Did Cam have a sophmore slump or did Chud?

[ThunderKatt]

I ask this question because the coaching staff tried to say they added too much to cams plate and that's part of the reason why the offense struggled. I think that's classless to place the blame on someone that you know is protected with the team.

Cam accepted blame, but I think he has some class.

So why would the coaching staff throw cam under the bus like he can't comprehend or that he doesn't have the football savvy? I don't understand it, look at flacco, he struggles but he isn't getting throw under the bus by a coach that drafted him and allows him to stay in games. Rec isn't slaughtering Sanchez and we all know he suck.

[Herbert The Love Bug]

Chud has too big of a playbook that no QB in history could operate under. Once he got rid of the high school plays and condensed it down and started running just plays that work in the NFL Cam took off.

edit: Just saw who started this thread and am mad at myself for giving a serious response.

[Zod]

I think it's a legit question.

[Lumps]

I don't believe he had a slump. He had a learning curve. Flacco isn't struggling because he wasn't a rookite last year. Cam is still learning and some areas he might not learn fast enough (footwork) and some areas he mastered quickly. The point is too many people included most of this forum have too high expectations for Cam. He is still learning, but his cieling is so high it's worth the time to let him learn. He came into the NFL with more to learn than say Luck. A LOT more to learn. SO far he has proven that 1. He will learn it, he does have the ethic to be great and 2. It is worth every second to take time with Cam so that he learns things properly.

No slump, I don't believe it at all. He just needs more time to learn which we all knew when he was drafted. You simply can't take a running QB who played for ONE year and expect him to learn at the same pace as someone who played for four full years or even three. Doesn't mean the other QBs are better at all.

Cam needs more time but his raw talent is out of this world, and prevents him from a 'slump' IMO, it jsut needs to be molded and it will because he has the ethic for it to happen. BUT it WILL still take time.It's not about being football savy etc. its about being young, having limited playing/learning time in college, originally being a non traditional QB, and about learning.

The coaching did not help Cam but to blame it all on the coaching is rediculous, Cam has made a lot of mistakes, some that have cost the entire game one could say. That said, the coaching took too long to get their head out of their ass IMO so I'd like to see them gone but if we win out, I'd be willing to keep them here...on a short leash.

Regression toward the mean. Cam is still better than I thought our new rookie QB would be at this point.

holy crap long post wake n bake

[Davidson Deac II]

No doubt Cam had a slump first half of the season. Cam was underthrowing short passes and getting a lot of passes knocked down at the line of scrimmage. Can't really blame those things on the offensive coordinator. He was also thowing picks or fumbling at inopportune moments. He has improved over the last 6 games, especially irt the turnovers.

[rayzor]

both.

cam had a bit of a regression early on making dumb mistakes, thinking about too much, and trying to do too much.

chud tried changing too much to quickly, tried changing things to something he didn't know how to run and ended up making things too complicated. he tried helping cam by trying to make it easy on him and take decision making away from him. his biggest sin, tho, was in not recognizing early enough that what he was doing wasn't working and then taking too long to go back to the things that worked well last year and that cam and the offense was already comfortable and confident in.

[Cary Kollins]

^this

Also the past 5-6 weeks, Cam says that he has been extra careful in protecting the football from turnovers.

But if you had to pick one guy to blame for the terrible start, you have to pick Chud. He tried to fix something that was never broken.

[panthers55]

You can look at the pass that Cam threw against Seattle into the dirt at the 1 yard line and see that his mechanics were way off. He was throwing 10 feet over the receivers head missing wide open guys and playing poorly. Secondly how many times has Newton come back in the last 5 minutes of a game to win it on a pressure drive. I can't think of many at all.

Chud for his part was using the read option too much and it just didn't work.

They both had quite a bit to learn. Hopefully they have and we are on the right track.

[Navy_football]

I think it was a bit of both. But you'd have to put the majority of the blame on Chud for his playcalling.

For some reason, it was like Cam was against checking down. Even when a guy was right in his face - wide open - he'd chuck it 40 yards down field for an incompletion. He's starting to hit his checkdowns a lot more now and it's helping to keep drives alive.

However, no one can be blamed but Chud for having your QB lead the team in rushing yards, and rushing attempts up through like week 10. That is an absolutely ridiculous stat in the NFL. If it was Navy or Army, I'm okay with it. But if someone told me an NFL team's leading rusher was their QB, my thought would be that team didn't win one game.

[top dawg]

Both.

When Chud stopped messing, and Cam stopped pressing, the offense was no longer perplexing.

[rayzor]

^this

Also the past 5-6 weeks, Cam says that he has been extra careful in protecting the football from turnovers.

But if you had to pick one guy to blame for the terrible start, you have to pick Chud. He tried to fix something that was never broken.

i would put it 60+% on chud.

cam's got to execute regardless of the play call and he's got to keep from turning the ball over, but chud's got to give them something better to work with and be smarter with the playcalling. keep ahead of the opposition and keep their head on a swivel, but not too much too quickly and for peak's sake when something doesn't work after a few games, stop doing it.

[fieryprophet]

When the coaches talk about taking stuff off Cam's plate, they meant more that they made him less responsible for where the ball went (i.e. fewer zone reads) by giving him plays that were actual handoffs instead of having to make all the decisions. Has nothing to do with Cam's mental capacity, just redistributing the workload to his capable teammates.

[rayzor]

When the coaches talk about taking stuff off Cam's plate, they meant more that they made him less responsible for where the ball went (i.e. fewer zone reads) by giving him plays that were actual handoffs instead of having to make all the decisions. Has nothing to do with Cam's mental capacity, just redistributing the workload to his capable teammates.

cam didn't have to keep the ball so much in the option. that was on him. the problem wasn't the option, it was the usage of it.

[Marguide]

It's 90% on Chud. Cam came out early in the year completing nearly 70% of his passes. Most of his throws were right on the money. Meanwhile, the scheme was not working. So what happens? Cam has to make more desperation throws and this always leads to mistakes. We couldn't run the ball, so he was under pressure all day long and that was screwing with his head. He began to press. You could watch it happening on a week to week basis.

Now we have the run game going a bit, we have given Cam more short and quick developing routes, and we are playing two TE's much more than earlier in the year so he has more protection. The result is he starts to gain confidence and perform better.

It is for these reasons that I find it so hard to forgive Ron and Chud and say they deserve a 2nd chance. If Cam wasn't so mentally tough, they could have ruined our franchise QB, and that would have been a disaster for the whole franchise.