Analyzing Delhomme's Interceptions

[John Kasay]

On the fumble play Williams wasn't really open, there was a man assigned to him that was on him the entire play. The only time you could consider williams "open" was when he was 5 yards behind the line of scrimage, and the screen didnt really set up well since nobody was on the defender watching williams man to man.

And yea, wtf were those other guys doing? Where those delayed routes or something? They were right in the middle of that clusterf*ck. What did the receivers downfield look like? Did Jake even have a target to throw to?

No excusing the fumble ofcourse, he could have thrown it away or just taken the sack at worst.

[pstall]

I gotta say this too. From the Philly MNF game a couple of years ago Sheldon Brown mentioned Jake tipping his hand.

Sheldon mentioned it again.

Before this game I was concerned about tipping plays again and I have to say, with as much blitzing as Philly did and being at the right place at the right time for MOST of the game is not just good coaching.

Either they stole some signals or Jake and the formations were so poorly disguised he had no shot at doing well.

[KaseKlosed]

Jake needs practice, he needs Payton Manning as a mentor, Steve Smith isnt superman he cant do it all, he needs someone to play QB not play favorites

[megadeth078]

Great analysis, Murkn, but John Kasay's right. Deangelo is definitely not open on that fumble play.

[Vagrant]

Now, if we could only figure out how to play in still frame then we could find the open man every time! Imagine the POWER.

But honestly, half of the things in the OP were just flat out wrong. DeAngelo was not open on that screen for one. Secondly, nobody is going to take a 3 yard checkdown on a 3rd and 7 unless they want to punt because pursuit would have arrived as soon as Jake would have glanced in that direction, and the play where King was open it was Jeff King that was open.

I also liked the part where it says, "DeAngelo probably would have done a spin move here and evaded six tacklers and taken it to the house", when he's barely open about three yards short of first down yardage.

[megadeth078]

Now, if we could only figure out how to play in still frame then we could find the open man every time! Imagine the POWER.

But honestly, half of the things in the OP were just flat out wrong. DeAngelo was not open on that screen for one. Secondly, nobody is going to take a 3 yard checkdown on a 3rd and 7 unless they want to punt because pursuit would have arrived as soon as Jake would have glanced in that direction, and the play where King was open it was Jeff King that was open.

I also liked the part where it says, "DeAngelo probably would have done a spin move here and evaded six tacklers and taken it to the house", when he's barely open about three yards short of first down yardage.

I would have preferred a 4th down than an interception. when you figure that out, explain it to Jake.

lol @ bolded part. way to prove him wrong, man.

[frash.exe]

I don't suppose it occurred to anyone that on any given pass play there are often guys open. In fact many times defenders will watch the quarterback and flow to the ball leaving their guy open or in the case of De Angelo give up the short pass to defend the longer one.

Hardly the smoking gun.

of course it happens. that's why being able to look off defenders is an important trait for a QB to have. Delhomme doesn't do that.

[panthers55]

He got that on 3 of the 4 interceptions. We have got to drop the oline crap and the pressure in his face crap because there was none. On 3 of the 4 INT's Jake had a nice pocket and was even able to step into the throw. I understand that he got hit and got sacked and YES the oline didn't play well. But they did block well on those 3 INT's and the result was all Jake. A NFL QB is not going to get a perfect pocket or perfect protection everytime but they need to be able to see that presnap and get the ball out quick, throw it away, or take a sack.

What game were you watching? I was the Panther's game and that isn't what I saw. Plus obviously you haven't played quarterback or you would realize that after getting knocked down and pressured several plays in a row you start hurrying up your motion, trying to get the ball out faster and sometimes making mistakes. It is human nature and all quarterbacks do it when pressured. But it doesn't mean that it will happen next game or down the road. Each game is a separate event with specific issues and matchups. Even on the first drive he had to sidestep several defenders to get the pass away. When they blitzed up the A gap he couldn't slide over anymore and that is when he got sacked several times.

But to say he had plenty time to throw on most of the interceptions given how much pressure he was under all day is naive at best and doesn't account for the extreme pressure he was feeling.

[panthers55]

of course it happens. that's why being able to look off defenders is an important trait for a QB to have. Delhomme doesn't do that.

Sure he does when he gets time. For example even for those who think he just focuses on Smitty, it is more often that Jake will look at Smitty early but since he doesn't clear quickly with double coverage, he will look elsewhere and when given time come back to Smitty late once he clears. Sunday he couldn't do that. He had to either throw to his first or second option or be sacked. He missed several open guys but it wasn't all his fault. Unless he gets the time and has open relief valves and dump offs available, it is hard for any quarterback to always find the open guy. He obviously needs to go back and watch film and see where he screwed up and who he obviously missed so he can correct it. But to say things like he doesn't do it as if it is an always or never situation is not close to accurate.

[SnarkAttack]

Rep, man, rep.....

[Vagrant]

lol @ bolded part. way to prove him wrong, man.

I hope you put the bold on that because it was funny and not because you think I made a typographical error of some kind. If not, heaven help your ability to detect sarcasm.

[MurkN]

I understand where your coming from when it's 3rd and 7 and you want to get the ball out past the marker instead of checking it down, but I guess we would be complaining if Williams was the guy who got the ball and he was tackled short. I think someone like Stewart could have got the first down if he just lowers his shoulders and runs forwards, but anything would have been better than throwing it to #89 with three Eagle defenders around.

On the fumble play, Williams is only open for a split second since the linebacker closes in to man up on him and make sure he is covered. The worst part of the play was that we had an overload on the right side to stop the blitz but none of our guys could respond in time to the free rusher. I think if Jake could have dumped it down to Williams the second he sees him open, he might be able to catch it and keep running to the outside and possibly pick up the first down. If anything he could have picked up a yard or two and maybe more if he breaks a tackle. Since we weren't down by much at this point, I wish he would have thrown the ball away instead of holding it and fumbling.

On the play that Jarrett got open, you can realistically say that all of Jake's main reads were on the right side, thus no need to look to the left. However like some people have already pointed out, Jake has to see that he is matched up on a linebacker and since the linebacker is closer to the line than to Jarrett, maybe he can pick that up and get it to him out in space. If someone faster like Kenny Moore were in that position it would be an even better matchup, but either way it probably wasn't the main read on the play.

[Seamonk]

I made a comment last year about people continuing to triple cover smith until we make them pay with our other receivers. We didn't do that. It's that simple. Smith was our first and often only read. Then we went with the screens. Didn't work. We get too focused on one type of play sometimes and rather than taking advantage of the coverage and the blitz, we choose to make it our weakness. I've had a while to cool down now. And While I don't think Jake Delhomme was majority of the problem anymore, I still believe this team needs to go on without him. There are some QBs that you keep because they are godly or high draft picks that you're forcefully trying to salvage as a good pick. Jake Delhomme is not one of them.

This -offense- needs to take advantage of the coverage Smitty gets, otherwise we're just back at 2006.

[frash.exe]

Sure he does when he gets time. For example even for those who think he just focuses on Smitty, it is more often that Jake will look at Smitty early but since he doesn't clear quickly with double coverage, he will look elsewhere and when given time come back to Smitty late once he clears. Sunday he couldn't do that. He had to either throw to his first or second option or be sacked. He missed several open guys but it wasn't all his fault. Unless he gets the time and has open relief valves and dump offs available, it is hard for any quarterback to always find the open guy. He obviously needs to go back and watch film and see where he screwed up and who he obviously missed so he can correct it. But to say things like he doesn't do it as if it is an always or never situation is not close to accurate.

well regardless i have a hunch he will need to speed up his progressions a little bit because Philly is only the beginning when it comes to pressure. Sunday he's got Abraham on his blindside who has a history getting to him (remember he was in his face in the last game Delhomme played in 2007), plus he had 3 sacks last sunday, then after that it's Dallas, who led the NFL in sacks last year, the Giants were up there in the rankings as well. We're playing plenty of teams that get after the QB this year, and Delhomme's going to feel more pressure, and he is going to have to answer for it. This isn't last year when we played the Lions and the Raiders and had a bye before the both of them.