WR Practice in reference to Bruce and Holt

[brokeu91]

I've been thinking about this off and on since the season started. Then yesterday the play where Gibson took a bit off of his route and missed the pass because of it got me thinking about it again. One of the things that was said about Bruce was that he practiced as hard as though it was a game. He went full speed during every route, even in practice. That obviously rubbed off on Holt as well. So at game time, Warner/Bulger knew exactly where to throw it, because they ran exactly the same route in practice at exactly the same speed.

I wonder if our receiver group are doing that. I wonder if that's partly due to the fact that they are being overloaded on teaching. Let's face it, if you're being taught all of the time and you are thinking the entire time during practice instead of just running your route, you probably won't be doing it at full speed. I'm probably totally off on this, but I was just wondering. What do you guys think?

 

[Ramhusker]

Gibson's hesitation on that route surely looked like a WR a little unsure of where he was supposed to be or do. It was like he was having a hard time multitasking, running, cutting, turning, looking, catching........ The cause? I don't know, maybe you are right.

 

[RamsSince1969]

Watching other teams, they seem to easily be able to get a little separation when they do a "hook" pattern coming back towards the QB for an easy reception. We don't do that too often. I'd have them practice that day in and day out. It's the bread and butter of many teams when you need 8 to 12 yards. We must get jammed at the line or are never a deep threat so it just doesn't work with us.

 

[bluecoconuts]

Watching other teams, they seem to easily be able to get a little separation when they do a "hook" pattern coming back towards the QB for an easy reception. We don't do that too often. I'd have them practice that day in and day out. It's the bread and butter of many teams when you need 8 to 12 yards. We must get jammed at the line or are never a deep threat so it just doesn't work with us.

Lloyd can do it.

With Gibson, I don't think he was the primary guy, and he didn't expect to get the ball. His cut was clean, but he slacks off coming out of it, so I don't think it's hesitation, but more someone who didn't expect to get the ball.

 

[iBruce]

Watching other teams, they seem to easily be able to get a little separation when they do a "hook" pattern coming back towards the QB for an easy reception. We don't do that too often. I'd have them practice that day in and day out. It's the bread and butter of many teams when you need 8 to 12 yards. We must get jammed at the line or are never a deep threat so it just doesn't work with us.

Lloyd can do it.

With Gibson, I don't think he was the primary guy, and he didn't expect to get the ball. His cut was clean, but he slacks off coming out of it, so I don't think it's hesitation, but more someone who didn't expect to get the ball.

Could be this. Or it could be that when he cut he got a little separation but didn't want to go too far into the middle of the field because he knew he had a hole.

Either way, it was a bad move by Gibson. I didn't think our WRs were great by any means. Lloyd had an easy drop, but then made up for it with that spectacular catch that set up his TD. Pettis had a catch on 3rd down and should've just ran to the sideline to get the first down, but tried juking and didn't get close to a first down. I didn't see Clayton get targeted at all, so I'm not sure if he was even on the field much.

 

[-X-]

Watching other teams, they seem to easily be able to get a little separation when they do a "hook" pattern coming back towards the QB for an easy reception. We don't do that too often. I'd have them practice that day in and day out. It's the bread and butter of many teams when you need 8 to 12 yards. We must get jammed at the line or are never a deep threat so it just doesn't work with us.

Lloyd can do it.

With Gibson, I don't think he was the primary guy, and he didn't expect to get the ball. His cut was clean, but he slacks off coming out of it, so I don't think it's hesitation, but more someone who didn't expect to get the ball.

Could be this. Or it could be that when he cut he got a little separation but didn't want to go too far into the middle of the field because he knew he had a hole.

Either way, it was a bad move by Gibson. I didn't think our WRs were great by any means. Lloyd had an easy drop, but then made up for it with that spectacular catch that set up his TD. Pettis had a catch on 3rd down and should've just ran to the sideline to get the first down, but tried juking and didn't get close to a first down. I didn't see Clayton get targeted at all, so I'm not sure if he was even on the field much.

I like Gibson. Always have. But it's that kind of 'thing' that makes the whole offense turn to shit. He's not the only one who does it either. Whether it's a familiarity thing, or a thinking too much thing, or whatever, it has to get cleaned up. In a timing-based offense, you have to be where you're supposed to be when you're supposed to be there. If not, then you get incompletions. Or worse, interceptions.

And what do we get as an ancillary benefit to all this? Bradford either (a) doesn't anticipate when the receivers are coming free, or (b) he's inaccurate. No accountability for anyone else. Just Bradford. Sure he has some things he can do better, but he can't change the trajectory of the ball, mid-air, to compensate for receivers not being where they were supposed to be.

And, like I said, that's just one 'thing.' Add it up with all the other 'things' and you get poor offensive production.

 

[Selassie I]

Bruce did work with our WRs before the season started. I'm positive that proper execution of running each route was stressed. Even if Bruce hadn't come in to help, I guarantee that proper route running is stressed by the coaching staff.

Proper route running is actually a common topic of discussion at my dinner table. I have twins who play on the same team - one is the QB, and the other is a RB / WR. They give each other shit constantly about execution, but if a route is run poorly - My young QB unleashes holy hell on his WR brother.

In other words, route running is paramount to successfully executing a pass in most offenses. This is no secret to Gibson, he just ran a poor route that resulted in an incompletion. He should be way beyond that at this point in his football career.

Practice??? We talkin bout practice? Practice??? :ww:

 

[Keefrox]

100 % agree. Too much thinking kills the instincts....and the 1999 Rams had a lot of mental errors...but we don't remember because of the superior play...they had much fewer mistakes in 2000 and even less in 2001.....

I still believe in Bradford, Clayton and Lloyd and Jackson....and if the rest can just 'hold the fort' the offense can have a very good last 6-7 games.....

Except for 2009, I have never 'felt' this way in 37 years.....that Cleveland 'win' was the worst .....I want Spags and McD to stay on....badly....bec the system will work with the right players...and Kendricks and the boys next year will take it up a big notch! Oh, how manymore years must I suffer I still want Blackmon....impact is in need.

 

[-X-]

100 % agree. Too much thinking kills the instincts....and the 1999 Rams had a lot of mental errors...but we don't remember because of the superior play...they had much fewer mistakes in 2000 and even less in 2001.....

I still believe in Bradford, Clayton and Lloyd and Jackson....and if the rest can just 'hold the fort' the offense can have a very good last 6-7 games.....

Except for 2009, I have never 'felt' this way in 37 years.....that Cleveland 'win' was the worst .....I want Spags and McD to stay on....badly....bec the system will work with the right players...and Kendricks and the boys next year will take it up a big notch! Oh, how manymore years must I suffer I still want Blackmon....impact is in need.

Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly.

We've all seen what a Spagnuolo defense and a McDaniels offense can do with the right personnel.
18-0 turned into 18-1 with these two guys. That pretty much says it all.