One Night Only: Offensive Packers-Redskins Game Review, Mythbusters Edition

[Lotus]

Originally Posted by GTripp0012

A lot of suggested that RG3 is just mentally not comfortable yet in the pocket.

This is may or may not be the case -- he looks fine to me -- but I would tend to lean towards other explanations for his lack of running than that he's uncomfortable. There's just no evidence to support it.

He might actually BE really uncomfortable out there. He might just not feel right. But I think that's a less logical explanation to me at least than he's just been trailing on the scoreboard pretty much the whole season. And that has probably been the number one factor (along with prepared defenses) in why the running element of his game just hasn't been a factor.

I said that RGIII looks more than "uncomfortable" - in fact I said that, to me, RGIII is playing scared. I did not mean this as an explanation for why he is not running, although that is part of it. I meant my claim as an explanation for why his mechanics and decision-making in the passing game have been so poor at times.

Please note that if I am right, this is a fixable problem. If you fall off a horse, trepidation is natural until you get back on and experience safety again. If I am right, RGIII needs to get to the point where he says, "Damn the torpedoes" and moves on. I think that this will happen this week, in fact.

my 2 cents

[GTripp0012]

Originally Posted by Lotus

I said that RGIII looks "uncomfortable" - in fact I said that, to me, RGIII is playing scared. I did not mean this as an explanation for why he is not running, although that is part of it. I meant my claim as an explanation for why his mechanics and decision-making in the passing game have been so poor at times.

Which is a risk I took by generalizing the comments by three or four people into one claim.

The 'mechanics are fine' argument is the easiest one for me to address. RG3 won rookie of the year last year, so his mechanical flaws didn't matter. We're 0-2 now, so the mechanics are now under scrutiny. This is normal.

The decision-making argument has no easy response, because even though the overall takeaway I had from the GB game was positive (on offense), RG3 is clearly forcing passes to covered receivers. This is not a positive development. He has to make better decisions.

It is my belief that a change in the circumstances around him (the talent on his offense relative the the defenses he's facing) is the main culprit. This is just a hypothesis that makes a lot of sense, and I think there's a lot of evidence supporting it. But it could be argued just as easily that the decisions made are just a function of where RG3 is at in his rehab. Because he wasn't forcing this many throws last year, and this troubles people.

It should trouble people, but I don't think there's a whole lot RG3 can really do about it outside of throw the ball away more. But that's not going to fix the offense.