Campbell's development curve

[70Chip]

Jason Campbell will struggle so long as we have no running game. And I don't see any reason for the run to improve unless we play a defense that Sucks in the trancendent, metaphysical sense of the word. If Randy Thomas comes back in week 13 or whatever, that would help. but I don't see any reason to suspect that we will be a contender by then unless something changes drastically. Right now, this is the worst Redskins offense I have seen since the 1993 Rod Dowhower group.

Also, people hate all the short passes. Me too, but that is an attempt to get yards on first down in the absence of any ground attack. They are runs for teams that can't run. Campbell is not demonstrating the ability to find the open receiver in the intermediate passing game. He holds the ball a lot like Brunell did. And when he doesn't, the throws are not always accurate. He still has a long, long ways to go. I think if we were a team that could run for 150 yards a game, his deep balls would be a serious problem for the oppossing defensive coaches. But we're not.

[JWsleep]

Originally Posted by 70Chip

Jason Campbell will struggle so long as we have no running game. And I don't see any reason for the run to improve unless we play a defense that Sucks in the trancendent, metaphysical sense of the word. If Randy Thomas comes back in week 13 or whatever, that would help. but I don't see any reason to suspect that we will be a contender by then unless something changes drastically. Right now, this is the worst Redskins offense I have seen since the 1993 Rod Dowhower group.

Also, people hate all the short passes. Me too, but that is an attempt to get yards on first down in the absence of any ground attack. They are runs for teams that can't run. Campbell is not demonstrating the ability to find the open receiver in the intermediate passing game. He holds the ball a lot like Brunell did. And when he doesn't, the throws are not always accurate. He still has a long, long ways to go. I think if we were a team that could run for 150 yards a game, his deep balls would be a serious problem for the oppossing defensive coaches. But we're not.

Excellent post--couldn't agree more. I think, though, that Gibbs/Saunders/Buges will find something that works in the run game for this group. And Campbell will get better on those reads--the Pats are tough to read, famously: look at Peyton's trouble with them.

But if we can run it, the long game will open up, and then all this talk of "conservative" will go out the window.

[SouperMeister]

Originally Posted by 70Chip

Jason Campbell will struggle so long as we have no running game. And I don't see any reason for the run to improve unless we play a defense that Sucks in the trancendent, metaphysical sense of the word. If Randy Thomas comes back in week 13 or whatever, that would help. but I don't see any reason to suspect that we will be a contender by then unless something changes drastically. Right now, this is the worst Redskins offense I have seen since the 1993 Rod Dowhower group.

Also, people hate all the short passes. Me too, but that is an attempt to get yards on first down in the absence of any ground attack. They are runs for teams that can't run. Campbell is not demonstrating the ability to find the open receiver in the intermediate passing game. He holds the ball a lot like Brunell did. And when he doesn't, the throws are not always accurate. He still has a long, long ways to go. I think if we were a team that could run for 150 yards a game, his deep balls would be a serious problem for the oppossing defensive coaches. But we're not.

More than the short passes, I hate where we're throwing them - we are still a horizontal offense, throwing the majority of the short stuff to the sidelines. We almost never attack the middle of the field, which would force LBs to cover our shifty receivers. Welker absolutely destroyed us in 10-12 yard chunks last Sunday.

[70Chip]

Originally Posted by SouperMeister

More than the short passes, I hate where we're throwing them - we are still a horizontal offense, throwing the majority of the short stuff to the sidelines. We almost never attack the middle of the field, which would force LBs to cover our shifty receivers. Welker absolutely destroyed us in 10-12 yard chunks last Sunday.

I think we're running those routes, but Campbell is not delivering the ball. The Green Bay 4th and 2 is a perfect example. He had Betts in the flat short of the marker or McCardell on the slant wide open beyond the marker and he never took his eyes off Betts. McCardell started to throw his hands up in frustration but being a veteran team-oriented guy, he restrained himself. Bottom line is that just because something is not completed, doesn't mean the coaches are not calling those plays.

I want to be clear that I'm not saying Campbell won't get better, I just think there's a lot of variables to why we're not producing in the passing game right now. Certainly the WR screen is NOT a play where he would have other options. But, as I said before, those plays are glorified runs and should be thought of as such.

[SouperMeister]

Originally Posted by 70Chip

I think we're running those routes, but Campbell is not delivering the ball. The Green Bay 4th and 2 is a perfect example. He had Betts in the flat short of the marker or McCardell on the slant wide open beyond the marker and he never took his eyes off Betts. McCardell started to throw his hands up in frustration but being a veteran team-oriented guy, he restrained himself. Bottom line is that just because something is not completed, doesn't mean the coaches are not calling those plays.

I want to be clear that I'm not saying Campbell won't get better, I just think there's a lot of variables to why we're not producing in the passing game right now. Certainly the WR screen is NOT a play where he would have other options. But, as I said before, those plays are glorified runs and should be thought of as such.

Good point about the GB game. It begs the question who is the first option on that play? I would hope that it should be the WR on the quick slant and that Campbell just made a bad read by going to Betts in the flat.

[70Chip]

Originally Posted by SouperMeister

Good point about the GB game. It begs the question who is the first option on that play? I would hope that it should be the WR on the quick slant and that Campbell just made a bad read by going to Betts in the flat.

They are taught to read deep to short. He should have checked McCardell first and then gone to Betts. Perhaps he saw something pre-snap that caused him to throw quickly to Betts. I think the larger point is that young QBs will make mistakes, so you can't put too much of the game on their shoulders. You have to lighten the load by running the ball. When you can run the ball, you can put Campbell in situations where he is unlikely to fail.

Gibbs suppossedly went back Monday and talked about what the team needs to do win and I suspect that this a large part of the formula. We have to be a running team. (Period)