probably gonna catch hell for this again, but bradford is not that much, if any, better than clemens at qb. sure things changed game plan wise but we are also spreading the ball around and taking some shots down the field. is that because of the dedication to the plan change?? lmaybe. i also would like to think taht the team has the mentality to "do more" individually after losing their starting qb. tavon seems to have caught on, our dline shows up yesterday (actually my fav part of the day where the goal line stands). anyway, to aonswer the question, yoes it think that it is obvious that our offense is way better (for whatever reason, because im sure that a few wont think bradford had anything to do with it) than when we had bradford in there.
How is it that so many seem to think that they are NOW taking some shots downfield, as opposed to prior to Bradford being injured. I am of the opinion, they took even more shots downfield with Bradford, but those get lost in the shuffle because when Bradford was on the field, the temptation to throw the ball 35+ times was so much greater with him than it is with Clemens. Clemens has COMPLETED 19 passes in the last TWO victories, because he has thrown a combined 38 times.
That is a typical afternoon with Bradford. And being that he was completing passes at a 60%+ rate, he would have more than likely completed 25 of those. That being said, there would have been many more of those additional completions which would NOT have been "shots down the field". Notice I didn't say, there wouldn't have been AS MANY!!! just not the same percentage.
Look at the Carolina game for example, before being injured, he had already attempted 30 passes. Completed 21 for a 70%. The very first play of the game, which resulted in a pick six, (due to poor blitz pickup by Stacy) was supposed to be a deep ball to Quick, which they came back and ran on the first play of the 2nd half for a 73 yd completion. Also, lost in that game was what would have been a LONG TD pass to Austin, which was called back on the tripping call. There was also a completion to Quick on an intermediate (22 yr) dig route over the middle.
So, IMO, its not like they suddenly have made the decision to "take shots down the field" because of Clemens, but the times they do in fact attempt it now stand out much more for the simple fact they are NOT THROWING THE BALL as often. Add to that, the impact the running game has in terms of the coverages Clemens gets, and how play action now is a real threat. All things Bradford did not have at his disposal.
