gonna start for us, we need to be able to mix up the play calling and ask them to do different things if we want to become an effective offense.  If it were as easy as asking them to only do a couple of things that they do well, i think every offense in the NFL would have no problems moving the ball.  

I think our run blocking was as concerning as anything.  That makes everything a lot harder.

[Nick_81]

Ginn and Brown are our top 2 WR's.  If they were numbers 3 and 4, we could use them to fill those niche roles where they only run those types of routes.  But if they are gonna start for us, we need to be able to mix up the play calling and ask them to do different things if we want to become an effective offense.  If it were as easy as asking them to only do a couple of things that they do well, i think every offense in the NFL would have no problems moving the ball.  

I think our run blocking was as concerning as anything.  That makes everything a lot harder.

You're misunderstanding if you think I just want them to run those 3 types of routes the whole game.  I never said not to mix up the play calling, but you have to play to the strengths of the guys that are on the field.  You can't keep the same plays you were going to use for different types of players.  Ginn can't be expected to do what KB was, as the main example.  Yet, here we are, doing just that.  

[EightyNine]

You're misunderstanding if you think I just want them to run those 3 types of routes the whole game.  I never said not to mix up the play calling, but you have to play to the strengths of the guys that are on the field.  You can't keep the same plays you were going to use for different types of players.  Ginn can't be expected to do what KB was, as the main example.  Yet, here we are, doing just that.  

I cant recall thinking that we were trying to use Ginn like we would KB.

I pointed this out earlier but if Ginn catches the TD and the Olsen TD isnt taken away, do you think you would still have these issues? Probably not.

 

[Ivan The Awesome]

Shula

b-b-b-but the players are to blame though. 

[magnus]

Also, as I posted in another thread, there were at least 2 plays where 2 receivers were running their pattern in the exact same area.

That's poor play design IMO.

Or they both had option routes and one made a bad read. 

 

 

As for the "slow receiver running deep", we run a fair amount of 4 Verticals.  Plenty of teams do, and most don't have 3 or 4 fast guys.  Heck, subbing in two more, if you had them, would be an obvious tell.   I guess this is, in part, about Cotchery, but he was still open. 

[Mr. Scot]

Also, as I posted in another thread, there were at least 2 plays where 2 receivers were running their pattern in the exact same area.

That's poor play design IMO.

To be fair though, do we know for sure that both guys ran the right route?