Jake Tunnel Vision OR One Dimensional Passing Game

[Urrymonster]

Ok, so I am of the opinion Jake Delhomme is at his best when he only has one weapon to feed the ball. Now with Williams and two reliable third receivers and a TE who dominated the Chargers it seems he simply does not have the awareness to 'spread the ball around'. Now I felt I had to do some research into it though as it would be unfair to base this off opinion and not fact so here are some interesting facts about our passing game.

*In 246 completions we completed 143 passes (58%) to our two starting Wrs

*10% went to our other receivers

*16% to our TEs

*16% to our Hbs & Fbs

To me that seems somewhat miscued but then what do I know? Well not much, but I investigated further to determine if it was indeed a touch odd. I tried to take teams that were in a similar offense philosophy and thus I looked at the Pittsburgh Steelers & Tennesse Titans

Pittsburgh

*45% to their starting Wrs

*Still managed to throw to Hines Ward (81) more than we did Smith

*16% to the other Wrs

*22% to their TEs

Tennesse

*43% to ALL their Wrs

Looking at Pittsburgh first they had around 40 extra throws, but the ratios of Ward and Smith are similar so the arguement that we are trying to get it into our more most explosive players hands seems a very mute point. The fact is that Ward is Pittsburghs explosive player (Parker aint a catching threat) and they got to him just as much AND spread the ball around to keep opposing defenses guessing. They did all this WITHOUT a consistent running game. So they essentially stuck to our concepts in getting it to Ward/Smith, without our running game AND still managed to keep the chains moving via other routes in the passing game.

Looking at Tennesse you have to wonder how successful we would have been if we employed a similar tactic. They knew they could run. They did not try to throw to the Wrs often. In fact they appeared to do everything to avoid getting into long situations by using the HBs and TEs VERY extensively in the passing game. Compare that to us. How many times did we go three and out as we simply got ourselves into long situations? Two runs up the gut and a chuck downfield sound familiar? How about it we just picked a 3 or 4 yard pass to our Tes or Rbs and then run up the gut? Even if we get no gain we have only 6 or 7 yards for a first down.

Those who will cry out 'But our third and fourth Wrs, our Tes and Rbs all dropped the ball?!?!' I would normally agree. It makes sense to begin to distrust the players that consistently drop the ball. BUT - Moose dropped the ball a ton, Hackett and Jarrett did not. Whilst Hoover dropped a couple of high profile ones, King proved he was reliable last year if thrown to enough, Rosario proved that in the opening game and Williams is just devastating if used on quick dump offs, slants and screens. In addition to these facts is that non of the other players were passed the ball CONSISTENTLY and thus you will remember if they made a mistake. Easy to forget Moose dropping a load because he also caught a load, it is unfair to call the others unreliable because they simply were not used enough to make a reliable assessment of them.

Looking at other teams makes even more stark reading.

Now to the point of all this. I worry because I feel Davidson gives Jake too much freedom. Either that or in the passing game he really needs to become more inventive. My personal thoughts are that Delhomme is one of those Qbs who will never be able to consistently move the chains as he does not have the field vision to pick out the most appropriate target. As it is all teams need to do is play the odds and double both our primary receivers and load up on the run. Delhomme will not pass to the other guys enough to move down a long field and inevitably will try and force it into double or worse coverage.

[E CaT PanTHer]

I agree with you. Delhomme throughout his years has struggled to perform on a consistent basis. He seems to zero in on one target and will throw to that target no matter what the circumstances. For example, Muhammad in 04 and Smitty in 05 ... both receivers managed to lead the entire NFL in receptions, yards, TD's etc. Smitty won the triple crown in 05, and Muhammad put up staggering numbers in 04. Now for two differnet recievers with the same QB in 2 consecutive years to put up those kinds of numbers seems unlikely, but Delhomme has managed to do it. Is it b/c Delhomme is that goood, or Smitty and Muhammad are that goood ???? I think it's neither b/c as your stat points out, Delhomme targeted Smitty 60% of the time. He'll throw to his number one receiver no matter what, and I think is the main reason why Delhomme every year is almost tops in the NFL in Interceptions.

[Urrymonster]

Just to clarify that 58% is two our starting receivers not just Smith.

For the record Smith recieved 32% of all completed passes.

Oh and for those that will say, 'but that only records completions' if anyone can give me statistical information on who the ball was thrown to X amount of times and who dropped X amount of passes then fair enough. It will read the same because most of the incompletions came from inaccurate deep throws to the main two.

[Panthro]

He has never improved fundamentally and is too old to "correct" his mistakes now. He's garbage (fiery & intense garbage) and has been bailed out by Steve Smith more than the gov't has bailed out inepty run corporations.

[Urrymonster]

Thought I would follow up this and look at Delhomme games individually. I tried to examine his best performances against his worst performances using his completion percentage, TD to INT ratio, yards per completion and the state of hte running game. So obviously games where he effectively won it for us even with slightly lower other stats will be prefered over others.

1. @ San Diego

Reasoning - Average rushing performance and at the end of the game was forced to throw

Performance - 23/41 w/ 1 TD

11 completions to starters (47%) Rosario recorded 7 of his 18 catches in one game.

2. Atlanta

Reason - Average rushing performance, high completion percentage

Performance - 20/29, 294 yards, 2 TD

12 completions to starters (70%)

3. Arizona

Reason - Decent rushing performance, high completion percentage

Performance - 20/28, 248 yards, 2 TD

10 completions to starters (50%)

4.Green Bay

Reason - VERY disciplined performance, high completion percentage

Performance - 12/17, 177 yards

6 completions to starers (50%)

5. @ Atlanta

Reason - Although we lost we relied heavily on his throwing

Performance - 21/35, 295 yards, 1 TD

12 completions to starters (57%)

Interestingly he always did well when he spread the ball around. When he did not it was hit or miss. The most depressing reading though was from when Smith was suspended. Hackett picked up nearly half his catches in this span (46%) as he was starting, as did Rosario (44%), King & Williams received their average per game for a season, Jarrett picked up 20% of his season total and Hoover & Goings made catches. Remove these two games at it is just depressing on how much Delhomme was relying on Smith for the rest of the season....

5 worst performances (in order of schedule)

1. @ Tampa Bay

Reason - Turnovers

Performance - 20/39, 242 yards, 3 INTs

10 completions to starters (50%)

2. @ Oakland

Reason - Dominant running game, turnovers, low completion

Performance - 7/27, 72 yards, 1 TD, 4 INT

4 completions to starters (57%)

3. Detroit

Reason - Ridiculous running performance, low completion percentage

Performance 10/19, 1 TD

7 completions to starters (70%)

4. Denver

Reason - No contest game, dominant running game, low completion percentage

Performance - 17/26, 253 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT

13 completions to starters (76%)

5. @ New York

Reason - Decent running performance, couldn't keep chains moving, low completion percentage

Performance - 11/19, 185 yards

7 completions to starters (64%)

Now if I am completely honest. He only had a couple of actual bad games, but it was the games where all we needed was to sustain drives to put the game out of reach that got put into that category. One thing is definately vident though. He started to focus more and more on his starting two Wrs as the season went on.

I am alaramed at how much teh first two games actually help him out and do not want to look at what they would be if Smith were in the lineup. Whilst it certainly is not a bad thing getting it to Smith, it is bas being predicatable nearly 60% of the time.

[Cyberjag]

So someone tell me this. If what you're all saying is true, and it's been true for six years now, why the hell hasn't a coach or two made a few fundamental changes to fix all this?

Somehow I think they know what's going on and have a little better insight into it than we do. Although after watching Davidson call the game last Saturday, I'm not as sure of that as I once was...

[Urrymonster]

So someone tell me this. If what you're all saying is true, and it's been true for six years now, why the hell hasn't a coach or two made a few fundamental changes to fix all this?

Somehow I think they know what's going on and have a little better insight into it than we do. Although after watching Davidson call the game last Saturday, I'm not as sure of that as I once was...

Because we were still winning the games. Look at Fox's post game press conference. He pretty much said we used this concept of zone against them as it woked last time. Kind of the reason why we inevitably get one over a team if they beat us early in the season, as Fox saw their usual tactics did not work and had to come up with a new plan. I still think it is more Delhomme than the plays called, but we will never know who the primary targets are and who the ball is eventually thrown too. There have just been far too many times where he has ignored open receivers to chuck it into thick coverage.

Delhomme is a fantastic leader and motivates well, he is just much much more suited to feeding off one receiver than having a complete team and that served us well and still does. Just all we need now is someone who can control the game...

[Panther_Fan]

just look at the quick slant in on the last game to try and get the ball to smith. how many times did he pump his arm towards smith having 2 defenders between them to just throw it to a defender. piss on the stats!

[Cyberjag]

If you're saying that we're fine with the players we have, but need to manage them better--i.e. better playcalling, then I'm absolutely on board with you. I think both coordinators stunk up the stadium this past Saturday, and Jake blew it because he was trying too hard to get us back into it. After the second INT, was anyone else surprised that we didn't start calling a few short dump-offs just to get the QB back into the game?

Henning would have called a dozen screens to Smith and draws to Williams. I don't know how effective those plays would have been but with Williams in the backfield I don't think I would have minded as much. Feed the stud is a good plan when you have several studs.

[Urrymonster]

If you're saying that we're fine with the players we have, but need to manage them better--i.e. better playcalling, then I'm absolutely on board with you. I think both coordinators stunk up the stadium this past Saturday, and Jake blew it because he was trying too hard to get us back into it. After the second INT, was anyone else surprised that we didn't start calling a few short dump-offs just to get the QB back into the game?

Henning would have called a dozen screens to Smith and draws to Williams. I don't know how effective those plays would have been but with Williams in the backfield I don't think I would have minded as much. Feed the stud is a good plan when you have several studs.

Yeah to some extent that is exactly what I am saying. I personally feel all they need to do is reign in some of the freedom Delhomme has and then start cal plays that best suit our players. Get Smith in movement like Fitz was, use Smith and Williams in some screen to keep the opposition off balance. Then on third downs use those two massive bodies we have waiting in the wings, Jarret is a possession receiver for a reason and we can exploit them double covering Moose and Smith. Hell I would just be happy seeing the occassional dump over the middle to our TEs, Rosario is pretty good in space as well.

I just feel Delhomme, when given freedom, will always look to his main two Wrs and the stats back it up.

[prowler2k8]

Ok, so I am of the opinion Jake Delhomme is at his best when he only has one weapon to feed the ball. Now with Williams and two reliable third receivers and a TE who dominated the Chargers it seems he simply does not have the awareness to 'spread the ball around'. Now I felt I had to do some research into it though as it would be unfair to base this off opinion and not fact so here are some interesting facts about our passing game.

*In 246 completions we completed 143 passes (58%) to our two starting Wrs

*10% went to our other receivers

*16% to our TEs

*16% to our Hbs & Fbs

To me that seems somewhat miscued but then what do I know? Well not much, but I investigated further to determine if it was indeed a touch odd. I tried to take teams that were in a similar offense philosophy and thus I looked at the Pittsburgh Steelers & Tennesse Titans

Pittsburgh

*45% to their starting Wrs

*Still managed to throw to Hines Ward (81) more than we did Smith

*16% to the other Wrs

*22% to their TEs

Tennesse

*43% to ALL their Wrs

Looking at Pittsburgh first they had around 40 extra throws, but the ratios of Ward and Smith are similar so the arguement that we are trying to get it into our more most explosive players hands seems a very mute point. The fact is that Ward is Pittsburghs explosive player (Parker aint a catching threat) and they got to him just as much AND spread the ball around to keep opposing defenses guessing. They did all this WITHOUT a consistent running game. So they essentially stuck to our concepts in getting it to Ward/Smith, without our running game AND still managed to keep the chains moving via other routes in the passing game.

Looking at Tennesse you have to wonder how successful we would have been if we employed a similar tactic. They knew they could run. They did not try to throw to the Wrs often. In fact they appeared to do everything to avoid getting into long situations by using the HBs and TEs VERY extensively in the passing game. Compare that to us. How many times did we go three and out as we simply got ourselves into long situations? Two runs up the gut and a chuck downfield sound familiar? How about it we just picked a 3 or 4 yard pass to our Tes or Rbs and then run up the gut? Even if we get no gain we have only 6 or 7 yards for a first down.

Those who will cry out 'But our third and fourth Wrs, our Tes and Rbs all dropped the ball?!?!' I would normally agree. It makes sense to begin to distrust the players that consistently drop the ball. BUT - Moose dropped the ball a ton, Hackett and Jarrett did not. Whilst Hoover dropped a couple of high profile ones, King proved he was reliable last year if thrown to enough, Rosario proved that in the opening game and Williams is just devastating if used on quick dump offs, slants and screens. In addition to these facts is that non of the other players were passed the ball CONSISTENTLY and thus you will remember if they made a mistake. Easy to forget Moose dropping a load because he also caught a load, it is unfair to call the others unreliable because they simply were not used enough to make a reliable assessment of them.

Looking at other teams makes even more stark reading.

Now to the point of all this. I worry because I feel Davidson gives Jake too much freedom. Either that or in the passing game he really needs to become more inventive. My personal thoughts are that Delhomme is one of those Qbs who will never be able to consistently move the chains as he does not have the field vision to pick out the most appropriate target. As it is all teams need to do is play the odds and double both our primary receivers and load up on the run. Delhomme will not pass to the other guys enough to move down a long field and inevitably will try and force it into double or worse coverage.

To address the theme of your post, I think it's both. However, I suspect that one is in direct correlation to the other. It's no secret that Jake, while a nice guy and popular in the lockerroom, has terrible mechanics, doesn't have the best field vision and poor judgement. John Fox, while the best coach this franchise has ever had, is ultra-conservative and favor simplistic game plans that (supposedly) limits mistakes. When you combine those two, you can understand why our passing game is underdeveloped and unimaginative.

I can't say I blame the coaching staff for limiting Jake's responsibilities considering his limited skills; however, as we saw on Saturday, we are in deep trouble when opposing defenses clamp down on our running game and force Jake to beat us with his arm. This is another reason why the organization needs to give SERIOUS conisderation to finding a future signal caller (a true bonafide starting QB, not some undrafted development project)as the heir apparent this offseason and/or the next.