Pro Quality. Fan Perspective.
Around SBN: Is Mack Brown's new $5M salary inappropriate?

Large

firebeard

Jun 10, 2008 Feb 06, 2009 1 26

rss icon RSSUser Blog

I might be alone on this...

but I think the problem isn't T-Jack, a young guy who has shown a lot of ability and potential.  The problem is Chillly's conservative play calling.  We saw it at the beginning of the season against Green Bay and Indy,  when Jackson was only throwing in third and long situations.  As Gonzo said himself, how do you expect a quarterback to get a rhythm with his receivers if he's only throwing 7 passes in a half?  The big change in Jackson from the first set of games to those that at the end of the season was that Childress opened the play book. 

Against the Eagles, we saw the same restricted play book from Childress, only a few deep passes and mostly short passes and screens.  To me, it shows a lack of trust and confidence from Childress.  Jackson was tearing it up at the end of regular season, but as soon as they get into the playoffs, they close the playbook up and try to limit the mistakes. 

At the time of Jackson's ill-advised interception that was run back for a TD, he had thrown 14 passes.  According to NFL.com's breakdown, Jackson had thrown 13 short passes to 1 deep pass.  Breaking it down further, Jackson had thrown 3 short middle, 3 short left, and 1 deep left, and SEVEN short right.  Half of all his passes at that point were being thrown short right.  Admittedly, it wasn't a great throw, but if you throw 50% of your passes to one area of the field, it doesn't matter if you're Asante Samuel or Fred Smoot, you're going to wise up and start watching that area.  Ok.  Maybe not Fred Smoot, but you get my point.

At the end of the day, Jackson had thrown 37 passes, including two penalties.  He threw 7 short left, 7 short middle, 3 deep left, 3 deep right, and 16 short right.  A combined 7 deep passes?  In 37 attempts?  So much for stretching the field.  I get that a lot of the short passes are the results of check downs, where he looks to the Berrian and Rice and checks down to Taylor and Shiancoe.  But how many were designed plays?  And if Jackson is forced to constantly check down, is that his fault or the receivers?

And just one last point...  correct me if I'm wrong, but we aren't a passing team, we're a running team --> that being said, why did Childress have T-Jack throw the ball 37 times, and not even give AD the ball in the vikings last 16 offensive plays?

15 comments  |  0 recs