Jags @ Titans Postgame Thread

Yea, I'm assuming the scrambles were almost entirely broken down pass plays. You pointed out we only passed on 1st down once before we were essentially forced to change. And we may never have called a run on 3rd down all game. You can't be that predictable and win. I'd blame Chow (and I have), but at some point if I'm the head coach and my OC is calling that poorly, it's my responsibility to have a chat with him and fix it. Fisher has to step in or as much as I like him I've got to say he shares a ton of the blame for our offensive problems.

 

Wow, i'm happy a couple of members can look at this game without a bias. Yes, I understand that Vince Young is struggling right now, but some of the things that I saw from him yesterday made me remember why I wouldn't want any other quarterback for this team. It's year two guys, come on. If everything would have worked out ideally from the start (i.e. the whole Volek thing, Kerry Collins, etc.) we might not even have Vince on the field right now. What were the talks about Young when he came out of college? That he was a three-year project. Well, Vince has pretty much proved all of that wrong. Just look at how Philip Rivers is performing in his second year as a starter, 10 td's and 10 int's... and that's with one of the most talented teams in the league. I'm not trying to say that Vince is without fault for our offensive struggles, because trust me a lot of it does go on his shoulders, but look at the product as a whole, and don't just blindly criticize one person if it's not entirely their fault. We played a really good defense yesterday. We had to abandon the run early because we were behind, which forced Young to throw almost every down. And if you expect a second year qb to be able to torch a very good defense when they know the pass is coming, you really need to put down the haterade.

 

I'm on board with you on that Jeff. JF and NC are clearly trying to fit Young into a gameplan designed to simply ask him to manage the game, and limit his mistakes... a common strategy with young QBs in the NFL. The problem is that it toning the offense down, they are actually making it more likely that he will make mistakes by broadcasting to the defense exactly what we're going to do and when. We're also not playing to his strengths - we all knew he had limited experience under center in college and felt much more comfortable in shotgun.

The irony is that when he's been in a hurry up offense and is forced to throw it when teams know we have to air it out, those are the times VY has looked the best. All last year and in TC we saw him struggle with the dink and dunk offense, and struggle with the long ball - his mid-range passes are actually by far his best throws. Yet we try to "protect" him with the dink and dunk and not only is it not working, but we're compressing the field and that is hurting our run game, and it's hurting our QB. It's like he's playing the entire field in the redzone and everything is compressed. And the play calling continues to ignore that fact.

 

I'm with you as I said earlier.

I never understood why we had a QB with the nickname 'Air' McNair that he was never allowed to live up to the name.

Fisher ball is an effective game plan but with Young it's not working. If a team beats us fair & square it's not so tough to come to terms with. Frustration builds when it looks like we're beating ourselves.

 

I think the Steelers are a great example to follow. I love griding it out on the ground and controlling the pace of the game. But there is a big difference between grinding it out and blindly grinding it out all all costs no matter what the defense is giving you. Steelers this year are playing Fisherball better than Fisher. But they are also letting Roethlisberger play football and occasionally they are letting the pass open up the run when teams try to take away the run.

The last play of the half says it all. Your QB just drove 57 yards in a 2 minute drill, completing 5-8 including a 18 yarder and a 17 yarder. You are now in your opponent's redzone for the 1st time all day with 12 seconds and 2 timeouts. You leave a timeout on the board instead of taking 1 shot in the endzone? Frustrating.

 

MJTitans, I was just getting to post a link about the final play of the first half. Climer rips on Fisher for not taking a chance and what kind of message it sends

http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071112/COLUMNIST0202/711120368/1106/SPORTS11

 

That was inexcusable. 12 seconds and 2 timeouts and you don't let Vince try and make one more play for a TD? Just have him throw it away if there's nothing there. You could tell that game was not going to be decided by a FG.

Fisher has to take some blame, for his over-conservative game calling, and not getting his team emotionally up for a huge divisional game at home.