Mariota - 2019 week 1

[Dmeade-]

The browns had 8 or 9 defenders in the box on almost every play. They were not scared of Mariota at all. Imagine any top 10 qb with essentially all one on one's all day. 

[OILERMAN]

26 minutes ago, Dmeade- said:

The browns had 8 or 9 defenders in the box on almost every play. They were not scared of Mariota at all. Imagine any top 10 qb with essentially all one on one's all day. 

They also imploded and fell behind big

 

It won’t be like this normally

[BudsOilers]

My takeaway from this was that Mariota played a pretty clean game from a mechanics standpoint with his footwork/drops.  It was much better than what he showed in the preseason aside from a handful of plays. 

 

The Sharpe throw is a tough one watching this - the route was not very clean but I also think MM rushed it like Romo said.  The high Davis throw was unfortunate and I know we can nitpick the first Brown throw but he could not step into that either. 

 

The second Brown throw to start the 2nd half was absolutely perfect.  To me, that was his best throw as it' something he's generally struggled with.

 

All in all, he did his part pretty well and Smith put him in good, fairly easy situations for the most part.   The reads were easy and the receivers were open on all of his big throws and the last 3 passes that all went for TD's.  None of which happened from 11 personnel BTW.  They were 6-9 passing with a 2.9 YPA and 20% success rate from that formation.  The passing game was far more effective in 12 and 13 personnel where all the yards and TD's came from.

 

The elephant in the room, of course, is whether he can string this together and be consistently productive. 

Edited September 11, 2019 by BudAdams

[TitanDuckFan]

2 hours ago, Justafan said:

Also, watching it live, I didn't realize how many condensed formations they used.  It seemed like it was more spread out than it was because of all the motion.  There's two plays that stand out where they run 4 WR (Smith is out wide) and 5 WR.  They run the plays consecutively, trying to spread the Browns out who are only rushing 4.  The first play, Mariota has to get it out super quick because pressure is coming and the second results in a sack.

 

This line would never hold up in a spread type 3-4-5 WR offense against a decent line.  

 

I expect to see a lot of TE action until Lewan comes back.  

When the O-Line is down two starters against a front like that it's easy to understand why they opted to run so many heavy 2TE sets and keep the QB on the move as much as possible.

 

And Henry's pass pro IS vastly improved, which is great to see. 

[Mythos27]

2 hours ago, Justafan said:

The big AJ Brown pass (the first one) at about the 14 minute mark was a great all around offensive effort.  Probably the best all around execution I've seen to this point in the tape.  The Oline holds up well.  Brown runs a great route.  Mariota throws a great ball.  The key to the play though, and I never thought I would be saying this, was an outstanding block by Henry who stayed in to pass block.  Dude deserves some credit because he was ATROCIOUS at this his first year or two in the league but he's gotten much better at it and Mariota never would have gotten this ball off if he whiffed the block here.  

The bolded is just not true. He's improved but at worst he was average. 

[bizzyeddie]

1 hour ago, Mythos27 said:

The bolded is just not true. He's improved but at worst he was average. 

He wasn't as good as Murray would be a more accurate way to put it

[Justafan]

2 hours ago, Mythos27 said:

The bolded is just not true. He's improved but at worst he was average. 

I disagree but fair enough.

[ChemEngr79]

1 hour ago, bizzyeddie said:

He wasn't as good as Murray would be a more accurate way to put it

 

Murray was borderline elite in pass pro...

 

Henry started out a bit below average (not terrible), but looked terrible in contrast to Murray...

[japan]

Henry was bad at pass protection. He’s come a long way. Remember him almost getting Mariota killed in the playoff game?

[Mythos27]

48 minutes ago, japan said:

Henry was bad at pass protection. He’s come a long way. Remember him almost getting Mariota killed in the playoff game?

Yes. It's like the only play people bring up from that season. I get that it really stood out but that was one of like 2 or 3 bad plays he had in pass pro that year. PFF has never rated Henry lower than average in pass pro in his entire career. 

Edited September 11, 2019 by Mythos27

[IrishTitansFan]

Mariota has some really frustrating throws that he has to hit, but I think his footwork looks night and day compared to last year. It doesn’t matter if he can’t be accurate consistently though. 

 

Also, it looks like there’s a lot more motion, especially with the tight ends

[TitanDuckFan]

13 minutes ago, Mythos27 said:

Yes. It's like the only play people bring up from that season. I get that it really stood out but that was one of like 2 or 3 bad plays he had in pass pro that year. PFF has never rated Henry lower than average in pass pro in his entire career. 

Because average by today's standards really isn't near as good as it used to be.

It mattered more in the Mularkey/Robiskie offense because when most offenses were old school like that, RBs weren't considered complete unless they were really good at blitz pickup and plugging holes.

It becomes really apparent when you watch some of the blocks Murray made in Mularkey's offense.  Dexter McCluster was very good at it too, despite his size, and always made sure he slowed down or shut down the blitz.

[oldschool]

5 hours ago, BudAdams said:

My takeaway from this was that Mariota played a pretty clean game from a mechanics standpoint with his footwork/drops.  It was much better than what he showed in the preseason aside from a handful of plays. 

 

The Sharpe throw is a tough one watching this - the route was not very clean but I also think MM rushed it like Romo said.  The high Davis throw was unfortunate and I know we can nitpick the first Brown throw but he could not step into that either. 

 

The second Brown throw to start the 2nd half was absolutely perfect.  To me, that was his best throw as it' something he's generally struggled with.

 

All in all, he did his part pretty well and Smith put him in good, fairly easy situations for the most part.   The reads were easy and the receivers were open on all of his big throws and the last 3 passes that all went for TD's.  None of which happened from 11 personnel BTW.  They were 6-9 passing with a 2.9 YPA and 20% success rate from that formation.  The passing game was far more effective in 12 and 13 personnel where all the yards and TD's came from.

 

The elephant in the room, of course, is whether he can string this together and be consistently productive. 

This is fair. I disagree he played a clean game though. He took two bad sacks and missed some big throws. All QBs miss throws but Mariota misses more than he makes which is a huge issue. 

[Mythos27]

15 minutes ago, TitanDuckFan said:

Because average by today's standards really isn't near as good as it used to be.

It mattered more in the Mularkey/Robiskie offense because when most offenses were old school like that, RBs weren't considered complete unless they were really good at blitz pickup and plugging holes.

It becomes really apparent when you watch some of the blocks Murray made in Mularkey's offense.  Dexter McCluster was very good at it too, despite his size, and always made sure he slowed down or shut down the blitz.

The interesting thing about Murray is that he greatly declined in pass pro his last season here. At the conclusion of the season, Henry was rated higher than him. Yet no one cared or noticed, and the Henry is awful at pass pro narrative continued. In his prime though, Murray was indeed a stud at pass pro. 

[IrishTitansFan]

27 minutes ago, oldschool said:

This is fair. I disagree he played a clean game though. He took two bad sacks and missed some big throws. All QBs miss throws but Mariota misses more than he makes which is a huge issue. 

You're right about taking sacks but I think if this game happened mid season 2018 it might be close to double digit sacks again. Cossells show say the Browns were able to pressure him on 47% of his dropbacks which was 3rd highest in the NFL. Kelly was absolutely terrible. He still needs to diagnose corner blitzes better but I saw at least a little improvement