A good example of what's wrong with our offensive playcalling

[panthers55]

If Clausen throws that ball any higher it sails out of bounds and if he takes anything off it then he hangs his receiver out to dry. A bubble screen is a "bang-bang" type play... you take the snap, turn and fire the ball almost blindly. It's an all-or-nothing play, even in the SG you have very little time and very few options if the play breaks down. Look at the other receivers and backs - Armanti is the only one that isn't fully committed to blocking for the screen and there's no way Clausen could come back accross his body and get that ball to him especially after Schwartz misses his chop. You have to trust that the tackle will get an effective chop on the DE or you'll be throwing it right to him.

Clausen made a good throw, Schwartz didn't get it done. Peppers might be the toughest DE in the NFL to chop which is all the more reason why you should never attempt to throw a screen to his side of the field. If I'm picking someone to chop Peppers, I'm picking Gross. Take it from a guy who's had the job of chopping a DE on a screen many times, you miss that block (which Schwartz did) and it's all on you.

In a perfect world, when Clausen saw where Peppers lined up he would have called a timeout himself assuming he didn't have a check or an audible in his back pocket that he was given permission to call - but rookies make mistakes like that. What concerns me more is a HC who knows it's a bad idea and does nothing when he sees it unfolding before his eyes. You've got a backup RT expected to chop Peppers and a rookie QB out there, if there was ever a good reason to call a timeout - that was it.

Don't agree that Clausen made a good throw at all. Good throws by definition hit the target and accomplish your goal not hit the DE in the face and get picked off.

If you look at the play you see that pepper's was in front of Clausen before he released the ball so it wasn't as if he didn't see coming and threw the pass and pepper's appeared out of nowhere. This is very different from a linebacker or safety hiding in the secondary and popping up to snag a pass.

And if you look at it, it wasn't bang bang as you suggest. With Clausen's long slow motion nothing is bang bang with him. If that were the case he should have gotten it out faster like a smoke route. Truth is he saw pepper's all the way didn't have the ability to change his throw to loft it over Pepper's or still somehow thought it would get through. Alot like when he hits a linemen in the chest and somehow doesn't figure out that it is going to get blocked.

It is just another reason that he should be sitting instead of playing right now. It is a real shame that Moore played poor enough to even let Clausen play instead of learning from the sidelines. All it did was make us suffer weeks of crappy play until they decide that Clausen isn't getting better. But then again I saw this with Weinke in 2001 so it just seems like groundhog day to me.

[CatMan72]

Don't agree that Clausen made a good throw at all. Good throws by definition hit the target and accomplish your goal not hit the DE in the face and get picked off.

If you look at the play you see that pepper's was in front of Clausen before he released the ball so it wasn't as if he didn't see coming and threw the pass and pepper's appeared out of nowhere. This is very different from a linebacker or safety hiding in the secondary and popping up to snag a pass.

And if you look at it, it wasn't bang bang as you suggest. With Clausen's long slow motion nothing is bang bang with him. If that were the case he should have gotten it out faster like a smoke route. Truth is he saw pepper's all the way didn't have the ability to change his throw to loft it over Pepper's or still somehow thought it would get through. Alot like when he hits a linemen in the chest and somehow doesn't figure out that it is going to get blocked.

It is just another reason that he should be sitting instead of playing right now. It is a real shame that Moore played poor enough to even let Clausen play instead of learning from the sidelines. All it did was make us suffer weeks of crappy play until they decide that Clausen isn't getting better. But then again I saw this with Weinke in 2001 so it just seems like groundhog day to me.

Watch the video you posted, the ball does not hit Peppers in the face - he jumps up and swats it with his hand. If Schwartz executes a decent chop, that doesn't happen.

Clausen throws the ball less than 2 seconds after it's snapped, I would guess he has less than a 10th of a second to react to the fact the Schwartz has failed to execute his chop and he has nowhere else to go with the ball... that's bang-bang.

On top of all that, Clausen has never faced an athlete like Julius Peppers. He may understand conceptually that you're gonna have trouble getting that throw past Peppers, but I'm sure he still felt like he could get it past him. Clausen has been the alpha-dog on the field for his entire life up to this point and he's probably made that throw over a DE on a blown chop block 1000 times. It was a "Welcome to the NFL" moment for him.

Kurt Warner got a screen pass picked off by Peppers after a failed chop, so I guess Kurt Warner is a lousy QB too?

We've officially beaten this topic to death. The whole point of this thread was that the coaching staff is doing a poor job of preventing a rookie QB from making obvious mistakes. When I hear Fox say that play was a "bad idea" I have to wonder why he stood there and watched it unfold? So he felt that play was a bad idea, it's 3rd and 11 on our own 32 yard line, he's got 3 timeouts a rookie QB and a marginal RT who is expected to execute a chop on Peppers and he just stands there and does nothing to prevent the "bad idea" from becoming a reality?

I expect Clausen to make stupid rookie mistakes and I expect Fox to do what he can, when he can, to prevent Clausen from making those stupid rookie mistakes.

I'm outta here.

[panthers55]

Watch the video you posted, the ball does not hit Peppers in the face - he jumps up and swats it with his hand. If Schwartz executes a decent chop, that doesn't happen.

Clausen throws the ball less than 2 seconds after it's snapped, I would guess he has less than a 10th of a second to react to the fact the Schwartz has failed to execute his chop and he has nowhere else to go with the ball... that's bang-bang.

On top of all that, Clausen has never faced an athlete like Julius Peppers. He may understand conceptually that you're gonna have trouble getting that throw past Peppers, but I'm sure he still felt like he could get it past him. Clausen has been the alpha-dog on the field for his entire life up to this point and he's probably made that throw over a DE on a blown chop block 1000 times. It was a "Welcome to the NFL" moment for him.

Kurt Warner got a screen pass picked off by Peppers after a failed chop, so I guess Kurt Warner is a lousy QB too?

We've officially beaten this topic to death. The whole point of this thread was that the coaching staff is doing a poor job of preventing a rookie QB from making obvious mistakes. When I hear Fox say that play was a "bad idea" I have to wonder why he stood there and watched it unfold? So he felt that play was a bad idea, it's 3rd and 11 on our own 32 yard line, he's got 3 timeouts a rookie QB and a marginal RT who is expected to execute a chop on Peppers and he just stands there and does nothing to prevent the "bad idea" from becoming a reality?

I expect Clausen to make stupid rookie mistakes and I expect Fox to do what he can, when he can, to prevent Clausen from making those stupid rookie mistakes.

I'm outta here.

THe mistake was calling this play on 3 and 11 on your own 32 and expecting a rookie to make the play. I doubt that Fox did, if you blame anyone it is likely Davidson.

But it was poorly executed and no Peppers didn't jump for it. And if you expect Fox to call a timeout when a dumb play is called we wouldn't have any past the first series.

But the bottom line is that Clausen made a mistake and poorly executed the play and is ultimately responsible for the mistake. Stop blaming everyone but the obvious problem.

If on the other hand we limited Jimmy to only plays we know he can actually pull off, we would do nothing but hand off the ball and throw 4 or 5 yard passing routes.

Oh wait.....

That is what we are calling or at least that is what he is completing. LOL