Cian Fahey reviews all 11 sacks. Who is at fault?

[NashvilleNinja]

5 hours ago, TitanDuckFan said:

No no no!

Lewis is the guy that blew his assignment. 

 

The goal is to beat the outside blitzer after making him think he gets a free shot with only Tajae in his way.

Tajae bumps Lewan's guy laterally over to Spain, and Spain lets his guy go to Lewis, While Lewan crosses over outside to take on the blitzer.

Lewis is supposed to step to his left the instant Marcus gets the ball and disrupt the inside guy's rush.  But he's late.  WAY late.

 

Tajae is wide open after his chip with no defender within 10 yards.  If Lewis had picked up the right guy Tajae is running free in the open field with the ball.

Spain gets pissed because it looks like he missed his guy, when in fact he is supposed to pass him off to Lewis

Well, fuck it. It's Mariota's fault for not looking into the magic 8 ball to see beforehand that Lewis was going to blow his assignment and for not throwing the ball to Sharpe as soon as the ball was in his hand.

 

Come on, Pineapple Express! RISE ABOVE!!!

Edited October 16, 2018 by NashvilleNinja

[Pray_iv_m3rcy]

6 hours ago, Stan said:

If it’s the receivers fault then how come we don’t fucking address it and start making some trades for a proven veteran??? Why is Robinson staying pat.. you had a chance at Gordon, Bryant’s out there, Coopers on the block, Parker is as well.. do something then 

He took a gamble on the guys he drafted Davis, Taylor, Sharpe and Jonnu. I can't blame the man for that. Its really only been 6 weeks that these young guys have played significant snaps in this offense.

[TitanDuckFan]

6 minutes ago, NashvilleNinja said:

Well, fuck it. It's Mariota's fault for not looking into the magic 8 ball to see beforehand that Lewis was going to blow his assignment and for not throwing the ball to Sharpe as soon as the ball was in his hand.

 

Come on, Pineapple Express! RISE ABOVE!!!

Well, it's easy to see that Henry isn't the only one that struggles with Pass Pro.

Lewis was supposed to be the schiznit in Pass Pro and it's looking a lot like suckage instead.

I get why Henry might struggle throwing a cut-block, but Lewis doesn't have that excuse.

[Mythos27]

56 minutes ago, TitanDuckFan said:

Well, it's easy to see that Henry isn't the only one that struggles with Pass Pro.

Lewis was supposed to be the schiznit in Pass Pro and it's looking a lot like suckage instead.

I get why Henry might struggle throwing a cut-block, but Lewis doesn't have that excuse.

It is very difficult to know for sure what Lewis's assignment was. On the surface, I agree with your assessment but as I told people when they blamed every sack on Henry, only the coaches really know. Spain is clearly passing that guy off but it could have been to Jones. Lewis's body language certainly doesn't indicate a blown assignment. 

[TitanDuckFan]

43 minutes ago, Mythos27 said:

It is very difficult to know for sure what Lewis's assignment was. On the surface, I agree with your assessment but as I told people when they blamed every sack on Henry, only the coaches really know. Spain is clearly passing that guy off but it could have been to Jones. Lewis's body language certainly doesn't indicate a blown assignment. 

Lewis' body language indicates confusion.  And he did hit the left side A Gap, he was just way late and ends up part of a triple team while Marcus is getting sacked.

No play design is scripted that way.

The rest of the pass-offs are too well choreographed to be anything other than what they appear to be.

And notice Sharpe turns around looking for the ball IMMEDIATELY after chipping his guy.

 

Sorry Mythos, but the only guy that will ever convince me Lewis didn't whiff that block is LaFleur.

And he ain't talkin'.

[Dinx81]

Don’t forget near the end of the game Mariota may have been holding the ball longer in order to make a play since we were down by at least 14. Imagine if he threw all 11 of those away. 0 sacks but his stats would have been something like 10-26 for 100 yards. Imagine the outrage from the statwhores then. If its that bad he needs to go to a 1 or 2 read and run type of gameplan. 

[LongTimeFan]

Lewis is absolute shit. If he thinks it is more important to let a rusher go by while he releases to be a fucking last resort check down, then he has no football IQ. 

You people that thought this guy that had 8 good games his entire career would be some dynamo RB are just idiots.

[titanruss]

2 minutes ago, Dinx81 said:

Don’t forget near the end of the game Mariota may have been holding the ball longer in order to make a play since we were down by at least 14. Imagine if he threw all 11 of those away. 0 sacks but his stats would have been something like 10-26 for 100 yards. Imagine the outrage from the statwhores then. If its that bad he needs to go to a 1 or 2 read and run type of gameplan. 

the sacks caused more sacks. it caused him to see a few ghosts at times but it definitely forced him into shitty situations where he had to make a play. 

 

our offensive response - likely Vrabels decision - was to max protect and limit routes.... which is the exact opposite of what you should do. 

 

spread them out and make it easy to see the field and open the holes from where the blitzers are coming 

[Pray_iv_m3rcy]

19 minutes ago, titanruss said:

the sacks caused more sacks. it caused him to see a few ghosts at times but it definitely forced him into shitty situations where he had to make a play. 

 

our offensive response - likely Vrabels decision - was to max protect and limit routes.... which is the exact opposite of what you should do. 

 

spread them out and make it easy to see the field and open the holes from where the blitzers are coming 

I do agree the coaching staff has had a few poor weeks in a row as far as the gameplanning and making adjustments which is something a lot of people overlook. First time HC and first time OC are going to have bad days too. Its still very early in this process.

[BeedoeLaw]

3 hours ago, titanruss said:

the sacks caused more sacks. it caused him to see a few ghosts at times but it definitely forced him into shitty situations where he had to make a play. 

 

our offensive response - likely Vrabels decision - was to max protect and limit routes.... which is the exact opposite of what you should do. 

 

spread them out and make it easy to see the field and open the holes from where the blitzers are coming 

I feel like this is the route they should take to combat that defense. It would make it a lot easier if Delainie was not hurt because we could split him out wide. I don't think they trust Smith, and for good reason.

Edited October 17, 2018 by BeedoeLaw

[Face]

16 hours ago, Jonboy said:

Fahey isn't the only one to do this. Seems his conclusions vary quite a bit from PFF and Geoff Schwartz.

Fahey definitely favors Mariota but he was right about a lot of things, especially the "contained" rush. I think this is the reason it seemed like Marcus held the ball too long, he was basically enveloped by the line & there was nowhere to go, he couldn't run & nobody was open.

 

As for Geoff Schwartz, I like him a lot, he knows his stuff, but he seemed very heavily slanted in favor of the OL. I think a big part of it was because he was an OL, and he empathized with those guys. But even if I didn't see a single play, I'd be shocked if Marcus was at least partially to blame for 9 of the 11, knowing how little he's sacked.

 

PFF put a good bulk of the blame on the OL as well.

[Face]

It really is staggering how bad the WR's Mariota's played with since drafted.

 

2015- his top 3 were Wright, DGB, and Douglas. All out of the league. 

 

2016-Rishard, Tajae, Wright. Rishard good, the other 2 you know. Plus Andre Johnson played over Rishard the first 6 weeks or so

 

2017-Rishard, Decker, Davis. Decker immediately cut by Pats, nobody else wants. Davis was basically worthless because of the injury & hurt the team until the last few weeks, where he or healthy & Marcus improved greately.

[nine]

According to my highly scientific method of timing plays  (i.e. clicking a stopwatch while watching replays)....here's the timing of each of Mariota's eleven sacks.

 

The first number shows how long Marcus stood in the pocket before moving to avoid a defender or escape pressure (either real or perceived).   The second number is the time from the snap of the ball to his initial contact with a defender:

 

sack #1:  2.3 seconds in pocket //  2.7 seconds  to contact

sack #2:  3.0s  //  3.9s 

sack #3:  2.2s  //  5.9s  (ran OOB - no contact)

sack #4:  2.7s  //  3.6s

sack #5:   2.4s // 2.6s

sack #6:   2.1s  // 3.6s

sack #7:   3.2s // 3.6s

sack #8:   2.7s  //  3.3s

sack #9:   2.4s  // 3.1s

sack #10:   2.2s  //  3.2s

sack #11:  2.5s  // 3.6s

 

Average time in pocket:  2.5 seconds

average time before getting hit: 3.5 seconds     

 

[XAEA12]

18 hours ago, newschool said:

You're taking one point you don't like and trying to make my whole argument out of it.  My point is that teams stack at WR and have better talent there - that's it. You point out GB and ignore all my other examples and try to downplay the teams talent like you can really compare Jonnu Smith to Jimmy Graham. Can you give me a break? My point is I'd take Valdes or Allison over what we have bc they have the talent to beat a 1 on 1 and can catch passes. More talented WRs across the league are buried on depth charts while we start a guy who last year couldn't even line up right. We didn't even try to sign John Brown or Crabtree or Desean Jackson the year before that. My point doesn't take away from your Mariota complaints, chill broskie

 

18 hours ago, abc2330 said:

Allison , the 4.7 guy, can beat a man 1 on 1, but Taywan Taylor, who had an epic 3 cone drill and elite agility and made our corners look silly in TC, cannot?  Whatever.  Scantling gets most touches on screena and bombs.  Exactly how we use some of our Wars.  They seem better because they have a QB who can throw the Damn ball.

You did it again. Allison ran a 4.67 but Valdes ran a 4.37 but keep cherry picking the parts you like, not to mention guys running a 4.6 have been known to stretch the field (Fitzgerald, Hopkins, Rice). Throw the whole conversation away.

 

[nine]

12 hours ago, nine said:

According to my highly scientific method of timing plays  (i.e. clicking a stopwatch while watching replays)....here's the timing of each of Mariota's eleven sacks.

 

The first number shows how long Marcus stood in the pocket before moving to avoid pressure (either real or perceived).   The second number is the time from the snap of the ball to his initial contact with a defender:

 

sack #1:  2.3 seconds in pocket //  2.7 seconds  to contact

sack #2:  3.0s  //  3.9s 

sack #3:  2.2s  //  5.9s  (ran OOB - no contact)

sack #4:  2.7s  //  3.6s

sack #5:   2.4s // 2.6s

sack #6:   2.1s  // 3.6s

sack #7:   3.2s // 3.6s

sack #8:   2.7s  //  3.3s

sack #9:   2.4s  // 3.1s

sack #10:   2.2s  //  3.2s

sack #11:  2.5s  // 3.6s

 

Average time in pocket:  2.5 seconds

average time before getting hit: 3.5 seconds     

 

 

At the risk of quoting myself.... my own thoughts on these numbers:

 

The numbers suggest that Marcus does have a feel for timing in the pocket...a "clock in his head", so to speak.   He's not sitting in the pocket for 3-4 seconds waiting for someone to get open;  he seems to understand that if he's still holding the ball after 2.5 seconds,  he has to get out.

 

But the fact that Marcus was consistently holding the ball for a full 2.5 seconds definitely brings to question his ability to read and quickly process the coverage and anticipate where guys will be open.   He has to be able to see the play *before* it happens....and he's not doing that with any consistency.

 

With that being said....

 

Watching the all-22 for each sack...as we suspected, there were a couple plays where Marcus failed to recognize a potential target.  He ran himself into a sack at least once.    There were also plays where a receiver came open but Marcus was already being forced off his mark and couldn't make a throw.

 

But on the majority of his  sacks,  Marcus literally had nobody to throw to.....the Ravens' defense  was absolutely spectacular, incredibly disciplined, and and utterly dominant.   In man coverage, their secondary absolutely blanketed the Titans' receivers;  there were plays where the DB is covering his man so tightly, the Titan receiver is barely even visible on film.   And in zone coverage, they were unbelievably efficient at passing receivers of from one defender to the next without leaving any gap whatsoever between zones.     

 

It honestly looked like  the Ravens knew exactly what the Titans were doing on every play and exactly where every receiver would be.....absolutely uncanny.    You really have to wonder:  are the Titans' receivers really that bad?   Are LaFleur's playcalling and route concepts really that predictable?  Or were the Titans somehow tipping their hand or giving something away before the snap?

 

After watching the All-22....I think this game was something of a perfect storm scenario:  a struggling offense on a bad day against an excellent defense playing extremely well.

 

Marcus obviously struggled and wasn't at all sharp....but he also wasn't as awful as it looked in real time.   (He also didn't make any dumb decisions by trying to force throws into coverage.)    The O-line obviously struggled and gave up some sacks...but there were also a couple sacks that resulted from miscommunication, a couple sacks by delayed blitzers coming in unblocked, and a couple more from spies who got to Marcus as he scrambled out of the pocket.   

 

It was also an absolutely spectacular performance across the board by the Ravens defense.   The pass rush was simply dominant and overwhelmed the Titans' protection.   The secondary was absolutely dominant and completely smothered the Titans' receivers.   Their defensive playcalling was as perfect a game as I've ever seen....time after time after time, they had the perfect defensive call to counter what the Titans were doing on offense.

 

It was obviously a poor performance by the Titans on a number of levels, and an ugly game across the board.

 

  But as bad as the Titans were....I think it was really more an example of truly dominant defensive play.    Titans fans obviously don't want to relive it.....but for anyone who is a big fan of great defenses, this game is highly recommended viewing.   It simply doesn't get much better than that.