A positive spin on Clausen

[MHS831]

Many of you have determined that Clausen sucks. There is no doubt that he sucks, you are ready to move on, draft Cam Newton or Gabbert, and purchase SB tickets. But the evidence is overwhelming that he was not the person to shoulder the blame, it is just too complicated to hate multiple factors and impossible to boo things that are not obvious.

Not saying he is a player, but I am saying there is absolutely NO WAY to determine that he is a bust. Here are reasons you may or may not have considered:

1. Every other starting QB, including one who knew our system and had success in it, floundered in 2010.

2. The coaching staff never came to his defense in the media; to me, it was obvious that the pick was controversial within the ranks. The coaching staff had no interest in Clausen other than, "What can you do for me now?" He was not ready "now."

3. Clausen was often throwing to 2 WRs and a SLOW TE.

a. The WR was either a rookie or Steve Smith. Smith, a 30+ , 5/9" player who many insist, without clocking him, has not lost a step, even though his numbers have been down under the past 5 QBs. Still great, never a true #1. Would have been a hall of famer in the slot.

b. Rookie WRs struggle to read the coverage, screw up timing.

c. The TEs were not used well and King is slow.

4. 3 reserve offensive linemen, all three switching positions during the season.

5. An idiot for an OC. That was obvious.

6. Clausen's WRs were not open a LOT. Easy to cover Smith (double) and the #2 was a rookie that was not a challenge. This= blitz your ass off vs. Panthers. Often DW or Stewart were out, and Goodson hasn't blocked anything since becoming the fifth wheel on a double date in high school. Many complained because he threw it out of bounds, held it too long, or scrambled and was sacked. I suppose you wanted INTs.

Disaster. For any rookie. 2011 will be different in EVERY aspect of the word. After 2011, then it is fair to judge Clausen, but not until.

By the way, his numbers improved as the year progressed. Nobody mentions that.

Not drinking his Kool Aid, but not throwing a 22 year old QB under the bus either.

[The Saltman]

not another one MHS?

LET THE FLOOD GATES OPEN!!!!

[jarhead]

Add Hurney is not prepared to admit that his pick sucked.

I agree with all you have said but I still do not think he has the arm or accuracy of a franchise qb.

[AceMan]

Still great, never a true #1.

You lost me right here

[countryboi]

"you cant spit shine a turd" clausen sucks and was never ready to start and as bad as this season was for him i dont know if will ever be ready

[Hairless Cat]

Youll never convince the haters MHS.

[CRA]

only thing I would say is Steve Smith's numbers are pretty good in recent history when he gets remotely average QB play. Look at his production in 2010 and 2009 w/ Moore as his QB.

also, the WRs were open for just about every QB that played this season. They all struggled getting the ball to them. Moore flat out missed open guys, Clausen didn't look and his scrambling killed routes.....and BSP only played one game (and he had tons of open guys and he hit some and they dropped some and he played bad late).

[Urrymonster]

only thing I would say is Steve Smith's number are pretty good in recent history when he gets remotely average QB play. Look at his production in 2010 and 2009 w/ Moore as his QB.

also, the WRs were open for just about every QB that played this season. They all struggled getting the ball to them. Moore flat out missed open guys, Clausen didn't look and his scrambling killed routes.....and BSP only played one game (and he had tons of open guys and he hit some and they dropped some and he played bad late).

You've changed your tune a fair bit...?

I disagree though. Our receivers weren't open as much as you think they were. We very rarely had daylight between our receivers and the guys covering them. We had one on one matchups, but none of our QBs could find them, however to think we had people in wide open spaces virtually every down is naive.

The simple fact is that our play designs were not there to get people open easily, or using patterns that created mis matches. Can anyone remember where we had a receiver covered by a linebacker, or a TE on a corner? It just didn't happen often, certainly not enough to make any positive plays. Our plays and philosophy left all the QBs out to dry...

The receivers were consistent though, Clausen preferred to not give up a interception and ended up stalling drives. BSP and Moore tried to force it to the guys who were covered and they just gave up a lot of interceptions.

[Cyberjag]

Clausen had a lousy freshman year at Notre Dame, and then did well his sophomore season. He may do the same in the pros.

The closest recent Pro example you can find to Clausen that compares is Alex Smith. In Smith's rookie season he started 7 games, went 80-165 for 5.3 YPA, 1 TD and 11 INTs, and compiled a rating of 40.8. This was with veteran receivers and Frank Gore.

Clausen started ten games, went 157-299 for 5.2 YPA, 1TD and 9 INTs, and compiled a rating of 58.4. He had rookie receivers and Jonathan Stewart/Mike Goodson.

In Smith's second year, under a different Offensive Coordinator, he started all 16 games and went 257-442, with 16 TDs and 16 INTs, for a rating of 74.8. If Clausen makes the same improvement, that translates to something like 282-479, roughly 3,000 yards, 6.4YPA, 18TDs, 9 INTs, which would be a rating of 81.9. Note that I just used something close the same percentages for improvement for Clausen that I saw in Smith. And I shaded down a little, just because I don't believe he'll get his INT% down to the Brady level, which a Smith-like improvement would bring him to. Nor do I believe he'll become a TD machine, unless we get Greene in the draft.

Granted, we don't know what will happen, but that sort of season would be pretty good after what we saw last year. And if he has it, I wouldn't be surprised if some of these people who have given up on him are ready to declare him the next elite QB.

I don't know what's going to happen, but he's not as bad as last season suggests. And neither is Matt Moore.

[CRA]

You've changed your tune a fair bit...?

I disagree though. Our receivers weren't open as much as you think they were. We very rarely had daylight between our receivers and the guys covering them. We had one on one matchups, but none of our QBs could find them, however to think we had people in wide open spaces virtually every down is naive.

The simple fact is that our play designs were not there to get people open easily, or using patterns that created mis matches. Can anyone remember where we had a receiver covered by a linebacker, or a TE on a corner? It just didn't happen often, certainly not enough to make any positive plays. Our plays and philosophy left all the QBs out to dry...

The receivers were consistent though, Clausen preferred to not give up a interception and ended up stalling drives. BSP and Moore tried to force it to the guys who were covered and they just gave up a lot of interceptions.

changed my tune in what way?

I didn't say there were wideopen WRs every play...but there were WRs consistantly getting open. We saw that with all 3 QBs who made starts. They all struggled at getting the ball to them......they struggled in different ways.

Steve Smith moved inside often to create mismatches.....and got them. He just didn't get the ball. Who was covering Smitty week 1 and 2 when he scored his TDs?

BSP rolled of his couch and for 3 1/2 quarter gave us average QB play......and we were in that game. If the WRs/TEs/RBs hadn't of screwed him dropping wideopen passes we could have even been up no them late. The last 8 mintues or so he melted down.......but for most of that game he showed what pathetically average QB play would allow this team to do. It that was be competitive.

Too much blame being passed around. We sucked b/c of Fox and QB play imo. The rest is nitpicking. They were the real problems. We fixed half of that so far.

[Cyberjag]

Peyton Manning misses wide open WRs all the time, every QB does. The question isn't whether there's an open receiver, it's if there's a receiver who's open, and where he's expected to be given the play called. You can't expect a QB to see the entire field during the play as if he were watching from above on instant replay.

And all it took was a couple of weeks for people to see just how bad our offense was and formulate a strategy to force us to use our rookies to advance the ball. That happened, and the season effectively ended.

[Zcustom]

it's so easy to forget how horrible the O-line was too.

Bernadeau was trash all year. I like the guy and hope he can turn it around, but to believe he was anything better than trash is fooling yourself.

We started Garry Williams to get Bernadeau out of the lineup and then we had some improvement. Of course it didn't last long and Wharton got hurt. Then the coaches had to choose between Bernadeau and Duke Robinson :ack2:

[CarolinaCatBrigade]

I've seen some positive flashes from Clausen. He takes excellent care of the football, not forcing anything (although he needs to take some shots on 3rd down). He has thrown a few rocket passes (not consistently). But I believe his throws will improve with an increase in confidence/personnel surrounding him/and good coaching.

[SCP]

What concerned me the most was all the damn batted down passes. He must have at 20 passes knocked down at the LOS. That is unacceptable.