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Ok, this one is actually for real. I want to start off saying that while these are going to highlight some missed opportunities, I thought Bradford had a solid game overall. The Pettis throw was a gorgeous ball and a great overall play by both players. That all said, I think we've all seen the great plays. Here are a few plays that show some areas that Bradford needs to improve and also highlights some guys who are doing a good job(Pettis, Austin).
There were two plays that really frustrated me and they were pretty much the same play vs. the same defense. Here, the Jaguars disguise their zones with what appears to be a man blitz(safety aligned over slot WR is supposed to give it away as a man blitz). However, the safety bails out before the ball is snapped which immediately tells you two things, they're likely not blitzing and they're likely not in man. This is confirmed as all the players bail out immediately. At this point, the read for Sam should be the CB. Due to the route combination, he will be forced to choose between guarding the flats(Tavon Austin) or the curl zone(Austin Pettis). Once he commits, Sam should be able to deliver the ball to the other WR. He commits to Austin which leaves Pettis in a hole in the zone.
Sam opts to scramble instead and is caught 1-2 yards short of the marker on 3rd and 3.
Sam opts to dump it off to Kendricks when I think he could have made the throw to Pettis here. He had the time and there was a window. The CB on Pettis(in pink) falls down as Pettis makes his break. Had Sam thrown it as Pettis went into his break, this would have been a big play due to the defender falling down. Even without knowing that would happen, the Pettis had enough separation and the defender was in poor position to defend the route when the throw would have been made.(before he fell down)
All the blame on this play definitely does not fall on the QB. The issue I had is that Tavon was open and due to the timing of the play, the logical progression would have been for Sam to look at Austin then move onto Givens because Givens ran a deep out whereas Austin ran an intermediate dig. Sam had time to look at Austin then shift his eyes to Givens. Had he done this, it would have been an easy first because Austin burnt his defender. However, at the same time, Sam had Givens 1 on 1 outside and threw the ball with great timing. He threw it before Givens made his break. Sadly, for him, Givens didn't run the route properly(yellow route) instead he rounded off his break(red route), got no separation and allowed the CB to undercut it for the diving pass deflection. Givens needs to sink his hips and dig his foot into the ground on the play so he can explode out of the break and build up separation vs. man coverage. You can round it when you're finding a hole in the zone but you should not round off a intermediate or deep route against tight man coverage. Just a really poorly run route.
This is one of those plays that is really too bad. Pettis runs a great route and opens up over the middle. Sam sees him but is forced to try and side-step Marks who has gotten penetration. Marks grabs him and is able to pull him to the ground and knock the ball out of his hands.
Same defensive disguise as earlier. The Jags bail out at the snap. Difference is that because the ball is aligned on the left hash, the read should be the slot CB instead of the outside CB. The basic read here is if he bails out into the hook zone, you hit Kendricks on the hitch over the middle. If he doesn't, you hit Austin on the quick out in open space. The slot CB plays the mid zone instead of the hook zone. Sam tries to fit it into Kendricks. Ball should have been caught although Posluszny makes a nice defensive play. Still, Austin had more than enough separation to pick-up an easy first.
This is the ball that was batted down by the underneath defender. Nothing is there initially so Sam scrambles. Austin works his way open in a hole in the zone. Sam throws too flat of a ball and Harris knocks it down. Just has to get the ball over the underneath defender. It's one of the difficulties of throwing between levels of defenders(out of bounds is the over the top defender in this case). Takes a lot of touch.
This might be a little bit nitpicky as it's a riskier play in the red-zone but I think Sam should have taken the shot here on the flag route. We brought in Cook to make plays like this. Throw the ball to the back pylon and let Cook go get it. I'll take him 1 on 1 vs. the DB running to space. Instead, he threw to Pead and the LB knocked the ball away.
This is the QB hit on the 3rd down play where Sam barely overshot Pettis down the seam. On this play, the Jaguars DT makes a savvy move. He grabs Dahl by the shoulder pads to keep him from being able to pass the DT off to Wells and pick-up the blitz. Definitely illegal but the refs typically "miss" this call. This leaves Posluszny unblocked coming up the middle and screws up a very promising play. Again, Pettis gets open and the pass just was barely out of his reach after Sam got popped as he let the ball go.
This is the deep ball to Givens. I wanted to put some explanation on this. The ball was thrown late and short. The lateness is on Sam. He had to wait for Cyprien, who was in Cover 1, to commit short in order to get the ball over the top of him on the post route. He actually did a magnificent job of manipulating Cyprien on this play with his eyes and body. That's what the second picture shows. He turned his shoulders and focused his eyes on Kendricks on an intermediate dig. Cyprien took a couple steps towards that route and then Sam immediately reset, stepped up and delivered the ball to Givens. Issue is that when he stepped up, a defender hit his arm on the follow through which is one potential cause of the ball coming up short. As far as the lateness, he probably could have delivered it a step sooner so that falls on him. That all said, Givens did nothing to help out his QB. He needs to work back to the football instead of slowing down and letting it come to him. He made it easy for the defender to knock it away.
Anyways, guys, that was it for what I saw. I wanted to highlight a few things that you couldn't see during the game. I wanted to praise Austin Pettis who has done an amazing job of getting open this year with his route running. Seriously, Pettis is developing into a player. He's getting open A LOT on these intermediate routes. If we can get them blocked and Sam gets a little more aggressive, Pettis will really break out. He's working defenders over on those routes.
As I said, overall, a solid day for Bradford. Could have been better and there are definitely some things to work on. However, he also showed some improvement. He definitely was using his eyes to manipulate Jaguar defenders during this game and that's something we had been asking of him.
There were two plays that really frustrated me and they were pretty much the same play vs. the same defense. Here, the Jaguars disguise their zones with what appears to be a man blitz(safety aligned over slot WR is supposed to give it away as a man blitz). However, the safety bails out before the ball is snapped which immediately tells you two things, they're likely not blitzing and they're likely not in man. This is confirmed as all the players bail out immediately. At this point, the read for Sam should be the CB. Due to the route combination, he will be forced to choose between guarding the flats(Tavon Austin) or the curl zone(Austin Pettis). Once he commits, Sam should be able to deliver the ball to the other WR. He commits to Austin which leaves Pettis in a hole in the zone.
Sam opts to scramble instead and is caught 1-2 yards short of the marker on 3rd and 3.
Sam opts to dump it off to Kendricks when I think he could have made the throw to Pettis here. He had the time and there was a window. The CB on Pettis(in pink) falls down as Pettis makes his break. Had Sam thrown it as Pettis went into his break, this would have been a big play due to the defender falling down. Even without knowing that would happen, the Pettis had enough separation and the defender was in poor position to defend the route when the throw would have been made.(before he fell down)
All the blame on this play definitely does not fall on the QB. The issue I had is that Tavon was open and due to the timing of the play, the logical progression would have been for Sam to look at Austin then move onto Givens because Givens ran a deep out whereas Austin ran an intermediate dig. Sam had time to look at Austin then shift his eyes to Givens. Had he done this, it would have been an easy first because Austin burnt his defender. However, at the same time, Sam had Givens 1 on 1 outside and threw the ball with great timing. He threw it before Givens made his break. Sadly, for him, Givens didn't run the route properly(yellow route) instead he rounded off his break(red route), got no separation and allowed the CB to undercut it for the diving pass deflection. Givens needs to sink his hips and dig his foot into the ground on the play so he can explode out of the break and build up separation vs. man coverage. You can round it when you're finding a hole in the zone but you should not round off a intermediate or deep route against tight man coverage. Just a really poorly run route.
This is one of those plays that is really too bad. Pettis runs a great route and opens up over the middle. Sam sees him but is forced to try and side-step Marks who has gotten penetration. Marks grabs him and is able to pull him to the ground and knock the ball out of his hands.
Same defensive disguise as earlier. The Jags bail out at the snap. Difference is that because the ball is aligned on the left hash, the read should be the slot CB instead of the outside CB. The basic read here is if he bails out into the hook zone, you hit Kendricks on the hitch over the middle. If he doesn't, you hit Austin on the quick out in open space. The slot CB plays the mid zone instead of the hook zone. Sam tries to fit it into Kendricks. Ball should have been caught although Posluszny makes a nice defensive play. Still, Austin had more than enough separation to pick-up an easy first.
This is the ball that was batted down by the underneath defender. Nothing is there initially so Sam scrambles. Austin works his way open in a hole in the zone. Sam throws too flat of a ball and Harris knocks it down. Just has to get the ball over the underneath defender. It's one of the difficulties of throwing between levels of defenders(out of bounds is the over the top defender in this case). Takes a lot of touch.
This might be a little bit nitpicky as it's a riskier play in the red-zone but I think Sam should have taken the shot here on the flag route. We brought in Cook to make plays like this. Throw the ball to the back pylon and let Cook go get it. I'll take him 1 on 1 vs. the DB running to space. Instead, he threw to Pead and the LB knocked the ball away.
This is the QB hit on the 3rd down play where Sam barely overshot Pettis down the seam. On this play, the Jaguars DT makes a savvy move. He grabs Dahl by the shoulder pads to keep him from being able to pass the DT off to Wells and pick-up the blitz. Definitely illegal but the refs typically "miss" this call. This leaves Posluszny unblocked coming up the middle and screws up a very promising play. Again, Pettis gets open and the pass just was barely out of his reach after Sam got popped as he let the ball go.
This is the deep ball to Givens. I wanted to put some explanation on this. The ball was thrown late and short. The lateness is on Sam. He had to wait for Cyprien, who was in Cover 1, to commit short in order to get the ball over the top of him on the post route. He actually did a magnificent job of manipulating Cyprien on this play with his eyes and body. That's what the second picture shows. He turned his shoulders and focused his eyes on Kendricks on an intermediate dig. Cyprien took a couple steps towards that route and then Sam immediately reset, stepped up and delivered the ball to Givens. Issue is that when he stepped up, a defender hit his arm on the follow through which is one potential cause of the ball coming up short. As far as the lateness, he probably could have delivered it a step sooner so that falls on him. That all said, Givens did nothing to help out his QB. He needs to work back to the football instead of slowing down and letting it come to him. He made it easy for the defender to knock it away.
Anyways, guys, that was it for what I saw. I wanted to highlight a few things that you couldn't see during the game. I wanted to praise Austin Pettis who has done an amazing job of getting open this year with his route running. Seriously, Pettis is developing into a player. He's getting open A LOT on these intermediate routes. If we can get them blocked and Sam gets a little more aggressive, Pettis will really break out. He's working defenders over on those routes.
As I said, overall, a solid day for Bradford. Could have been better and there are definitely some things to work on. However, he also showed some improvement. He definitely was using his eyes to manipulate Jaguar defenders during this game and that's something we had been asking of him.